Trump 'butt-dialed' Atlantic reporters who were asking about Hegseth debacle

Brian Niemietz, New York Daily News on Apr 28, 2025

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President Donald Trump recently sat down with reporters from The Atlantic. He may have also sat on his phone in the middle of the night.

Atlantic reporter Ashley Parker appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday where she was asked about a new article based on the magazine’s discussion with Trump last week. Her publication had previously broken a bombshell story about the Department of Defense communicating sensitive military information on the commercially available Signal app.

According to Parker, The Atlantic’s exchanges with the president demonstrated consistency in how the administration communicates.

“It was two conversations and actually one late night 1:28 a.m. butt-dial from the president,” Parker claimed.

Reporters from The Atlantic first interviewed Trump in late March when they dialed his phone and he answered despite not knowing who was calling. Weeks later, the reporters, who declined to say how they got the president’s phone number, said they received a “butt-dial” from Trump. They finally scored a face-to-face chat with him on Thursday.

Once that interview began, Parker said Trump assured her, as well as reporter Michael Scherer and Atlantic Editor Jeffrey Goldberg, that he’d had a “positive” talk with embattled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and was confident the former Fox News host now running the Pentagon would “get his act together.”

Goldberg reported on March 24 that he had inadvertently been looped into a conversation in which top U.S. officials including Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance discussed “war plans” on the Signal messaging app. It began a series of reports about the former weekend news anchor that called into question his ability to lead the Pentagon. The New York Times reported he similarly shared sensitive information with his wife and brother.

Parker said Monday that she and her colleagues also discussed Trump’s disagreements with judges during their talk last week. The president told them his executive branch respects the rulings of the Supreme Court. Trump’s relationship with the judiciary has been strained by recent rulings involving immigration and the firing of federal workers.

Trump’s relationship with The Atlantic has also been contentious.

He referred to Goldberg as a “sleaze bag” and claimed The Atlantic was a failing publication after it broke the story about Hegseth’s team’s communications gaffe last month. Trump also accused the magazine of fabricating a story about his 2020 disinterest in visiting a French military cemetery where “losers” were buried. Trump’s former chief of staff Gen. John Kelly confirmed to CNN he was present when the president made that comment during his first term in office.

Goldberg described Trump as "charming” and “focused” during their recent meeting.

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