Of course Mike Waltz had Jeffrey Goldberg's number

He spent all of last summer waging an aggressive media-friendly campaign to get a top job in the White House

Among the many instances of gaslighting from the Trump White House, as they desperately attempt to avoid responsibility for the Signal fuck-up, is National Security Advisor Mike Waltz’s claim that he is shocked that The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg’s number was somehow sucked into his cellphone. Waltz is not alone among Trump’s team of rivals who know that to survive you must solicit attention from the mainstream media they claim to loathe to raise one’s profile—because it’s the only way to get Trump’s attention and survive.

In fact, in Waltz’s case, he had agreed to appear on my election podcast Somebody’s Gotta Win at the Republican National Convention in 2024. I was coordinating with two members of his team to meet with him, but it didn’t work out due to a scheduling conflict. Earlier that week, I had interviewed the campaign’s political director James Blair, now a White House deputy chief of staff, and I regularly hosted Trump’s congressional allies, former administration officials, and his longtime pollster John McLaughlin. At the time, it was clear that Waltz was looking to build his profile. Yes, he’s retired as a colonel with four bronze stars, but he had only served two terms in Congress and crucially voted to certify the election for Joe Biden. But thanks to his Florida roots, he had a powerful ally in campaign manager Susie Wiles. I didn’t think much of the offer to interview another congressman because I was regularly meeting candidates for positions, from the Vice President to senior cabinet officials and down. In Trumpworld, winning a nomination or senior appointment is not unlike an Oscars campaign—you need to be on television regularly and speaking with influential journalists. That’s why I was unsurprised to hear that he would have Goldberg’s number in his phone. If we would have met in person, I would have asked for his number as well to bypass the staff, as all reporters do to go directly to the source.

The idea that Trump officials would require a purity test when it comes to relationships with the press is laughable. They all talk to the press—maybe more than Democrats because they know just how much it matters to their boss, who is also addicted to the media. As one of Trump’s longtime advisors explained to me, “The press is Trump’s heroin.” I should know, as a young reporter for the New York Post, I frequently fielded calls from Trump. It was at the Republican National Convention in 2012 that I told him I could no longer write about him running for President because Mitt Romney had just been nominated. He said, “Write this down, John McCain thinks I have a shot.” Oh, how little has changed.

This is all to say Waltz needs to give up the farce that he doesn’t know how Goldberg’s number got in his phone, and his colleagues who are trying to knife him—and trust me they are—need to also give up the farce that they don’t speak to reporters on Signal. I’m told they’re calling Waltz a neo-conservative behind his back, one of the worst sins in America First, just for having Goldberg’s number. I never thought I’d have to say this but MAGA needs to stop its pearl clutching.

“Mike Waltz didn’t have the reporter in his contact list and had not spoken to or messaged the reporter,” National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said in a statement. “Democrats and the media will do everything they can to distract from and diminish the success of this operation against Iran-backed terrorists. President Trump and his entire national security leadership team are focused on securing and defending the United States. NSA Waltz as part of the leadership team remains focused on that mission for the American people.”

Waltz did not respond to a request for comment.

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