President Donald Trump told Newsmax on Tuesday that he's "very comfortable" with the explanation and resolution of how an editor with a magazine ended up on a group thread with members of the White House national security team.
Trump hosted "Greg Kelly Reports" at the White House for an extensive and wide-ranging interview. Trump spoke with host Greg Kelly about how Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, was invited to be part of a Signal app group thread about an attack on Houthi terrorists in Yemen.
The link to Goldberg was on White House national security adviser Mike Waltz's team, Trump said.
"And what it was, we believe, is somebody that was on the line with permission; somebody that was with Mike Waltz — worked for Mike Waltz at a lower level — had, I guess, Goldberg's number or called through the app, and somehow this guy ended up on the call," Trump told Kelly. "Now, it wasn't classified, as I understand it. There was no classified information. There was no problem, and the attack was a tremendous success.
"I can only go by what I was told; I wasn't involved in it. But I was told by — and the other people weren't involved at all. But I feel very comfortable actually," the president added.
Kelly asked Trump if hard lines should be used for future meetings instead of Signal.
"Well, I like hard lines, but the best way is to be in the situation room, or some other room, where you're all together, where you don't have — any time you have a line, whether it's air or whether it's hard, there's always a risk that people are listening," Trump said.
Trump earlier Tuesday gave Waltz a vote of confidence and said he "learned a lesson."
Trump, like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Waltz on Tuesday, when he spoke publicly about the situation for the first time, assailed Goldberg and the content he produces.
"Yeah, Goldberg's bad news. It's The Atlantic. It's failing. … They made up all sorts of stories about me," Trump told Kelly. "Goldberg's a loser; his magazine's a big loser."
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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