A journalist in the center of Trump’s signal chat spoke to BBC

When Jeffrey Goldberg posted a bomb story that outlines how some of the US -based US staff mistakenly shared sensitive information with it, he received the biggest spoon of the year. The Atlantic editor has also become the main goal for any senior employee of the Trump administration in Washington.

In the last few days, it has been called “loser” and “SLEAZEBAG” by President Trump, as well as a liar and “scum” by US national security advisor Michael Walz, who seems wrong added Goldberg to a group chat earlier this month.

However, before she became political lightning, Goldberg looked at his phone as cabinet officials – including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Heget, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabard – discussed the sensitive details, tales and goals of the forthcoming military operation. They do not seem to notice his presence.

In an interview with the BBC on Wednesday, he told me that it all started when he received a message on his phone, through the publicly available signal message application, allowing users to send mutually encrypted messages. It is popular with journalists and government officials. An account under the name of Walles was informed to him, which he assumed to be a fraud.

“I want to have the quality of Le Carré, you know,” he said, citing the late British spy novelist. “But he asked me to speak. I said yes. And the next thing I know, I am in this very strange chat group with the leadership of the National Security of the United States.”

As the episode has been enclosed by Washington, Waltz has taken responsibility for the wrong addition of Goldberg to the group chat, suggesting that he wants to invite someone else.

He insisted that he had never met the editor, saying, “I wouldn’t know him if I came across him if he saw him in a police staff.”

On the Goldberg account, the two have actually met several times, although he refused to go into details about their relationship.

“He can say obviously whatever he wants, but I do not comment on my relationship or my non -complication works,” Goldberg told me. “As a reporter, I’m just not comfortable talking about the relationship that I can or cannot have with people who make news.”

Still, one thing is clear: you need to have someone else’s contact information to reach the signal, so the Walle had a Goldberg telephone number. The best security advisor said he asked Elon Musk, a tech billionaire and the White House government efficiency, to investigate how the mistake happened – a move that was ridiculed by Goldberg.

“Indeed, you will put Elon Musk on the question of how someone’s phone number is in someone’s phone? I want to say that you know that most 8-year-old children could understand it,” he said.

The bigger question? “Should you, as national security staff, do this on a signal on your phone?” said Goldberg.

In his story on Monday, Atlantic, the first to report his access to chat – Goldberg declined the exact details that were shared about the bombing that attacked Houthi Rebel Targes in Yemen on March 14th. But the Trump administration employees downplayed the report, calling him a liar and challenging his allegations that classified information was shared.

And so two days later, the magazine prints full text messages, including several of the hegets that include operating specifics. I asked him if this was a difficult solution.

“After Donald Trump said there was nothing to see here, and after Tulsi Gabard and John Ratcliffe said there was no sensitive information, no classified information, etc. – we felt like, um, we disagree,” he said. “They say this and we who have the texts, so maybe people should see them.”

There are text messages in the group chat – sent before the first wave of strikes – describe in detail exactly when the F -18 fighter jets will serve when the first bombs will fall on the goals of Houthi and when Tomahak’s missiles will be fired. Heget pulled back, stating that they were obviously not “military plans” and none of this was classified information.

President Trump expressed his support for heget on Wednesday, saying he “does a great job” and describes Goldberg as “Slezebag”. The White House also tried to claim that shared information was not a technical planning of the war.

Goldberg did not seem adhered to their insults and claims.

“If Pete Heget, the Minister of Defense, sends me text messages, telling me that the attack would be launched in Yemen – he tells me what kind of aircraft will be used, what weapons will be used and when bombs will fall two hours after receiving the text – this seems sensitive information, military planning information about me,” he said.

This is not the first time the veteran editor was at the end of Trump’s rage: in 2020 he published a piece in the Atlantic, where senior military officials quoted Trump that he had pointed out the fallen US soldiers as “suction” and “losses”, something that the president and his administration had vigorously.

I asked him how he felt about personal attacks against him, coming from the highest levels of the government.

“This is their move. You never defend yourself, just attack,” Goldberg said. “So I’m sitting there and we’re taking into account my own business. They invite me to this chat signal and now I’m attacking me like a haircut bag, I don’t even understand it.”

So far, Trump is defending his national security team and does not seem inclined to fire anyone because of what he calls the witch hunting press. But Goldberg says there is a broad feeling in the White House that Waltz has made a serious mistake, as well as a deeper concern about how the incident is doing.

“If you are the captain of the Air Force, you are currently working with the CIA and the State Department, and you are incorrectly processing sensitive information the way they obviously have incorrectly processed sensitive information? You will be fired, you will be persecuted,” Goldberg said.

He said that there is now some “buzz” among the ranks around the apparently different standards of accountability of the Trump leaders.

Goldberg did not stick to Fallout chat. He decided that the responsible thing was to leave the group. Some journalists have expressed incredulousness that he will voluntarily come out.

But what is happening will play in the White House and Congress, where democratic legislators and some Republicans have requested an investigation.

“There is a part of me that would like to see what else is going on there. But there are many different issues related to the law and ethics and any other problems that I really can’t get into,” Goldberg said. “Believe me when I say I made this decision with good advice from different parties.”