White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz publicly addressed an incident Tuesday involving The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who was inadvertently added to a group thread discussing military plans in the Middle East.
At a White House meeting, Waltz stated he has “never met” or “communicated” with Goldberg. “There’s a lot of journalists in this city who have made big names for themselves making up lies about this president,” Waltz said, according to The Hill. “Whether it’s the Russia hoax or making up lies about Gold Star families, and this one in particular I’ve never met, don’t know, never communicated with, and we are looking into and reviewing how the heck he got into this room.”
Waltz’s comments echoed those of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who on Monday criticized Goldberg, calling him a “deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist.” Hegseth referenced past reports about President Donald Trump, dismissing them as hoaxes, including claims related to Russia and Trump’s alleged remarks about military service members.
President Trump, speaking to NBC News, explained that Goldberg was mistakenly added to the Signal app group thread by a staffer. “One of Michael’s people on the phone had his number on there,” Trump said. He also defended Waltz, calling him a “good man” who had “learned a lesson.”
Goldberg claimed in an article Monday that on March 11 he received a Signal app “connection request” from Waltz, which he accepted, assuming it was related to Ukraine or Iran. He alleged that Vice President J.D. Vance, Hegseth, and Waltz used the thread to discuss potential military action against the Houthi terrorist group in Yemen, detailing planned strikes and weapon deployment.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt refuted those claims in a post on X, stating that “no war plans were discussed” and “no classified material was sent to the thread.”
Trump dismissed the incident as a minor issue, telling NBC News it was “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.”
