CNN
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Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was a central figure in the first major self-inflicted crisis of Trump’s second term, when the prominent journalist was inadvertently added to a Signal chat where Cabinet officials discussed military strikes in Yemen. Weeks later, Trump sat for an interview with Atlantic reporters — touching on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, immigration crackdown efforts and more.
The Signal chat controversy frustrated Trump, who just a week before had canceled a scheduled interview with the magazine’s reporters. And the president put a spotlight on the planned sitdown ahead of time, saying in a post on Truth Social last week that he was “curious” and seeing if “it’s possible for the Atlantic to be ‘truthful.’”
He then spoke with Atlantic reporters Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer as planned, as well as Goldberg. Here’s what we learned from Trump’s conversations with The Atlantic:
Trump said he believes that Hegseth is going to “get it together,” after reporting in recent weeks detailed turmoil at the Pentagon, including firings for alleged unauthorized disclosures and military plans being shared in a second Signal group chat that included his wife and brother.
The Atlantic reporters mentioned CBS reporting that Hegseth had installed a makeup studio at the Pentagon, costing thousands of dollars. Hegseth has disputed the reporting and defended his leadership at the Pentagon, but the president smiled when asked about the story, per The Atlantic.
“I think he’s gonna get it together,” Trump said in the interview. “I had a talk with him, a positive talk, but I had a talk with him.”
CNN previously reported that Trump had spoken to Hegseth twice after news of the second Signal chat broke. Trump has asked for feedback about Hegseth’s performance, but he is hesitant to dismiss him or any other Cabinet official, sources told CNN.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt was pressed later Monday on whether Trump was implying that Hegseth does not have it together.
“Look, the president has made his position on Secretary Hegseth quite clear. He absolutely has confidence in the secretary’s ability to lead the Pentagon,” she said.
Trump also told The Atlantic that Waltz was “fine” after being “beat up.”
Asked what his message would be to staff following the fallout, Trump said: “Maybe don’t use Signal, okay?”
Parker and Scherer asked the president what would happen if his administration accidentally got the wrong person, questioning the possibility of deporting a legal resident or an American citizen.
“Let me tell you that nothing will ever be perfect in this world,” he said.
Those comments come days after CNN reported that three US citizen children — including a 4-year-old suffering from metastatic cancer — were deported with their undocumented mothers to Honduras by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Border czar Tom Homan said Monday that the mothers were asked if they would rather their children came with them or remained in the US, and that immigration officials deferred to that decision.
Trump also told The Atlantic that he’s “not involved” in individual deportations when asked if he was worried that he may have mistakenly deported innocent people.
“I have many people, many layers of people that do that,” Trump told The Atlantic.
Trump continued, “I would say they are all extremely tough, dangerous people. I would say that. And, don’t forget, they came in the country illegally.”
Public opinion on Trump’s handling of immigration, a signature issue for the president, has waned in recent weeks. Around 45% of Americans approve of his immigration efforts, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS, down six points from March.
How is Trump’s second term different from his first? ‘I run the country and the world’
Trump has spent the first 100 days of his second term in office testing the limits of his executive authority, reimagining the role of the US in the world, dramatically slashing the federal government and working to overhaul the US and global economic system. In the interview, he deemed his second term in office much different from his first.
“The first time, I had two things to do—run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys,” the president said for the article, which is headlined: “Donald Trump is enjoying this.”
“And the second time,” the president added, “I run the country and the world.”
Trump has expressed regret about some of the choices he made for top roles in his first administration. Installing loyalists in those roles was a top priority for Trump in his second term.
The Atlantic reported that people both inside and outside the White House feel that Trump is having “more fun than he’d had in his first term.” The president told the journalists he agreed with that assessment.
“I’m having a lot of fun, considering what I do,” the president said. “You know, what I do is such serious stuff.”
The Atlantic reporters said that the week of their scheduled interview, which was “tentatively promised,” Trump attacked them by name on Truth Social.
“Ashley Parker is not capable of doing a fair and unbiased interview. She is a Radical Left Lunatic, and has been as terrible as is possible for as long as I have known her,” Trump said, calling The Atlantic a “third rate magazine.”
“Likewise, Michael Scherer has never written a fair story about me, only negative, and virtually always LIES,” he continued.
The interview was scrapped, prompting the reporters to call him directly in late March.
“Don’t ask how we got his number,” they wrote.
Trump answered and they said he was eager to talk about his accomplishments — seemingly putting aside his grievances with them.
When they called a few weeks later to ask some follow-up questions, the call went to voicemail. The president appeared to call them back after 1 a.m. as he was returning from a UFC fight in Miami.
“Had he been calling to ask if we’d seen what had transpired—the display of obeisance from these gladiators, and from his base? Or was this merely a late-night pocket dial? His team declined to clarify,” they wrote.
Trump ultimately agreed to the subsequent meeting in the Oval Office alongside Goldberg last week.
