Vice President JD Vance cautioned against bombing Yemen before the US restarted its airstrikes on the country, calling it a "mistake," and suggested delaying the attack by one month, according to a leaked Signal conversation between administration officials.

Jeffrey Goldberg, a reporter for The Atlantic, was included in the Signal thread, apparently by accident, which is how he obtained the conversation.

An account believed to be Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared details of the March 15 airstrikes on Yemen two hours before they happened, and the White House confirmed that the Signal conversation appeared to be authentic.

A day before the airstrikes, an account labeled "JD Vance" expressed misgivings about the idea of targeting the Houthis. "Team, I am out for the day doing an economic event in Michigan. But I think we are making a mistake," the Vance account said.

Vance framed his opposition to the airstrikes based on President Trump's policies toward Europe, which have involved pressuring the Europeans to pay more for their own militaries to be less reliant on the US. Vance pointed out that only a small percentage of US shipping goes through the Suez Canal compared to European trade.

The message said: "3 percent of US trade runs through the suez. 40 percent of European trade does. There is a real risk that the public doesn't understand this or why it's necessary. The strongest reason to do this is, as POTUS said, to send a message."

Vance continued, "I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There's a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc."

An account believed to be Joe Kent, President Trump's nominee to lead the National Counterterrorism Center, replied to Vance, saying, "There is nothing time sensitive driving the time line. We'll have the exact same options in a month."

Hegseth responded to Vance by saying the messaging to the American people about the war would focus on President Biden failing to deter Yemeni attacks and the Houthis being "Iran funded." Iran is aligned with the Houthis, but it's unclear how much support they give to the group, and US officials have acknowledged the Houthis wouldn't take orders from Tehran and have their own weapons supply.

"VP: I understand your concerns – and fully support you raising w/ POTUS. Important considerations, most of which are tough to know how they play out (economy, Ukraine peace, Gaza, etc). I think messaging is going to be tough no matter what – nobody knows who the Houthis are – which is why we would need to stay focused on: 1) Biden failed & 2) Iran funded," Hegseth said.