When it comes to national security, U.S. officials tend to keep things top secret. But even the most classified conversations aren’t safe from human error — or a Taylor Swift mention.
On Tuesday, March 25, the 35-year-old pop superstar’s name was brought up during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, according to Billboard.
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Senator Mark Warner referenced Swift’s canceled Vienna shows in a pointed reminder about the importance of intelligence sharing between global allies.
“That sharing of information saves lives, and it’s not hypothetical,” Warner, 70, said. “We all remember, because it was declassified — last year when Austria worked with our community to make sure to expose a plot against Taylor Swift in Vienna that could have killed literally hundreds of individuals.”
BREAKING: Jeffrey Goldberg from The Atlantic @TheAtlantic has just released the FULL Text Message Chain.
I have provided all texts in this post and the thread below:
CHECK MATE!pic.twitter.com/UvSj4jJdHi
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) March 26, 2025
For those in the dark, the “Cruel Summer” singer canceled three Eras Tour shows in August 2024 after Austrian authorities uncovered a terror plot tied to ISIS supporters. The plan reportedly targeted crowds of fans outside Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium — multiple arrests were made.
Swift later called the moment “devastating.”
“The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows,” the award-winning artist wrote on Instagram at the time. “But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives.”
So, how did this classified conversation end up making headlines?
Turns out, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was accidentally added to a Signal group chat where top officials were discussing sensitive war plans — including airstrikes in Yemen. The messages also reportedly revealed the name of an undercover CIA officer.
“Just because they’re irresponsible with material, doesn’t mean that I’m going to be irresponsible,” Goldberg, 59, told The Bulwark podcast, adding that he withheld the agent’s name from publication.
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