Signal War Chat Leak: On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump addressed a security breach in which Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was unintentionally added to a confidential Signal group discussion discussing crucial military operations against the Houthis.
According to Trump, the breach most likely occurred when a junior staff member working for national security advisor Mike Waltz included Goldberg in a high-level discussion group. The discussion, dubbed “Houthi PC small group,” includes 18 senior officials planning 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.
Signal War Chat Leak: What is the source of the controversy?
The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was admitted to the confidential group shortly before the US initiated military operations against the Houthis.
The confidential group chat, dubbed the “Houthi PC small group,” featured high-level discussions about the imminent military assault, with national security advisor Mike Waltz orchestrating the US response to Houthi violence.
According to Goldberg, this Signal group had 18 members. Besides Waltz, some of the members identified themselves as vice president JD Vance, defence 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, among 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.”
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