Donald Trump and Elon Musk have both spoken out after it was claimed that a journalist from The Atlantic was mistakenly added to a group chat discussing plans for war.
As previously reported, The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg made the bombshell claim that he had received a connection request on the encrypted messaging service Signal on March 11, from someone identified as 'Michael Waltz'.
While he initially did not believe it was the real Michael Waltz, who is President Donald Trump's national security adviser, he accepted the request anyway.
Days later, he was added to a group called 'Houthi PC small group' which had 18 members including 'MAR' who he believed was secretary of state Marco Antonio Rubio, 'JD Vance', 'TG' who he believed was Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, 'Pete Hegseth', and 'Scott B', who he believed was Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The group chat discussed police as well as explicit operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, shared by the account named as Pete Hegseth, and while he was initially skeptical about the legitimacy of the group Goldberg began to think it was authentic once the members began celebrating when bombs were dropped against Houthi militants in Yemen.
The Atlantic shared screenshots of some of the messages shared between the group, and the National Security Council said it believed the thread to be authentic.
The National Security Council said in a statement, shared by NBC News: "At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain."
When asked about the potential breach on Monday, Trump denied knowledge of it before launching an attack on The Atlantic.
He told reporters: "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. I think it is not much of a magazine, but I know nothing about it."
After asking the reporter for more clarity, Trump added: "Well, it couldn’t be very effective, the attack on the Houthis was very effective, I can tell you that.
"You are telling me about it for the first time."
He later added in a phone interview with NBC News: "Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man."
When asked how such an error occurred that Goldberg came to be added to the chat, Trump explained: "It was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his number on there," adding that Goldberg's presence had "no impact at all" on the military operation.
He added that it was "the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one."
Trump's friend and appointed leader of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) Elon Musk also shared his opinion on the scandal.
He took to X (formerly Twitter) to write: "Best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of The Atlantic magazine, because no one ever goes there."
The post was later shared by Trump on his social network, Truth Social.
Hegseth, when asked about the incident and whether the material was classified, made disparaging remarks about Goldberg, calling him a "so-called journalist", and adding: "Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that."
Goldberg responded to his comments by telling MSNBC during an interview on Monday: "He can say that it wasn't a war plan, but it was a minute-by-minute accounting of what was about to happen organized by CENTCOM [Central Command].
"This is their plan, and he was taking their plan and sharing it with a bunch of civilian leaders."
He added that Hegseth appeared to be "trying to deflect from the fact that he participated in a conversation on an unclassified, commercial messaging app that you probably shouldn't participate in."
The National Security Council added in its statement: "The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to our servicemembers or our national security."
It was also reported that Trump later read the article, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Monday that the president "continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including National Security Advisor Mike Waltz."
Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and 2016 presidential candidate, who had previously faced intense criticism from Republicans for her use of a private email server, responded to the news by tweeting a screenshot of the Atlantic article and adding: "[Side-eye emoji] You have got to be kidding me."