The US President Donald Trump has made a furious statement over the White House “war plan” leak of military intelligence.
The Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to a Signal chat along with top Trump administration officials and the US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said that “nobody was texting war plans.”
Goldberg said he was mistakenly added to the private Signal chat on Monday where officials discuss planned for strikes on Yemen.
Despite Hegseth openly lying that “nobody” was texting the war plans a National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said the Signal chat “appears to be authentic,” and the Trump administration has now started a probe into how an “inadvertent number” was added to the group.
Hughes said, “This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”
Hegseth despicably told Fox News, “You’re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist (editor-in-chief of the Atlantic) who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes.”
On 11 March Goldberg on 11 March, four days prior to the US military strike on Yemen he received the message via Signal from “Michael Waltz” to join the group chat.
Goldberg accepted the request then he was in a chat called “Houthi PC small group,” PC meaning the Principals Committee.
President Trump said of the incident, “I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of the Atlantic. To me, it’s a magazine that’s going out of business. It’s not much of a magazine. But I know nothing about it.”
In the leaked chat, the Vice President JD Vance wrote, “I just hate bailing Europe out again. Three per cent of US trade runs through the Suez. Forty per cent of European trade does.”
Hegseth responded, “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC. But Mike is correct, we are the only ones on the planet (on our side of the ledger) who can do this. Nobody else even close.”
Karoline Leavitt said on X: “Jeffrey Goldberg is well-known for his sensationalist spin. Here are the facts about his latest story: 1. No “war plans” were discussed. 2. No classified material was sent to the thread.
“3. The White House Counsel’s Office has provided guidance on a number of different platforms for President Trump’s top officials to communicate as safely and efficiently as possible.
“As the National Security Council stated, the White House is looking into how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added to the thread.
“Thanks to the strong and decisive leadership of President Trump, and everyone in the group, the Houthi strikes were successful and effective. Terrorists were killed and that’s what matters most to President Trump.”
Jeffrey Goldberg wrote an article for The Atlantic yesterday, “The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time [18:00 GMT] on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen.
“I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m [15:44 GMT].”
Donald Trump told NBC that Goldberg is a “sleazeball” and him being on the group chat has had “no impact at all.”
The US President said that Mike Waltz is a “good man” and he has “learned a lesson” and “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.”
