Harmless ‘glitch’: Trump brushes off inclusion of journalist to military group chat

Washington: US President Donald Trump says it was a harmless “glitch” that a prominent journalist was added to a highly sensitive group chat about an imminent US military operation, as top national security leaders denied any classified information was shared.

Washington has been rocked by the revelation the editor of The Atlantic magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, was mistakenly included in a group chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal, where the administration’s most senior figures planned, debated and detailed US military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.

Trump stood by his national security adviser Mike Waltz, who added Goldberg to the Signal group. Waltz was “a very good man,” Trump said. “I don’t think he should apologise. I think he’s doing his best. Probably he won’t be using [Signal] again.”

Earlier, Trump told NBC News that Waltz had “learned a lesson”, but the mistake “had no impact at all”. It was “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one”. As to how Goldberg came to be added to the group, Trump said: “It was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his number on there.”

Talking to reporters later, Trump simultaneously said the White House would investigate the breach, while also declaring: “We’ve pretty much looked into it. It’s pretty simple. It’s just something that can happen. Sometimes people are hooked in and you don’t know they’re hooked in.”

Trump and Waltz both attacked 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. Trump called him a “total sleazebag”, and added: “The Atlantic is a failed magazine. Nobody gives a damn about it … A thing like this is publicity for them.”

Editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, who was added to the highly sensitive chat by national security adviser Mike Waltz.Credit: Bloomberg

However, both men acknowledged Signal – although encrypted and commonly used by government and media – was not the ideal communication platform for highly sensitive official discussions.

Trump said the best option was to meet physically in the White House’s secure Situation Room. Waltz said: “I agree with you, let’s get everybody in the room whenever possible.”

At a Senate hearing on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT), two members of the Signal group in question – director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Central Intelligence Agency director John Ratcliffe – claimed no classified information was shared in the chat. However, it was not clear who determined none of the information was classified, or when.

At one point, Democratic senator from Georgia Jon Ossoff asked Ratcliffe whether the incident was a “huge mistake”. Ratcliffe replied: “No.”

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA director John Ratcliffe were both in the Signal group chat.Credit: AP

Ratcliffe said Signal was installed on his CIA computer, as it was for most CIA officers, and the application was routinely used for general communications.

“It is permissible to use [Signal] provided that any decisions that are made are also reported through formal channels,” Ratcliffe said. The group chat in question was “entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information”, he said.

In his report for The Atlantic, Goldberg revealed he was added to the group chat by Waltz days before the March 15 strikes in Yemen. The thread included Vice President J.D. Vance, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Gabbard, Ratcliffe and senior White House staffers.

As well as debate about whether the strikes should go ahead, Hegseth posted “information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing”, according to Goldberg’s account.

Asked how such information could be considered unclassified, Gabbard told the Senate hearing: “I defer to the Department of Defence and National Security Council on that question.”

Democrats said if the material was not classified, Gabbard and Ratcliffe should release it all. “You can’t have it both ways,” said Democratic senator Mark Warner of Virginia. “Share it with the committee … give it to the public today.”

Warner said the security lapse was “sloppy, careless, incompetent behaviour”, and “if this was the case of a military officer or an intelligence officer … they would be fired.” Democratic senator from Oregon Ron Wyden said Waltz and Hegseth needed to resign.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt doubled down on the administration’s position stepping up attacks on Goldberg, whom she described as “well-known for his sensationalist spin”.

FBI director Kash Patel, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA director John Ratcliffe faced the Senate Intelligence Committee.Credit: Bloomberg

Leavitt claimed no “war plans” were discussed in the thread and no classified material was shared. “The White House is looking into how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added to the thread,” she said.

Other senior administration figures in the group were unable to explain at the hearing how or why they didn’t realise an unknown person using the name “JG” was a member of the highly sensitive group chat.

Goldberg said he left the group shortly after the strikes, which would have generated an alert notifying other members someone had departed. But no one contacted him about his presence in the group.

Warner told the hearing: “It’s mind-boggling to me that all these senior folks were on this line, and nobody bothered to even check. Security hygiene 101: who are all the names?”

House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, one of the most senior Republicans in Washington, said the incident was “a mistake, and a serious one”, but also defended the people involved.

“The leaders on that group chat are extraordinary people, I know them all personally, they’re patriots, they’re doing a great job for the country, and that was a successful mission,” Johnson said.

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