The left-wing media went into overdrive on Monday following a report by Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic that he was mistakenly included in a chat on Signal with senior Trump administration officials. Goldberg claims that the top national security officials were coordinating a military strike through the group chat.
CNN’s Scott Jennings destroyed the narrative from Goldberg’s article and the subsequent claims from the left-wing media.
The magazine’s hit piece, published Monday, alleged that senior officials — including National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — used the encrypted messaging app to plan an operation in Yemen. Goldberg, who was mistakenly added to the chat, claimed he initially thought it was a hoax until airstrikes confirmed its authenticity.
CNN’s John Berman framed the controversy as a potential legal violation, suggesting that the Trump administration endangered national security. But when asked about it, Jennings responded with a reality check.
“Well, sure. I mean, it’s a shocking thing, and you know, they’ve admitted that it was a mistake and admitted that it’s authentic, so they’re owning up to it,” Jennings said. “I think they’re still, based on what I’ve heard tonight, trying to figure out how it happened. I’m not sure that National Security Adviser Waltz even knows Goldberg. In fact, I don’t believe he knows him and has never met him.”
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Jennings then laid out critical facts that The Atlantic conveniently omitted. “I did learn a few things in some of my conversations, if you're interested. One is that the Signal program was preloaded on a number of devices and agency computers in this circuit when they got there. So, in their view, it was already in use.”
That’s an interesting detail. Was this a setup by someone on the inside? In fact, it was Joe Biden who authorized the use of Signal for government communications, according to Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Senate Intel Committee Chair @SenTomCotton: "The Biden Administration authorized Signal as a means of communication that was consistent with presidential recordkeeping requirements for its administration — and that continued into the Trump Administration." pic.twitter.com/7kgz4O1seO
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 25, 2025
Jennings also pointed out that the officials in the chat were well aware of security protocols. “In some of the messages, they talk about needing to go to the high-side computers, which is the classified system. So they clearly were knowing there was a line on what you could discuss in a chat like this versus [on] the classified system.”
But then there’s the issue of Goldberg himself and the narrative he's pushing that the chat contained “war plans.”
“There is a dispute over whether the term ‘war plans’ is being exaggerated,” Jennings noted, undercutting the central premise of the Atlantic report.
This is a significant issue. Goldberg has a history of publishing bogus hit pieces against Donald Trump.
In 2020, The Atlantic published a report claiming that Trump didn’t want to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018 because the troops there who died in battle were “losers” and “suckers." The article was quickly debunked after it was first published, and Goldberg even admitted that the story may have been wrong. Weather reports confirmed that Trump’s visit to the cemetery was canceled due to weather conditions.
During the 2024 election, Goldberg was responsible for another bogus hit piece against Trump that claimed Trump got angry at the bill for a deceased soldier's funeral that he offered to pay for back in 2020, which reportedly cost $60,000. The story was clearly bogus, and other journalists had been pitched the same story but could tell it wasn’t legit and didn’t run it.
Goldberg has repeatedly sacrificed his credibility and the credibility of The Atlantic to push false narratives to undermine Trump. His track record of dishonest reporting speaks for itself, making skepticism not just reasonable but necessary. Given how eagerly the mainstream media rushed to declare the Steele dossier legitimate — only for it to be exposed as a sham — there’s every reason to doubt Goldberg’s framing of this story.
🚨.@ScottJenningsKY just blew apart the narratives coming from the Atlantic hit piece published today and pointed out the facts.
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) March 25, 2025
"The Signal program was pre-loaded on a number of devices and agency computers in this circuit when they got there, so in their view, it was already… pic.twitter.com/bqBDUkkRcn
While legacy media fixates on process stories and supposed scandals, the bottom line remains clear: The Trump administration took decisive action to protect American interests, while its critics scramble to fabricate controversy.
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