A liberal news outlet that recently dominated Washington, D.C.’s news cycle has since retracted its earlier claim that top Trump officials shared “war plans” with an editor over an unsecured group chat.
Jeffrey Goldberg, the Canadian-born editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was inadvertently added to a Signal chat that included Vice President J.D. Vance, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and others discussing the imminent bombing of Houthi strongholds in Yemen. In his report, Goldberg contends that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth disclosed “war plans” several hours before the bombing began—a term he prominently featured in the headline.
One day after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Goldberg of adding “sensationalist spin” to his report, editors have changed the story’s headline. It now reads “Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisors Shared on Signal.” Journalist Eric Daugherty posted on X, stating that the revision confirmed Hegseth’s assertion that no war plans or classified intelligence had been shared with Goldberg.
“THEY’RE BACKPEDALING! The Atlantic just sent out an update report CLARIFYING that there WERE NO WAR PLANS exchanged in that Signal chat… they were (as we all saw) some discussion on the Houthi strikes that Americans knew were coming,” he said. “This hoax totally fell on its face!”
Material regarding the upcoming mission in Yemen was indeed shared with Goldberg, though it remains unclear how or why he was added to the chat group on an app popular among journalists and others for its encrypted messaging. While some security experts have labeled the use of Signal a major security lapse, the Biden administration had previously recommended the app for officials targeted by foreign intelligence services, according to Fox News.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday downplayed the significance of the leak, saying it had “no impact at all” on the Yemen campaign and that The Atlantic is “not much of a magazine.” He expressed his full support for Waltz, saying he “learned a lesson” from the oversight.
