White House goes on offensive, says bombing of Houthis made terrorists 'pay'

The White House on Tuesday went from defense to offense, underscoring that its military actions “made the Houthi terrorists pay.”

The message comes after the Trump administration spent time explaining why an Atlantic editor was mistakenly added to a group text of senior White House officials who had discussed plans ahead of this month’s airstrikes.

“Democrats and their media allies have seemingly forgotten that President Donald J. Trump and his National Security team successfully killed terrorists who have targeted U.S. troops and disrupted the most consequential shipping routes in the world,” the White House said in a statement.

“This is a coordinated effort to distract from the successful actions taken by President Trump and his administration to make America’s enemies pay and keep Americans safe.”

President Trump on Tuesday said he still has confidence in National Security Adviser Mike Waltz after a blunder in which the Atlantic editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added to a private group text on Signal where administration officials discussed the plans against Houthi terrorists in Yemen.

“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with NBC News.

Mr. Trump stressed that the presence of Mr. Goldberg in the chat “had no impact at all” on the March 15 bombing.

The White House blamed the previous administration for sitting “back as a band of pirates — with precision-guided, Iran-provided weaponry — exacted a toll system in one of the most important shipping lanes in the world,” and cited several attacks on American warships and commercial vessels during former President Joe Biden’s term.

This included Houthi terrorist attacks against U.S. Navy warships, which happened 174 times, and on commercial ships 145 times since 2023.

Additionally, the White House noted that Mr. Biden removed the Houthis from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations and that Mr. Trump redesignated them as an FTO.

• Alex Miller and Jeff Mordock contributed to this story.