US President Donald Trump addressed a security breach incident on Tuesday where Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was inadvertently added to a classified Signal group chat discussing sensitive military operations against the Houthis.
According to Trump, the breach likely occurred when a junior staff member working for national security adviser Mike Waltz somehow included Goldberg in the high-level discussion group. The chat, named "Houthi PC small group," included 18 senior officials coordinating the US military response to Houthi aggression.
In an interview with Newsmax, Trump said, "And 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 or 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."
"I can only go by what I was 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," he added.
While playing down the incident as "the only glitch in two months," he assured that no classified information was compromised and the military operation was "a tremendous success."
The group reportedly included high-ranking officials such as Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and other key administration figures.
What is the controversy?The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added to the classified group just before the US launched military strikes against the Houthis.
The classified group chat, named "Houthi PC small group," included high-level discussions about the impending military operation, with national security adviser Mike Waltz coordinating the US response to Houthi aggression.
According to Goldberg, this Signal group had 18 participants. Besides Waltz, some of the members were individuals who identified themselves as vice president JD Vance, defense secretary Pete Hegseth, secretary of state Marco Rubio, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, treasury secretary Scott Bessent, CIA director John Ratcliffe, Trump's Middle East and Ukraine envoy Steve Witkoff, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, homeland security adviser Stephen Miller, and others.
'We made a mistake'The national security adviser said that he was not sure how Goldberg ended up on the chat.
"This one in particular, I’ve never met, don’t know, never communicated with,” Waltz said.
Later Tuesday, Waltz said in an appearance on Fox News Channel's “The Ingraham Angle” that he built the message chain and that White House technical experts were trying to figure out how Goldberg's contact “may have been sucked in.”
“We made a mistake. We’re moving forward," said Waltz, who added that he took “full responsibility” for the episode.
Earlier, Trump also attacked The Atlantic and Goldberg and said that the administration would not be using the messaging app "very much" to share sensitive information in the future.
“We won’t be using it very much,” Trump said of Signal.
"That’s one of the prices you pay when you’re not sitting in the Situation Room with no phones on, which is always the best, frankly. If it was up to me, everybody would be sitting in a room together. The room would have solid lead walls and a lead ceiling and lead floor.”