The White House has claimed the fiasco around the leaking of sensitive security information to a journalist is a “coordinated distraction” as President Donald Trump defends the adviser at the heart of the controversy. A statement issued earlier branded the ongoing security row a “coordinated effort to distract from the successful action by Donald Trump to make America’s enemies pay”.
In a significant security lapse revealed yesterday, senior officials from the Trump administration inadvertently included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, in a Signal group chat discussing classified military operations against Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Participants in the chat included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. The incident has sparked widespread criticism, with experts highlighting the risks of using non-secure communication platforms for sensitive information.
Trump on Tuesday in a brief interview with NBC News’ Garrett Haake downplayed the incident as “the only glitch in two months” of his administration “and it turned out not to be a serious one”.
He added: “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man.”
Asked how the blunder had occurred, he said: “It was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his number on there.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday said in post on X that no war plans were discussed and that “No classified material was sent to the thread”.
She stressed: “As the National Security Council stated, the White House is looking into how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added to the thread.”
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