The incident involving Donald Trump and Elon Musk centers around a mistake that allowed an Atlantic journalist to access classified information concerning a military operation in Yemen.
The Trump administration is facing criticism after Jeffrey Goldberg, a journalist from The Atlantic, was inadvertently included in a Signal group chat, allegedly by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.
When questioned by reporters at the White House on Monday (March 25), Trump was asked to comment on the apparent security breach.
The group chat was reportedly discussing an imminent military operation against Yemen’s Houthi rebels, as disclosed by Goldberg.
Goldberg claimed to have seen crucial military plans detailing ‘targets and weapons the U.S. would deploy’ just two hours before the planned attack.
Addressing this security concern, Trump responded, ‘I don’t know anything about it,’ before criticizing The Atlantic.
He remarked: “I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic. To me, it’s a magazine that’s going out of business. I think it is not much of a magazine, but I know nothing about it.
Upon requesting further details from the reporter, Trump stated: “Well, it couldn’t be very effective, the attack on the Houthis was very effective, I can tell you that.
“You are telling me about it for the first time.”
Elon Musk also shared his thoughts on the situation through Twitter.
Musk posted a joke from The Babylon Bee, which read ‘4D Chess: Genius Trump Leaks War Plans To ‘The Atlantic’ Where No One Will Ever See Them.’
The tech billionaire added: “Best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of The Atlantic magazine, because no one ever goes there.”
Goldberg has discussed the incident, noting to PBS the accidental inclusion could have been risky if the information had reached Houthi supporters.
In conversation with PBS, he commented: “If they were going to pick an errant phone number, I mean at least it wasn’t somebody who supported the Houthis, because they were actually handing out information that I believe could have endangered the lives of American service people who were involved in that operation.”
“The attacks on the Houthis have been highly successful and effective,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated, according to the BBC.
“President Trump continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.”