Donald Trump has given his ‘first buddy’ Elon Musk the task of investigating how a journalist was accidentally added to a top-level government group chat.
This week, editor in chief of the Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg revealed he had been added to a Signal group where Donald Trump’s top team were planning air strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
Goldberg said he had been invited from an account labelled White House National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, and that the group included accounts labelled as Vice-President JD Vance, “Pete Hegseth,” the Defence Secretary; and “John Ratcliffe,” the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
The journalist watched as the group discussed targets and timings for military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, with later US strikes matching the details from the chat.
As part of his report, Goldberg revealed some of the messages that were sent in the chat. This included messages of anti-Europe sentiment, including one text from Vance in which he said he “hates bailing Europe out again,” and further texts about planned missile strikes.
Huge questions have been asked of the Trump administration after such a serious security breach, and there have been calls for an investigation from both lawmakers and the public.
Speaking to reporters, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said those requests would be filled by the National Security Council, White House Counsel’s Office – and Elon Musk’s DOGE team.
She said: “Elon Musk has offered to put his technical experts on this to figure out how this number was inadvertently added to the chat. Again, to take responsibility and ensure this can never happen again.”
But Goldberg has said there is not mystery to how he ended up in the chat, ridiculing the Trump administration for putting Musk on the case.
He told the BBC: “Really, you’re going to put Elon Musk onto the question of how somebody’s phone number ends up in someone’s phone? I mean you know, most 8-year-olds could figure it out.”
Related: Fox News desperately try to defend Trump after journalist group chat blunder