The journalist at the Trump signal chat center speaks to the BBC

When Jeffrey Goldberg published the story of a bomb that determined how some of the senior American officials had participated in a mistake with sensitive information with him, he got the largest scoop of the year. Atlantic Ocean editor has become the main goal of every Trump administration’s senior official in Washington.

In the last two days, the “loser” and “Sleizebag” were named by President Trump, as well as a liar and “scum” by US National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, who appeared to have mistakenly added Goldberg to a group chat earlier this month.

Before becoming a lightning rod for lightning, Goldberg saw his phone as cabinet officials – including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Minister Beit Higseth, Director of CIA John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tolsi Gabbard – sensitive details, timing and upcoming military operation targets in Yemen. They don’t seem to notice his existence.

In an interview with the BBC on Wednesday, he told me that everything started when he got a message on his phone, through the application of the signaling of the audience, which allows users to send each other encrypted. It is common between journalists and government officials. An account under the name Waltz was sent, which he assumed was just a trick.

“I hope there will be a quality if Curry here, as you know,” referring to the late British spy novelists. “But he asked me to speak. I said yes. The next thing I know, I am in a very strange chat group with the United States National Security Command.”

Since the fall of the episode has swept Washington, Waltz may take responsibility for adding Goldberg by mistake to collective chat, indicating that it means inviting another person.

He insisted that the editor never met, saying: “I will not know him if I shocked him, if I saw him in the police squad.”

By the Goldberg account, the two already met several times, although he refused to go into the details about their relationship.

Goldberg told me: “He can say it is clear that he does not want, but I do not comment on my relationship or the lack of relationship.” “As a correspondent, I am not comfortable to publicly talk about the relationships that I may have or do not have with people from news makers.”

However, there is one clear thing: you must actually have someone’s contact information to reach it in the signal, so Waltz had the Goldberg phone number. The Supreme Security Adviser said that he asked Elon Musk and TECH billionaire and government efficiency in the White House to investigate how the error occurred – a step that Goldberg mocked.

“Indeed, Elon Musk will put a question about how a person’s phone number ends on someone’s phone? I mean, you know, most 8 -year -old children can know that,” he said.

The biggest question? “Should you do this, as national security officials, a signal on your phone?” Goldberg said.

In the story of Atlantic on Monday – the first to inform his arrival to chat – Goldberg blocked the fine details that were shared about the bombing mission that attacked the rebels’ targets in Yemen on March 14. But Trump administration officials played down the report, describing it as a liar and challenging his allegations that the classified information has been shared.

Two days later, the magazine printed full text messages, including many HegSeth that included operational details. I asked him if this was a difficult decision.

He said: “Once Donald Trump said that there is nothing to be seen here, and as soon as Toulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliv said there is no sensitive information, secret information, etc. – our hair, HM, we do not agree.” “They say that, and they are the ones who have texts, so people may have to see them.”

There are text messages in the group chat – they were sent before the first wave of strikes – exactly in detail when F -18 combat aircraft decrease, when the first bombs drop on the Houthis targets and when Tomahawk missiles are launched. Higseth retracted, saying it is clear that it was not “war plans” and none of them were classified.

President Trump expressed his support for Hegseth on Wednesday, saying that he was “doing a great job” and described Goldberg as “Silisbag”. The White House also tried to say that common information was not technically planning war.

Goldberg did not show their insults and claims.

“If the Higseth Beit, the Minister of Defense, sends me text messages, and told me that the attack was about to launch on Yemen – he told me about the type of aircraft that will be used, so what kind of weapons will be used, and when the bombs will decrease two hours after receiving the text – this seems sensitive information, and war science at the level of war,” he said.

This is not the first time that the veteran editor was at the recipient of Trump angry: In 2020 he published an article in the Atlantic Ocean, where senior military officials reported Trump as referring to the American soldiers in the name of “the suckers” and “the losers”, which was strongly rejected and managed by the president.

I asked him about his feeling of pink personal attacks against him, coming from the highest levels of government.

“This is their step. You are never defending, just the attack,” said Goldberg. “So I am sitting there, taking into account my own business. They are calling me to this sign chat, and now they attack me as a bag of abdomen, so I don’t even get it.”

Trump, yet, is defending his national security team and does not seem to tend to hide anyone about what the press calls “the charming chase”. But Goldberg says there is a wide -ranging feeling at the White House that Waltz made a serious mistake, as well as deeper concern about how to deal with the accident.

Goldberg said: “If you are the commander of the Air Force, you are currently working with the CIA and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and you are worse, sensitive information in the way you are misrepresented?

He said that there is now some “tinnitus” between the ranks about accountability standards that seem to be different for leaders in the Trump administration.

Goldberg has not committed to chatting for repercussions. He decided that the responsible thing is to leave the group. Some journalists expressed his absence voluntarily.

But what happens after that will play in the White House and Congress, as Democrats and some Republicans demanded the investigation.

“There is a part of me who loves to see what is happening there. But there are many different issues here related to law and ethics and all other types of issues that I cannot enter into,” Goldberg said. “Believe me when I say I made this decision with good advice from different parties.”