Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg is set to get a top White House briefing – on purpose, this time.
President Donald Trump, who is engaged in a feverish bid to sell his presidency as his 100th day in office approaches, revealed that he is sitting down with Goldberg, who he termed a ‘sleazebag’ after the journalist exposed the Signal group chat scandal.
‘Later today I will be meeting with, of all people, Jeffrey Goldberg, the Editor of The Atlantic, and the person responsible for many fictional stories about me, including the made-up HOAX on “Suckers and Losers” and, SignalGate, something he was somewhat more “successful” with,’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social site.
That last line acknowledged the impact of the story, which set off an internal White House probe as well as an IG investigation at the Pentagon, though both Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz have survived.
SignalGate refers to the encrypted group chat with top administration officials that Goldberg was inadvertently included on as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared advance information about an attack on the Houthis in Yemen.
Goldberg published a story about it titled ‘The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans’ where he disclosed following the attack in real time from a store parking lot. The administration denied the chat included war plans and said the information wasn’t classified, although officials were floored that top officials would discuss an imminent attack on an a private encrypted app.
Trump also invited a pair of other reporters from the publication who has ripped in the past.
‘Jeffrey is bringing with him Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker, not exactly pro-Trump writers, either, to put it mildly!’ Trump wrote.
President Donald Trump says he is hosting Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, who he previously slammed as a ‘sleazebag.’ Trump said the journalist had been more ‘successful’ with breaking the SignalGate story than with some other endeavors
‘The story they are writing, they have told my representatives, will be entitled, “The Most Consequential President of this Century,” Trump posted, in a topic that could not be immediately confirmed.
Then he explained the unexpected reason he had even consented to the meeting.
‘I am doing this interview out of curiosity, and as a competition with myself, just to see if it’s possible for The Atlantic to be “truthful.” Are they capable of writing a fair story on “TRUMP”? The way I look at it, what can be so bad – I WON!’ he concluded.
Trump hits his 100-day mark next week, as his public approval rating has dropped to 44 percent in a new Fox news poll.
That puts Trump below all of his recent predecessors, and even a point behind his own first-term rating of 45 percent.
The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans’
Trump slammed the Fox polling unit in a Thursday post.
In the fury after the Signal story broke late last month, the Trump White House also attacked Goldberg over a 2020 story by Goldberg that reported Trump told senior staff that fallen soldiers were ‘suckers’ and ‘losers.’
Trump denied the story at the time, although his former White House chief of staff John Kelly later confirmed elements of it in a statement.
There was concern in Trump’s story after the Signal story broke about whether Waltz, who created the group chat, had been speaking to Goldberg.
But it was since reported that the snafu may have occurred because aid aide added Goldberg’s information to another security staffer’s name.
In addition to his media outreach, Trump has planned a trip to battleground Michigan next week in advance of his 100th day.
He flies to Rome Friday to attend the funeral for Pope Francis, and will have a press corps in tow as he confronts the war in Ukraine and the ongoing trade war.
