How did Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg get added to a Signal group chat with Trump administration officials discussing their plans for an airstrike in Yemen?
The simplest explanation: National Security Adviser Mike Waltz had Goldberg saved as a contact in his phone and accidentally added him. Indeed, when Waltz first claimed that Goldberg’s phone number was “sucked in” from another contact, Goldberg scoffed, “This isn’t ‘The Matrix.’”
But according to the Guardian, an internal investigation conducted by the White House’s information technology office concluded that something more complicated taken place, with an iPhone auto-suggestion playing a key role: After Goldberg emailed the White House for comment on a story, a Trump spokesperson, Brian Hughes, texted the contents of Goldberg’s email to Waltz.
As a result, Waltz’s iPhone offered a “contact suggestion update” that ultimately saved Goldberg’s phone number under Hughes’ name. Then, when Waltz tried to add Hughes — now a spokesperson for the National Security Council — to the chat, he supposedly ended up adding Goldberg instead.
For his part, Goldberg said, “I’m not going to comment on my relationship with Mike Waltz beyond saying I do know him and have spoken to him.”
