Signal Chat Breach Linked to ‘Automated Suggestion’ Feature on iPhone

The now infamous Signal chat breach — which gave Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg access to a private chat with top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration — has been linked to the “automated suggestion” feature on the iPhone used by National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.

According to a report published Sunday by The Guardian, Waltz had intended to include his communications chief Brian Hughes — a former spokesman for Trump — but thanks to an iPhone algorithm that imports potentially “related” phone numbers into existing contacts, he also added Goldberg.

To find the connection between Goldberg and Hughes, the investigation had to go back nearly six months to October of 2024 — when Goldberg had sent an email to the Trump campaign about a story The Atlantic planned to publish attacking the president over his behavior toward wounded service members.

According to The Guardian’s report, Hughes had texted then Rep. Waltz (R-FL) — who was serving as the campaign’s national security surrogate — and had included Goldberg’s contact information along with the content of his email. Waltz’s iPhone then associated the included number — Goldberg’s — with Hughes, adding it to an already saved contact.

Waltz did not contact Goldberg with regard to that story, but instead waited until after it was published and delivered a rebuttal on CNN: “Don’t take it from me, take it from the 13 Abbey Gate Gold Star families, some of whom stood on a stage in front of a 30,000 person crowd and said how he helped them heal.”

It was not until March, when Goldberg was included in the Trump “principals” group chat — where an imminent strike on Houthi terrorists was discussed in some detail — and then went public with the information, that Waltz was made aware of the mishap. At the time, he told FoxNews that the number had somehow been “sucked” into his phone.

“An iPhone suggestion to update a contact with a phone number seen inside the conversation is what led to Mike Waltz inadvertently saving an Atlantic reporter’s phone number under the name of the person he was chatting with, which was Brian Hughes,” Marina Medvin posted in reaction to the new report. “Automated suggestion on tech can be so damn dangerous.”

Referencing Waltz’s initial claim — that Goldberg’s number had been inadvertently saved under someone else’s name — The Daily Wire’s Brent Scher weighed in as well. “So it really did get sucked into Mike Waltz phone… According to @guardian, the WH forensic report says Brian Hughes, who runs Waltz comms, sent Goldberg’s contact last Oct to push back on a campaign story. Apple added the number under Hughes as a ‘contact suggestion update.'”

Throughout, Goldberg has stated that he knows Waltz and has spoken with him — a claim that Waltz has repeatedly denied, and that the Guardian reported was neither confirmed nor ruled out by the investigation into how his number got into the Signal chat.