Trump downplays officials texting military operation plan on Signal, calling it a minor ‘glitch’
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- President Trump said the texting of sensitive plans for a military strike in Yemen to a group chat that included a journalist was ‘the only glitch in two months’ of his latest administration.
- Democrats said the leaked military plans show a sloppy disregard for security.
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Tuesday downplayed the texting of sensitive plans for a military strike against Yemen’s Houthis this month to a group chat that included a journalist, saying it was “the only glitch in two months” of his latest administration as Democratic lawmakers heaped criticism on officials for handling highly sensitive information carelessly.
Trump told NBC News that the lapse “turned out not to be a serious one,” and articulated his continued support for national security advisor Mike Waltz, who mistakenly added the editor in chief of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to the chain that included 18 senior administration officials discussing planning for the strike.
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump said in the NBC interview. The president also appeared to point blame on 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.”
But the use of messaging app Signal to discuss a sensitive operation has opened the administration to blistering criticism from Democratic lawmakers who expressed outrage at the White House’s and senior administration officials’ insistence that no classified information was shared. Senior administration officials have struggled to explain why the publicly available app was used to discuss such a delicate matter.
Top national security officials, including the Defense secretary, texted war plans for military strikes in Yemen to a group chat that included the Atlantic’s editor.
Waltz said Tuesday he was not sure how Goldberg ended up on the chat.
“This one in particular, I’ve never met, don’t know, never communicated with,” Waltz said.
Later Tuesday, Waltz said in an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle” that he built the message chain and that White House technical experts were trying to figure out how Goldberg’s contact “may have been sucked in.”
“We made a mistake. We’re moving forward,” said Waltz, who added that he took “full responsibility” for the episode.
Trump, for his part, attacked the Atlantic and Goldberg and sent mixed messages on whether the administration would change how it goes about sharing sensitive information going forward.
“We won’t be using it very much” in the future, Trump said of Signal. “That’s one of the prices you pay when you’re not sitting in the Situation Room with no phones on, which is always the best, frankly.”
Trump added: “If it was up to me, everybody would be sitting in a room together. The room would have solid lead walls and a lead ceiling and lead floor.”
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One participant in the Signal chat, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, acknowledged during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Tuesday that she was traveling overseas during the exchange. She wouldn’t say whether she was using her personal or government-issued phone because the matter is under review by the White House National Security Council.
Both Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who also was a participant in the Signal exchange and also testified at Tuesday’s intelligence hearing, faced blistering criticism from lawmakers.
“This is an embarrassment,” said Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat. “This is utterly unprofessional. There’s been no apology. There’s been no recognition of the gravity of this error.”
The White House in a statement Tuesday called the uproar a “coordinated effort to distract from the successful actions taken by President Trump and his administration to make America’s enemies pay and keep Americans safe.”
Ratcliffe and Gabbard told lawmakers that no classified information was included in the texts about U.S. attack plans in the message chain.
Democrats pushed back, saying the leaked military plans show a sloppy disregard for security, but Ratcliffe insisted no rules were violated.
“My communications, to be clear, in the Signal message group were entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information,” Ratcliffe told lawmakers in the hearing that was supposed to be focused on global security threats.
Facing heated questions from Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, Gabbard said there’s a difference between “inadvertent” releases of information and intentional leaks.
“There was no classified material that was shared,” Gabbard said.
Warner, though, said the lapse in security could have cost lives.
“If this information had gotten out, American lives could have been lost. If the Houthis had this information, they could reposition their defensive systems,” Warner said.
In response to questions from Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Gabbard and Ratcliffe said they would participate in an audit looking into administration officials’ use of Signal. Wyden said the matter must be investigated.
“I’m of the view that there ought to be resignations,” Wyden said.
Roiled by turmoil, USC has announced several cutbacks and belt-tightening measures as it faces ‘federal funding uncertainty’ under the Trump administration.
FBI Director Kash Patel, appearing with Ratcliffe and Gabbard at the hearing, said he was only recently briefed on the Signal chat matter and doesn’t have an update on whether the FBI has opened an investigation into it. Warner asked for an update by the end of the day.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said Tuesday he would defer to the White House on whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or Waltz should face repercussions over the group chat.
“But I think we should be critical,” said Bacon, who served nearly 30 years on active duty in the Air Force, specializing in electronic warfare and intelligence.
Bacon also called the White House’s claim that no war plans were shared “baloney.”
“They ought to just be honest and own up to it,” he said.
In the committee room, the hearing unfolded in split-screen fashion: Republican senators hewed to the prescheduled topic by drilling down on China and the fentanyl scourge, while Democrat after Democrat offered sharp criticism over a security breach they called reckless and dangerous.
The elevation of international drug trafficking as a top-tier threat was a notable turnabout in focus. Over the last four years, the U.S. government has been more likely to place a premium on concerns over sophisticated Chinese espionage plots, ransomware attacks that have crippled hospitals and international and domestic terrorism plots.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), the intelligence committee chairman, said America’s intelligence community has become too bureaucratic and political to keep up with emerging national security threats.
“As a result of these misplaced priorities, we have been caught off guard and left in the dark too often,” Cotton said in his opening statement.
Klepper and Madhani write for the Associated Press.
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