President Donald Trump shot back at reporters and expressed confidence in National Security Adviser Mike Waltz on Tuesday following the bombshell leak after Waltz accidentally added Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal group chat discussing potential sensitive military planning.
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump told NBC News in a phone interview. The president downplayed the incident, calling it “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.”
The controversy began Monday when Goldberg published an article in The Atlantic claiming he had been inadvertently added to a Signal chat that included Vice President J.D. Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Waltz, and others discussing potential military operations in the Middle East. Goldberg wrote that on March 11 he received a “connection request” on the Signal app from Waltz, which he accepted.
According to Goldberg, the group chat discussed possible military action in Yemen against the radical Islamic terrorist Houthis. Goldberg claimed one message from Hegseth “contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.”
Critics, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have responded with fury over the potential security implications of the incident. Supporters of the administration admitted it was an unfortunate error, but ultimately minor. They blamed for Goldberg exaggerating the sensitivity of information he saw in the chat.
Trump himself downplayed the seriousness of the error, and said it occurred because “it was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his number on there.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt forcefully denied that sensitive information was shared in the chat. In a post on X, Leavitt stated, “No war plans were discussed,” and “No classified material was sent to the thread.”
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…
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) March 25, 2025
Leavitt also defended the administration against reports from Politico that Waltz might be forced out of his position.
“The President continues to have confidence in his national security team, including Mike Waltz,” she wrote. “Stories claiming otherwise are driven by anonymous sources who clearly do not speak to the President, and written by reporters who are thirsty for a ‘scoop.'”
A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council confirmed that the chat was real, and said the White House is reviewing the incident to prevent repeats.
“We are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain” but said the conversation was simply “a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials” and insisted “there were no threats to our servicemembers or our national security.”
Defense Secretary Hegseth addressed the scandal by attacking Goldberg’s credibility and said the Atlantic editor was known for “peddling hoaxes.”
“You’re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who has made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again,” Hegseth said. “To include the… I don’t know… hoaxes of ‘Russia, Russia, Russia!’ or the ‘fine people on both sides hoax,’ or the ‘suckers and losers’ hoax. So, this is a guy who peddles in garbage, that is what he does.”
When a reporter asked specifically about why details were shared on Signal and how Hegseth learned a journalist had access, the Defense Secretary denied that “anyone was texting war plans.”
Instead, Hegseth pointed to the administration’s approach to the Houthi threat in Yemen, and said former President Joe Biden’s administration had left the United States vulnerable.
“We’ve been managing four years of deferred maintenance under the Trump administration. Our troops, our sailors were getting shot at … our ships couldn’t sail through” the Red Sea, he said. “President Trump said, ‘No More.’ We will re-establish deterrence, we will open freedom of navigation, and we will ultimately decimate the Houthis. Which is what we did.”
Waltz, a former Green Beret and congressman from Florida, was appointed National Security Adviser following Trump’s return to the White House in January. He has not made any public statements about the incident as of Tuesday.