‘Nonsense’: Atlantic editor-in-chief blasts Trump administration ‘smokescreens’ on Signal chat

The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg responded to the Trump administration’s pushback over the publication’s Monday article about a Signal chat discussing a U.S. attack on Houthis in Yemen it says was accidentally shared with Goldberg.

Speaking to ABC News, Goldberg said The White House is engaging in a semantic game by focusing on his use of “attack plans” instead of “war plans” in his followup report, which was published on Wednesday.

“It’s just all nonsense. It’s nonsense. They’re throwing up all these smokescreens to avoid being questioned about why they were so reckless as to have sensitive conversations like this in Signal, and why they invited a journalist and didn’t even know that the journalist was there,” he said on Wednesday. “I mean, war plan, attack plan. I mean, you know, it’s just not nonsense talk, but attack is actually an accurate term for what they were doing.”

Shortly after Wednesday’s article was published, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X “these were NOT ‘war plans.'”

“The Atlantic has conceded: these were NOT ‘war plans,'” Leavitt wrote. “This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin.”

Goldberg told ABC News he and The Atlantic felt like they had to respond to the White House’s attack on their credibility.

“And I thought, you know, at the end of the day, I thought, okay, let’s let the people decide, read these messages, read the plain English, and decide if you think it’s appropriate that the Secretary of Defense and the National Security Advisor to the President of the United States should be saying these things on a commercial, privately run messaging app that they’re not allowed to use, and you and then make your decision,” he said.

Goldberg released parts of the Signal group chat on Monday, including messages from Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard.

On Wednesday, Goldberg released more messages from the group chat, detailing the timing of the attack and the weapons involved. Initially, these messages were withheld due to concerns about classified U.S. intelligence.

“We asked all these agencies, is there anything, even though the president says there’s nothing in here, is there anything you guys think could without us even understanding why endanger someone or something?” he told ABC News. “The CIA did ask us to hold back something, and so we did, because we take that. We take that seriously.”

Goldberg said he will continue to defend himself.

“When their backs are against the wall, they tend to call people names, but I’m not threatened,” Goldberg said. “That’s sort of an immaterial thing for me. We just have to keep doing our jobs, no matter what people say about us.”