Trump Stands by National Security Chief Waltz Amid Signal Text Controversy

The White House has acknowledged that a journalist was mistakenly included in an unsecured group chat where top U.S. national security officials, along with Vice President JD Vance, discussed and coordinated a military strike in Yemen.

 Trump Stands by National Security Chief Waltz Amid Signal Text Controversy

President Donald Trump stated on Tuesday that he was not concerned with national security advisor Michael Waltz following reports that Waltz had inadvertently included a journalist in a group chat where senior officials were discussing forthcoming military operations.

When pressed on how The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, ended up being included in the chat, which also featured Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump shifted the blame to a subordinate staff member.

“It was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his number on there,” the president explained.

Goldberg disclosed in a report on Monday that his number had been added to a Signal group chat—an encrypted messaging platform—on March 13. The chat, labeled “Houthi PC small group,” contained discussions regarding U.S. airstrikes targeting Houthi positions in Yemen, which were ultimately executed on March 15.

The names of participants in the chat reportedly matched those of high-ranking officials within the Trump administration, including Vance, Hegseth, Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

A spokesperson for the National Security Council confirmed to The Atlantic that the Signal chat was legitimate, stating, “We are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”

Despite this, Trump and his administration have pushed back against the article’s portrayal of the incident, disputing Goldberg’s characterization of the chat as a discussion of “war plans” while also directing personal criticism at him.

“Nobody was texting war plans. And that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth stated on Monday.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reinforced the assertion that “no ‘war plans’ were discussed” and rejected claims that any classified material had been shared in the group chat.

Goldberg countered these denials directly, stating, “That’s a lie. He was texting war plans, he was texting attack plans,” during a Monday night interview with CNN.

Meanwhile, Gabbard and Ratcliffe are scheduled to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday morning as part of the annual “Worldwide Threats” hearing, which is set to commence at 10 a.m. ET.