Trump Defends Aide Who Inadvertently Shared Yemen Strike Details with Atlantic Editor

President Donald Trump has expressed confidence in his White House National Security Advisor, Michael Waltz, despite a security breach in which Waltz mistakenly included Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, in a text message group discussing planned military strikes in Yemen, Bloomberg reports.

“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News, addressing the incident that has sparked controversy and raised concerns about the Trump team’s handling of sensitive information.

The incident came to light after Goldberg detailed the event in a story published on Monday. The text group, which included prominent figures like Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and others, reportedly discussed details of plans for an attack on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

While Goldberg did not publish the actual plans, he wrote that Hegseth shared “operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen,” including targeting information and weapons specifications.

Following the report, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attempted to downplay the incident, stating on X that “no ‘war plans’ were discussed” and “no classified material was sent to the thread.

“The White House Counsel’s Office has provided guidance on a number of different platforms for President Trump’s top officials to communicate as safely and efficiently as possible,” Leavitt wrote. “As the National Security Council stated, the White House is looking into how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added to the thread.”

However, Goldberg painted a different picture in a CNN interview, stating that the group was “texting attack plans. When targets were going to be targeted, how they were going to be targeted, who was at the targets. When the next sequence of attacks were happening.”

“They were plans for the attack, and they were texted before the attack,” Goldberg asserted.

The incident has raised serious questions about security protocols within Trump’s inner circle. US intelligence agency leaders are scheduled to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee for a previously scheduled hearing on global security threats, where they are likely to face inquiries from lawmakers regarding the disclosure.