President Trump on Tuesday insisted that he feels “very comfortable” after being briefed on the inclusion of Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief in a Signal chat group where his top staffers discussed military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
“There was no classified information. There was no problem. And the attack was a tremendous success,” Trump said during an interview with Newsmax host Greg Kelly Tuesday night.
“I can only go by what I’ve been told,” the president added. “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.”
The “other people” Trump referenced appear to be the 18 high-ranking administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who took part in deliberations organized by national security adviser Mike Waltz concerning the March 15 airstrikes.
Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently included in the pre-attack discussion after he received a request to connect on the encrypted app by Waltz, the journalist revealed in a bombshell report on Monday.
“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,” Trump said of what he has been told about the incident.
The president’s explanation echoes what he told NBC News earlier on Tuesday, but contradicts what Waltz claims happened.
“It was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had [Goldberg’s] number on there,” Trump told the news network, while insisting that Goldberg’s presence in the chat group had “no impact at all” on the military operation.
Trump further described the incident as “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.”
He also expressed confidence in Waltz continuing as his top national security aide.
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump said.
Meanwhile, Waltz told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that “a staffer wasn’t responsible” for looping in Goldberg.
“Look, I take full responsibility,” Waltz told the “Ingraham Angle” host. “I built the group. My job is to make sure everything’s coordinated.”
The White House official offered no explanation for how Goldberg’s number ended up on “somebody else’s” contact information.
“I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but of all the people out there, somehow this guy who has lied about the president, who has lied to Gold Star families, lied to their attorneys, and gone to Russia hoax, gone to just all kinds of lengths to lie and smear the president of the United States, and he’s the one that somehow gets on somebody’s contact and then gets sucked into this group,” Waltz said, vowing to “get to the bottom” of the “embarrassing” mishap.
