Spin and conspiracy theories have swirled on right-wing media in recent days, as conservative commentators and MAGA-influencers attempted to frame news that senior Trump administration officials shared details of a forthcoming U.S. military operation over a group chat on the Signal messaging app that inadvertently included a journalist.
Hours after The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg published his first story Monday that described how he was unexpectedly included in the Signal group, some pro-Trump influencers tried to argue the senior officials had deliberately added Goldberg for strategic reasons.
"If you think for one second they'd be having these chats over Signal and then be stupid enough to accidentally let a opposition journalist into the chat, man, you really fell for it hook line and sinker," said influencer Joey Mannarino in a video on X. "You probably also believe all the stuff you hear in the news about Trump is real."
He added, "This is called misdirection, and this is called strategy."
On Fox News on Monday, Sean Hannity referred to it as a smear from the left, and criticized the media's focus on it.
"More feigned, phony outrage," Hannity said. "This is now the scandal of the week that you will see nonstop 24-7 that nobody will care about."
Fellow Fox News host Jesse Watters said it "could have been a wee bit of a security breach" and reminded his audience of cases where Democrats had mishandled classified documents in the past.
Another common narrative on right-wing media was to try to discredit Goldberg, something Trump officials also did in their response.
The criticism of Goldberg took a darker turn on social media, said Welton Chang, which he tracks as the CEO of Pyrra Technologies, a company that provides threat monitoring services.
"They are criticizing Jeffrey Goldberg for being a member of the chat," Chang said. "I've seen numerous death threats on these platforms."
After Trump administration officials insisted nothing classified was discussed, Goldberg published most of the Signal discussion on Wednesday.
Pro-Trump influencer Benny Johnson told his viewers the newly-released messages showed, "the information on there wasn't classified – in fact, the information on there looks incredible and immaculate for the Trump Administration."
Johnson titled the Wednesday episode of his show "Hoax Busted" and also suggested the supposed "deep state" could be behind the Signal app.
"Maybe that's why they install it on every government agents' phone so that they'd have a secret back door to all their comms," Johnson said. "Maybe, just maybe, this was a op. Maybe, just maybe, this was a new hoax." (Last year, the Department of Justice revealed that Johnson was among a group of influencers who had unwittingly been paid by Russia to spread content that aligned with the Kremlin's interests).
Other conservative commentators said Trump officials made a mistake.
Tomi Lahren posted to X, "Trying to wordsmith the hell outta this signal debacle is making it worse. It was bad."
Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports and a Trump supporter, called for accountability in a video on X for what he called "a major, major, major glitch in intelligence and just a huge mistake."
He suggested that Michael Waltz, the National Security Advisor who had created the group chat and taken responsibility for inadvertently inviting Goldberg to it, should be fired.
Podcast host Charlie Kirk, who has a close relationship with President Trump, also said that Waltz was responsible and accused him of having "a ton of Biden holdovers" working for him. On his Thursday show, he defended Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and shared unproven suspicions about Waltz's deputy.
"What is going on is a fight for the soul of the Republican party," Kirk said, noting divisions within the GOP over foreign policy priorities. He accused "neo-conservatives on Capitol Hill, the neo-conservatives within our deep state of government" of using the fallout from the Signal chat as an opportunity to try to oust Hegseth.
On Steve Bannon's show the War Room, Bannon asked the far-right influencer Jack Posobiec, who served in the Navy Reserve as an intelligence officer, if he thought the texts released by Goldberg contained classified information. Posobiec is known for promoting the Pizzagate conspiracy theory and multiple media outlets reported in 2017 his security clearance was under review and his access to classified information was suspended.
"If I was in the intel community, I wouldn't be sharing that information over open comms," Posobiec answered. "Operational stuff that I've always seen has always been at the secret level," he said, referring to a level of classification, before noting that the defense secretary can choose to declassify information.
Posobiec then pivoted back to attacking the Democratic members of Congress who had grilled Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe at a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday.
"These Democrats don't care," Posobiec said. "This is a drama act."
NPR CEO Katherine Maher chairs the board of Signal Foundation that's behind the Signal app.
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