Trump’s stunning response as Elon Musk pokes enjoyable at his administration’s largest scandal to-date
President Donald Trump had a surprising reaction to his administration’s biggest scandal to-date.
On Monday evening, Trump reshared on his Truth Social network a post from DOGE leader Elon Musk mocking The Atlantic.
Earlier Monday, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that he had accidentally been added to a Signal group chat alongside top members of the administration who were detailing how they planned to attack the Iran-backed Houthis earlier this month.
‘Best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of The Atlantic magazine, because no one ever goes there,’ Musk had typed.
Musk also shared a post from the satirical Babylon Bee headlined: ‘4D Chess: Genius Trump Leaks War Plans To ‘The Atlantic’ Where No One Will Ever See Them.’
Trump’s initial response to the news Monday was to bash The Atlantic, the highbrow D.C.-based publication now owned by Laurene Powell Jobs.
‘I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic. To me it’s a magazine that’s going out of business. I think it’s not much of a magazine,’ Trump said at an event with Louisiana‘s Republican governor. ‘But I know nothing about it,’ the president added.
He then had the reporter explain to him what The Atlantic’s story said.
President Donald Trump (left) parroted DOGE leader Elon Musk (right) when reacting to his administration’s biggest scandal to-date, resharing Musk’s post Monday mocking The Atlantic magazine
President Donald Trump re-Truthed a post writted by DOGE leader Elon Musk on Monday, who said: ‘Best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of The Atlantic magazine, because no one ever goes there’
Later, in an interview with NBC News, Trump stood by his National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, who Goldberg said had added him to the group chat.
‘Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,’ the president told NBC Tuesday morning.
Trump also suggested that it was one of Waltz’s aides, not Waltz himself, who inadvertently added the journalist to the conversation.
‘It was one of Michael’s people on the phone,’ the president claimed. ‘A staffer had his number on there.’
Trump also said that Goldberg’s presence in the Signal group had ‘no impact at all’ on the military operation.
Goldberg purposely didn’t disclose any operational details of the planned attack and didn’t publish the article until it concluded.
Still a number of Democrats are calling for someone from the administration’s head – with some fingers pointed at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for disclosing battle plans that Goldberg didn’t publish in the story amid fears American military personnel could be hurt.
‘What I will say, in order to illustrate the shocking recklessness of this Signal conversation, is that the Hegseth post contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing,’ Goldberg instead wrote.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied on X Tuesday that any battle plans were disclosed nor classified information was shared, instead saying that Goldberg was ‘well-known for his sensationalist spin.’
Late Monday, Politico reported that Waltz appeared to be the likeliest Trump official to be sacked over the embarrassing episode.
‘Everyone in the White House can agree on one thing: Mike Waltz is a f**ing idiot,’ said one Politico source, identified as a ‘person close to the White House.’
A senior administration official told the site that they are involved in a number of text threads about Waltz’s future at the White House.
‘Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive,’ the official said.
Waltz previously worked for ‘neocon’ former Republican President Dick Cheney, earning him scrutiny by some members of Trump’s ‘America First’ MAGA crowd.
