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President Donald Trump said he believes someone working for national security adviser Mike Waltz was responsible for including The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg in a Signal group where plans for U.S. airstrikes on the Houthi militant group in Yemen were discussed.
Newsweek contacted the White House press office for comment via email on Wednesday outside of regular office hours.
Why It Matters
Goldberg revealed on Monday that he had been included in a chat group on messaging app Signal, where senior Trump administration officials discussed plans for strikes targeting the Houthis, which began on March 15 in response to the group's attacks on shipping passing through the Red Sea. The first wave of attacks killed 53 people, according to Yemen's Houthi controlled health ministry.
The use of Signal, rather than a secure government platform, to discuss classified military plans sparked widespread criticism, with some experts saying it may have violated the Espionage Act. The scrutiny involved a number of comparisons to the 2016 presidential election, when Trump and a number of his close allies were fiercely critical of Hillary Clinton for using a private email server during her time as secretary of state.
What To Know
Trump was asked about the Signal group on Tuesday by host Greg Kelly during an appearance on conservative leaning network Newsmax.
The president commented: "What it was we believe is somebody that was on the line with permission, somebody that was with Mike Waltz—worked for Mike Waltz at a lower level, had I guess Goldberg's number, called through the app, and somehow this guy ended up on the call.
"Now it wasn't classified as I understand it, there was no classified information, there was no problem and the attack was a tremendous success. So, I can only go by what I've been told, I wasn't involved in it, but I was told by, and the other people weren't involved at all, but I feel very comfortable actually."
According to a report by Wired, several of the senior Trump officials in the Signal group joined the president for a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago estate shortly after the March 15 strikes on the Houthis took place, where guests were required to pay $1 million to secure a seat.
What People Are Saying
Speaking to Fox News on Tuesday, Waltz said: "We're going to get to the bottom of it. I just talked to Elon on the way here, we've got the best technical minds looking at how this happened but I can tell you, I can tell you for 100 percent, I don't know this guy [Goldberg], I know him by his horrible reputation and he really is a bottom scum of journalists, and I know him in the sense that he hates the president but I don't text him, he wasn't on my phone and we're going to figure out how this happened."
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied the texts to reporters: "You're talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again...This is a guy who peddles in garbage...Nobody was texting war plans and that's all I have to say."
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic responded to Hegseth during a MSNBC interview: "The secretary of defense seems like a person who is unserious and is trying to deflect from the fact that he participated in a conversation on an unclassified messaging app that he probably shouldn't have participated in."
Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the NSC, confirmed the veracity of the text group to Goldberg: "This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain. The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security."
What Happens Next
The Trump administration has not announced an investigation into what took place with the Signal chat. It remains to be seen if they will adjust how they communicate and if they will continue to use private apps.
Corrected, 03/26/25 at 12:30 p.m. EDT: This report has been updated to correct the spelling of Mike Waltz.
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About the writer
James Bickerton is a Newsweek U.S. News reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is on covering news and politics ... Read more