On Monday, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg dropped a bombshell: he was accidentally added to a top-secret White House war plans chat.
The group included 18 high-ranking officials, including the Secretary of Defense and even Vice President JC Vance.
But Pete Hegseth wasted no time firing back, ruthlessly attacking Goldberg’s journalistic credibility.
Supposed to be highly confidential
It’s the story everyone’s talking about today – how could Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, be accidentally added to a top-secret White House chat?
In an astonishing twist, Jeffrey Goldberg, found himself unintentionally added to a top-secret White House Signal chat discussing an upcoming military strike on Yemen.
The chat, which was meant for only the highest-ranking officials, included 18 key figures — from Vice President JD Vance to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and CIA Director Tulsi Gabbard.
Goldberg revealed the shocking breach on Monday, detailing how National Security Adviser Mike Waltz started the conversation on the encrypted messaging app, Signal. The conversation was supposed to be highly confidential, but Goldberg, a veteran journalist in Washington, was mistakenly included.
A “deceitful” journalist
Upon learning about the mistake, Pete Hegseth quickly slammed Goldberg’s reporting, accusing him of being a ”highly discredited so-called journalist” and criticizing The Atlantic for its coverage of various Trump-related controversies.
Hegseth met reporters on the tarmac after his flight to Hawaii, where he is set to meet with civilian and military leaders from the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
The Defense Secretary dismissed the notion that he had texted ”war plans” in the group and quickly moved to attack Goldberg, calling him a “deceitful” journalist who “peddles in garbage.”
”This is a guy who peddles in garbage. This is what he does,” Hegseth added in a fiery response.
Goldberg had found himself in the high-stakes group chat after accepting a request from Waltz on Signal. The chat, titled ”Houthi PC small group,” turned out to be where sensitive operational details of the strike were discussed, including targets, weaponry, and strike sequencing.
According to Goldberg, Hegseth shared specifics of the military plan in the chat two hours before the attack, which took place on March 15.
The Pentagon and White House were quick to respond, with a spokesman for the Pentagon directing inquiries back to Hegseth’s remarks. Meanwhile, President Trump, when asked about the breach, responded, “I don’t know anything about it,”but went on to slam The Atlantic as a “magazine that is going out of business.”
Sparked outrage
The breach has sparked outrage from lawmakers and experts, including Sen. Jack Reed, who called it a ”stunning and dangerous” lapse in operational security. He warned that such carelessness could endanger American lives.
Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, stated that his panel would be looking into the issue.
”It’s definitely a concern,” he said. ”It appears that mistakes were made.”
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins brought up Hegseth’s comments during an interview with Goldberg on Monday night.
“I want to start by getting your reaction to what we heard from Secretary Hegseth, saying that ‘Nobody was texting war plans.’ Given you were privy to this group chat, is that how you saw it?” Collins asked.
“No, that’s a lie. He was texting war plans,” Goldberg responded. “He was texting attack plans. When targets were going to be targeted; how they were going to be targeted; who was at the targets; when the next sequence of attacks was happening.”
”They’re lucky they didn’t send this to a Houthi..”
Goldberg also expressed feeling “real anxiety and anger” over the “sloppiness” of those involved.
”Remember, American service people were involved directly in this attack. It wasn’t just standoff weapons fired from a thousand miles away. You know, you can’t just put out this kind of information and hope for the best.”
He joked, ”They’re lucky they didn’t send this to a Houthi by mistake or a foreign diplomat or somebody who could be in their phones. I guess they could count that as a kind of luck.”
As the scandal continues to unfold, the question remains: How could such a serious lapse in security occur?
And will anyone be held accountable for this explosive mistake? The fallout from this incident could be far-reaching, especially with Trump’s team already on the defensive.
READ MORE
- Joe & Jill Biden step out for premiere — and everyone noticed the same thing
- Does JD Vance wear eyeliner? Here’s the answer
