Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was adamant Monday that sensitive “war plans” were not being discussed in a Signal chat group that inadvertently included a journalist.
“Nobody was texting war plans and that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth told reporters in Hawaii when asked about a report in The Atlantic revealing a stunning breach of national security involving high-level Trump administration officials.
Pete Hegseth slammed The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg in his first comments about the incident to reporters on Monday. Fox NewsThe magazine’s top editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, revealed in the piece that he was inadvertently included in a group text on the encrypted Signal app with Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, national security adviser Mike Waltz and other Trump administration officials where internal deliberations and operational details about airstrikes against Houthi terrorists were discussed.
Goldberg was added to the Signal chain on March 11, well before the strikes in Yemen were carried out on March 15.
White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes told The Post earlier on Monday that messages included in Goldberg’s report appear to be “authentic” and said the NSC is “reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”
Hegseth, in his first public remarks since the scandal broke, slammed Goldberg before denying that “war plans” were being discussed in the Signal chain.
“You’re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again,” the defense secretary said of The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief.
Hegseth pointed to Goldberg’s reporting on debunked allegations that President Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia ahead of the election; his article on Trump’s comments about the violence during a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.; and his disputed 2020 article accusing Trump of disparaging US troops buried in France as “suckers” and “losers.”
| THEY SAY … | BUT … |
|---|---|
| National security adviser Michael Waltz said, “I’ve never met, don’t know” and “never communicated with” Atlantic editor Jeffery Goldberg. President Trump says it was “one of Michael’s people” who added Goldberg to the Signal chat. | Atlantic top editor Jeffrey Goldberg says he received a Signal request “from a user identified as Michael Waltz.” Waltz told Fox News he created the group and somehow Goldberg’s contact number got “sucked” onto someone else’s name in his address book. |
| Officials including Trump insist no “classified information” was discussed. | Even if it doesn’t fit the definition of “classified,” it was certainly sensitive and the administration is against releasing the portions Goldberg held back. “Information about an active operation would presumably fit the law’s definition of ‘national defense’ information,” Goldberg says. |
| “I do not remember mention of specific targets,” said Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence. | “It was, ‘At 1:45, this is going to happen. At 1:52, this is going to happen,’ ” Goldberg insists. “The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets and timing.” |
| It was an ordinary discussion and did not compromise national security, the White House insists. | “The information contained in them, if they had been read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel,” Goldberg says. |
| Some commentators have suggested that Goldberg, a well-known liberal adversary of Trump, was added to the group on purpose by an aide trying to undermine the administration. | The White House hasn’t backed that theory and presumably they would very easily know exactly who added Goldberg. |
“So this is a guy that peddles in garbage, this is what he does,” the Pentagon chief continued, before discussing the military’s efforts to root out Houthi terrorists in Yemen.
Goldberg claims he was invited to join a Signal chain called the “Houthi PC small group” two days after connecting with Waltz on the app.
The editor accused Hegseth of lying in an interview with CNN host Kaitlin Collins on Monday night.
“No, that’s a lie,” the journalist said of Hegseth’s remarks. “He was texting war plans. 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.”
Hegseth appeared to convince Vice President JD Vance that the strikes in Yemen were necessary after Vance initially voiced his concerns about the operation, namely that oil prices could spike and that the US would be bailing out Europe. Obtained by the NY Post“I’m sitting in a Safeway parking lot, watching my phone and realizing, ‘Oh my God, this might be real. I think Pete Hegseth just sent this group actual targeting information, actual sequencing of an attack,’” Goldberg added.
Meanwhile, Waltz, a former Republican congressman from Florida, is reportedly at risk of losing his job over the incident.
“It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser,” a senior Trump administration official told Politico.
Here is the latest on the Yemen Signal group-chat:
- ‘I’m floored’: Experts reveal ‘really scary’ info shared by Trump officials in Signal group chat
- House Dems hint at perjury rap for intel chiefs over Signal chat leak: ‘A lie to the country’
- Steve Witkoff did not use Signal while in Russia, White House says
- Atlantic publishes more ‘war plan’ Signal texts, including minute-by-minute details and weapons to use in Yemen strikes
- Atlantic editor Jeff Goldberg weighs ‘obligation’ of releasing more ‘war plans’ texts – as he reveals undercover CIA agent’s identity was exposed
- Trump feels ‘very comfortable’ after being briefed on Houthi attack text scandal, blames ‘lower level’ Waltz staffer for mishap
- Trump national security team messaged plans for Yemen strikes to Atlantic editor-in-chief in stunning breach
The official said discussions are ongoing with staffers about what to do with Waltz.
“Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive,” the official told the outlet.
Goldberg was added to the Signal thread a few days before the US carried out military operations against the Houthis in Yemen. ZUMAPRESS.comA different administration official indicated that Trump has spoken to Waltz since the bombshell report, after he initially told reporters at the White House that he was unaware of The Atlantic’s report.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that “President Trump continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including national security adviser Mike Waltz.”
The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
