President Donald Trump lashed out after Mike Waltz, his top national security adviser, after he seemingly leaked highly confidential US war plans by accident – but it appears he was furious for more than one reason. According to a number of well-placed sources, the Commander in Chief is also suspicious over why he had Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg’s number saved in his phone in the first place, Politico reports. One source told the outlet: “The president was p****d that Waltz could be so stupid.”

On Tuesday Waltz told Fox News he took “full responsibility. I built the group,” admitting that the blunder was “embarrassing”. The US National Security Council also confirmed chain of messages “appears to be authentic”.

However, Waltz also also tried to obscure what had happened, rambling: “There’s a lot of journalists in this city who have made big names for themselves making up lies … This one in particular I’ve never met, don’t know, never communicated with, and we are looking into and reviewing how the heck he got into this room.”

Waltz apparenly included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief at The Atlantic, in a conversation on the messaging app Signal that counted 18 high-ranking administration officials deliberating on plans for military action against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen on March 15.

Goldberg opted not to publish sensitive operational details, but did reveal messages on Monday that appeared to unveil the scorn some of Trump’s prime cabinet members harbour for their “free-loading” European counterparts.

One message from Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth read: “I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”

Publicly, Trump has sought to downplay the incident, dismissing The Atlantic as a “failed magazine” and voicing his confidence in the former Army Special Forces officer during interviews on NBC News and Fox News.

In the ambassador meeting on Tuesday, Trump followed up Waltz remarks, calling the senior cabinet member “a very good man” he also said he would look into the use of the messaging by government officials’ use of Signal.

The revelation that such high-level information could have been shared in this way prompted ridicule from Democrats.

In a post on X, senator and Marine veteran Ruben Gallego described it as “amateur hour”, saying: “These are the geniuses that are also selling out Ukraine and destroying our alliances all around the world.

“No wonder Putin is embarrassing them at the negotiation table.”

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said: “From an operational security perspective, this is the highest level of f**kup imaginable,” adding: “These people cannot keep America safe.”