The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, received a connection request on Signal from a “Michael Waltz,” which is the name of President Donald Trump’s national security adviser. Two days later, he was added to a group text with top administration officials created for the purpose of coordinating high-level national-security conversations about the Houthis in Yemen. (Read his story here.) We talk with Goldberg and Shane Harris, an Atlantic national-security reporter, about what it means that this absurd and admittedly relatable thing happened in such a high-stakes situation. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, including clear-eyed analysis, insight on breaking news, and fascinating explorations of our world. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/podsub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
On March 15th, the U.S. began a bombing campaign against Houthi groups in Yemen. A couple of hours before that, our editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, sat in his car in a supermarket parking lot waiting to see if and when the attack would start. How he knew about this military campaign is a very weird story.
Not long ago, Jeff was added to a text chain of very important people in the administration. Presumably, he was added to it by accident. I know. It happens to the best of us. But there was the editor of The Atlantic monitoring the back and forth between Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President J.D. Vance, and others, wondering, could this possibly be real?
In fact, Brian Hughes, the spokesman for the National Security Council, later confirmed that it was indeed all real. I'm Hannah Rosen. This is Radio Atlantic. And today we have on the show Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg and staff writer Shane Harris, who covers national security, to explain what happened and what it might mean. Jeff, welcome to the show.
Hey, Hannah.
Hi, Shane.
Hi.
Jeff, on Tuesday, March 11th, you get a signal message from a user identified as Michael Waltz, which is also the name of President Trump's national security advisor. Where are you when you get this message, and what are you thinking?
Weirdly and randomly, I was in Salzburg, Austria. And what I'm thinking is not much because in my line of work, that wouldn't be the craziest thing to happen.
Like it could be him. It could be someone pretending to be him.
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