Summary
White House insiders blame National Security Adviser Mike Waltz for a group chat error that exposed military strike discussions to journalist Jeffrey Goldberg.
Waltz mistakenly added Goldberg to a Signal chat about potential strikes in Yemen, involving key officials like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and JD Vance.
Trump has defended Waltz but is reportedly weighing his options.
Some aides urge resignation to avoid forcing Trump to make a decision. Critics call Waltz reckless, but House Speaker Mike Johnson opposes his resignation.
One thing I want to know is: who did Waltz think he was adding? Is there another Goldberg in the administration (or a foreign one?) out there? Or is his name right under Gabbard’s in the contacts list?
I think the journalist just went by his initials as did a few other people in the chat, so it could be as dumb as just having someone with the same initials. Which is notably not how government systems work, for exactly the reason that you need to know exactly who you’re communicating with and the system should make mistakes like this unlikely.
Obfuscating your identity makes sense of you’re trying to talk to leakers or doing something shady and want to allow some deniability should the conversation be compromised. Which begs the question of why so many of them already had their Signal accounts set up that way.
I saw speculation about another person in the administration with the same initials. I think they work at the US Trade Representative (?).
My hopeful theory is that some intern with access to his phone did it so their behavior would get exposed.
Maybe it was Moldbug but Waltz can’t type with his thumbs very well.