Donald Trump has defended his national security advisor amid calls for him to resign, and hit out at the journalist who leaked the bombshell Signal chat discussing military strikes in Yemen
Donald Trump unleashed a two-word attack on a journalist who leaked exchanges over a military strike after he was somehow added to a group chat with security officials.
The US president branded The Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg a “total sleazebag” as he defended his National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, who has faced calls to resign over the blunder. Mr Goldberg revealed he had inadvertently been added to a group chat on social media app Signal including senior Trump administration officials as they discussed striking military targets in Yemen, some of which he did not reveal amid concerns for US military personnel.
Just two hours after being exposed to the messages on Signal, the US launched an attack against Houthi targets in the Middle Eastern country. The National Security Council said in a statement it would look into how a journalist’s number was added to the group chat.
The group chat included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence. Speaking to reporters in the Cabinet Room today, Mr Trump said: “But that’s an app that a lot of people use. And somebody got on.
“And I happen to know, the guy’s a total sleazebag. The Atlantic, The Atlantic is a failed magazine. Does very, very poorly, nobody gives a damn about it. This gives it a little bit of a shot.”
He went on to claim the outlet “made up stories,” despite numerous US officials confirming Mr Goldberg had indeed gained access to the group chat – and they did not dispute that strikes in Yemen were discussed.
Mr Trump did later acknowledge: “We’ll have to find some other form of device.” He added: “It wasn’t classified information. This was not classified.”
Mr Trump’s defence of his advisor stands in stark contrast to his stance toward his Democrat rival Hilary Clinton who was embroiled in an email scandal for using a personal email address to message in an official capacity during the 2016 presidential campaign. He said at that time that she should be put in jail.
Government officials have used Signal for organisational correspondence, but it is not classified and can be hacked. Privacy and tech experts say the popular end-to-end encrypted messaging and voice call app is more secure than conventional texting.
According to body language expert Judi James, a major takeaway from the leak was the juvenile approach the senior officials took to dealing with military affairs.
She told The Mirror: “Group chat messaging like this reduces communication down to its most basic and unreliable level. Trading thoughts, feelings, commands and ideas using words alone is hazardous as there is no nuance from tone or non-verbal signalling to flesh out the genuine meaning. Human communication is a subtle, complex process and messaging often plays it down to the level of a school playground chat.”
