Trump shifts blame for Signalgate texts onto thriller ‘lower level’ worker
Donald Trump has shifted the blame for a blunder in which details of U.S. military operations in Yemen were leaked to a journalist on a secret group chat to an unidentified, “lower level” White House employee that worked for his national security advisor Michael Waltz.
In an interview with Newsmax, which aired on Tuesday evening, Trump offered a theory on how Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, had ended up on a Signal group chat in which the top-secret plans were discussed.
“What it was, we believe, is somebody that was on the line with permission, somebody that was with Mike Waltz, worked for Mike Waltz at a lower level, had, I guess, Goldberg’s number or called through the app, and somehow this guy ended up on the call,” the president said.
It comes after Waltz himself took “full responsibility” for allowing Goldberg to gain access to the discussions. “I take full responsibility. I built the group,” he told Fox News’s Ingraham Angle on Tuesday, in an interview that aired shortly before Trump’s.
“It’s embarrassing. We’re going to get to the bottom of it.”
Despite fervent denials by the Trump administration throughout Tuesday, The Atlantic has backed its reporting, and the claim that officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance discussed detailed aspects of the strikes including targets and weapons details.
Such discussion would break with official protocol that are typically required when discussing highly sensitive information.
However, speaking to Newsmax, Trump echoed the denials of his administration that there was no classified information shared in the group chat. “No it wasn’t classified, as I understand it. There was no classified information,” he said.
“There was no problem, and the attack was a tremendous success. So only by what I’ve been told – I wasn’t involved in it – but I was told by and the other people weren’t involved at all. But I feel very comfortable.”
Trump also said that The Atlantic was a “failing magazine.”
“It’s a terrible magazine. They made up all sorts of stories about me with with standing over the grave of soldiers,” he said, referring to a prior piece – also written by Goldberg, and published in 2020 – which accused the president of referring to dead military members as “suckers and losers.”
“But Goldberg’s a loser. His magazine’s a big loser,” he said.
In a statement shared with NBC News, a spokesperson for The Atlantic said: “Attempts to disparage and discredit The Atlantic, our editor, and our reporting follow an obvious playbook by elected officials and others in power who are hostile to journalists and the First Amendment rights of all Americans.”
“Our journalists are continuing to fearlessly and independently report the truth in the public interest.”
Source: independent.co.uk
