'Not a big fan of The Atlantic': How Donald Trump reacted to 'inadvertent' leak of Yemen war plans with journalist

United States President Donald Trump - File Photo

US President Donald Trump said he knew ‘nothing’ about the top-ranking defence officials of his administration discussing plans for military strikes on Yemen on a group chat of messaging platform Signal, which included The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.

In a report, Goldberg said that accounts appearing to represent Vice President JD Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and senior National Security Council officials were assembled in the chat group.

Trump told reporters at the White House that he was unaware of the incident. "I don't know anything about it. I'm not a big fan of The Atlantic," Trump said. A White House official said later that an investigation was under way and Trump had been briefed on it.

The 'inadvertent' disclosure of war plans in the messaging group happened shortly before the U.S. attacked Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis. Trump launched an ongoing campaign of large-scale military strikes against Yemen's Houthis on March 15 over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping, and he warned Iran, the Houthis' main backer, that it needed to immediately halt support for the group.

The incident came to light when The Atlantic magazine published a report written its editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg in which he said he was unexpectedly invited on March 13 to an encrypted chat group on the Signal messaging app called the "Houthi PC small group." In the group, national security adviser Mike Waltz tasked his deputy Alex Wong with setting up a "tiger team" to coordinate U.S. action against the Houthis.

National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said the chat group appeared to be authentic.

said in a statement: "At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain."

"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 our servicemembers or our national security."

Hegseth denied sharing war plans in the group chat.

"Nobody was texting war plans, and that's all I have to say about that," he told reporters while on an official trip to Hawaii on Monday.

Goldberg responded to Hegseth's denial in an interview on CNN late on Monday by saying, "No, that's a lie. He was texting war plans."