Atlantic editor on war plans group chat: 'It's unbelievable'

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, said in a Monday interview he had a hard time believing the group chat he was included in with top Trump Cabinet appointees was authentic because national security officials typically take digital security exceptionally seriously.

Goldberg on Monday published a blockbuster story about how he had been inadvertently added to a group chat on the Signal platform with figures including Trump National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and several other top officials.

The subject was a military strike on the Houthi rebels in Yemen, which took place earlier in March. Goldberg was given a front-row seat to the internal discussions that included talk on the timing of the strikes.

“The national security world is a pretty serious world, and — especially at the level below the principals — there are people who take their responsibilities extremely seriously and take security and safety and cyber security and digital security very, very seriously,” Goldberg said in an interview Monday on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki.”

Goldberg noted he’s covered national security issues for decades and even knows people who have gone to prison for mishandling of sensitive information — but still found the headline-making story unbelievable.

“One of my problems — I’ve been asked this question a few times today — is why did you have such a hard time believing this? And the answer is because it's unbelievable,” Goldberg said.

“I’ve never experienced this — through, you know, the pre-9/11 period, 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan and so on — you know, these are these are life and death issues. And you don't just put out specific targeting information, specific timings of attacks that have not yet taken place into a commercial messaging app,” he added.

Goldberg wrote in his story that he initially had strong doubts the text group was real, “because I could not believe that the national-security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans.”

Goldberg also said he “could not believe that the national security adviser to the president would be so reckless as to include him in the discussions with senior U.S. officials.”

Brian Hughes, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, confirmed the message chain was authentic.

“This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” wrote Hughes. “The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security.”

But Hegseth and the White House have pushed back at the idea that "war plans" were sent on the chat, despite Goldberg's specifics in his reporting and the National Security Council's confirmation that the message chain was authentic.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a post on X Tuesday insisted that no war plans were discussed and that classified material had not been transmitted. She also wrote that the White House counsel's office has given guidance to officials on a number of platforms that can be safely used for communication, though her post did not say whether Signal was an appropriate platform.

National security voices in both parties have strongly criticized its use for the talks reported by Goldberg.

"The White House Counsel’s Office has provided guidance on a number of different platforms for President Trump’s top officials to communicate as safely and efficiently as possible.