Donald Trump has said he knew nothing about a journalist accidentally being added to a government group chat in which top officials discussed plans for air strikes on Yemen.
On Monday evening, Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, revealed he had been invited to a group chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal from an account labelled White House National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.
Goldberg reported that the group included accounts labelled as White House National Security Adviser Michael Waltz and Vice-President JD Vance.
The journalist said he had been added to the chat on March 13, two days after receiving the request, and watched as the group members discussed targets and timings for military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
Group members included accounts labelled “JD Vance,” the name of the vice-president; “Pete Hegseth,” the Defence Secretary; and “John Ratcliffe,” the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
The US later launched attacks on targets that matched with details from the chat.
After Goldberg’s report broke, the White House later confirmed the story was true, with Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council. saying in a statement to the BBC: “At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic.
“We are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.
“The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy co-ordination between senior officials.”
Shortly after this statement, Trump was asked about the story by a reporter, and claimed he was not aware of the reports.
He said: “I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic, to me it’s a magazine that’s going out of business.
“It [the story] couldn’t have been very effective. Because the attack [on the Houthis] was very effective I can tell you that. You’re telling me about it [the story] for the first time.”
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