Up next
Tragic Details About Kaley Cuoco
The Atlantic magazine’s editor in chief is still considering whether to release the full Trump administration’s “war plan” texts — as he claimed the group chat he was mistakenly added to also revealed the name of an undercover CIA agent.
Jeffrey Goldberg, the mag’s top editor, told The Bulwark podcast on Tuesday that he’s weighing if he should release the full transcript after those on the group text — including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — denied sensitive national security plans were ever discussed.
“I get the defensive reaction,” Goldberg said of the Trump admin’s reaction to the bombshell text mishap. “But my obligation, I feel, is to the idea that we take national security information seriously.”
“Maybe in the coming days, I’ll be able to say, ‘OK, I have a plan to have this materiel vetted publicly.’ But I’m not going to say that now.”
He claimed, too, that a covert agent’s name was disclosed in the chat.
“I withheld her name. They named somebody who’s an active CIA officer in this thread, which is on Signal, and I withheld it. I didn’t put it in the story because she’s undercover,” he said.
“Just because they’re irresponsible with material, doesn’t mean that I’m going to be irresponsible,” Goldberg added.
It comes after the magazine editor revealed Monday that he was inadvertently added to a Signal message chain earlier this month in which top Trump administration officials — including Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance — discussed bombing the Houthi terror group in Yemen.
Despite denials of a national security breach by Team Trump, Goldberg has insisted he witnessed a “minute-by-minute accounting” of how the US intended to strike Yemen after he was included in the chain, titled “Houthi PC small group,” on March 11.
He said he received the Signal invitation from Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz — just days before the strikes in Yemen were carried out on March 15.
“At moments like this, when they’re under pressure because they’ve been caught with their hand in the cookie jar or whatever, you know, they will just literally say anything to get out of the moment,” Goldberg said of the reaction from Trump officials.
“As much as I enjoy national security investigative reporting, I don’t need strike plans two hours before a launch.”
“That should not be coming into my phone. I mean, I take this stuff very, very seriously and I take the responsibility not to get Americans killed very, very seriously,” he added.
Trump, meanwhile, downplayed the text saga — insisting it was “the only glitch in two months” of his administration.
The president, who expressed support for Waltz, argued the lapse “turned out not to be a serious one.”
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump said.
He also appeared to shift blame to an unnamed Waltz aide for Goldberg being added to the chain.
“It was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his number on there,” he said.
