The group chat where Donald Trump's national security team planned military operations over the encrypted Signal app included another participant who should not have been invited.
National security adviser Mike Waltz added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat, apparently by mistake, but the Willamette Week reported that Joe Kent, the president's nominee to be director of the National Counterterrorism Center, was also part of the group despite his awaiting Senate confirmation.
“The recklessness and incompetence of how Trump’s so-called ‘best and brightest’ handled national security information is bad enough when they’re channeling the offhanded attitude of tweeners texting about their plans for spring break,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR). “But the fact they included Joe Kent in this buffoonish behavior only magnifies their dangerous sloppiness and total disregard for intelligence since he hasn’t even been confirmed by the Senate.”
Kent – a former Green Beret, failed two-time GOP congressional candidate and 2020 election denier with ties to white nationalists – has been the acting chief of staff to national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard, according to three sources, but his role has not been publicly announced.
Goldberg, the editor in chief for The Atlantic, revealed earlier this week that he was surprised to be invited March 15 into the Signal chat by Waltz, whom he says he barely knows, and the magazine published the contents of the chats after the Trump administration insisted that information was not classified, and those show that Kent took part in the discussion.
“There is nothing time sensitive driving the timeline," Kent stated. "We’ll have the exact same options in a month.”
He added the Israelis would “take strikes” and “therefore ask us for more support to replenish whatever they use against the Houthis.”
Democrats have called on participants in the group, which was led by defense secretary Pete Hegseth and included vice president J.D. Vance, to resign because they used a commercially available third-party app to discuss top-secret military operations, and a government watchdog group has filed a lawsuit alleging the chat violated the Federal Records Act because the app automatically deletes messages.