President Donald Trump was taken aback during a press conference on Monday when he learned that private messages from his administration’s officials had been leaked after an editor from The Atlantic was accidentally included in a Signal group chat.
The president expressed his surprise, saying, “You’re telling me about it for the first time.” When asked about an Atlantic article detailing the leaked messages, Trump seemed unaware of both the breach and the publication. “I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic,” he remarked, dismissing the magazine as “a business that’s going out of business.” He added, “You’re saying they had what?”
As the reporter clarified that the messages were shared through Signal, Trump appeared further confused, asking, “What were they talking about?” The article explained how the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was inadvertently added to a Signal chat with high-ranking officials like Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, where discussions about a military strike in Yemen were shared. The National Security Council confirmed the legitimacy of the leaked messages. However, Trump remained oblivious, concluding the matter with, “Well, it couldn’t have been very effective because the attack was very effective, I can tell you that. I don’t know anything about it.”
