President Donald Trump downplayed the use of a Signal group chat reportedly among top officials to discuss a U.S. attack on Houthis in Yemen - brought to light when a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, was “inadvertently” added to the chat, writes ABC NEWS.

Trump claimed there “was no classified information as I understand it”, when he was peppered with questions on the reported mishap during a meeting with his ambassadors at the White House. Trump came to the defense of national security adviser Michael Waltz and touted the military operation as a success.

“They used an app, if you want to call it an app, that a lot of people use. A lot of people in government use, a lot of people in the media use”, Trump said.

Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, wrote in a piece published Monday that he was added to a group chat in the commercially available Signal app in which officials, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Waltz, were discussing impeding strikes on Houthi militants in Yemen. Goldberg said he was apparently added to the chat by Waltz.

The story in The Atlantic only described the operational part of the message chain, but did not divulge specifics.

When asked if anyone would be fired as a result of the firestorm, Trump responded: “We’ve pretty much looked into it. It’s pretty simple, to be honest ... It"s just something that can happen. It can happen”.

Trump attacked The Atlantic as well as Goldberg and doubled down on the success of the airstrikes: “Well, I mean, look, we look at everything and, you know, they"ve made a big deal out of this because we"ve had two perfect months”.

Waltz said he had technical experts - rather than the FBI - looking into the matter and told Trump, “We’re going to keep everything as secure as possible. No one in your national security team would ever put anyone in danger”."

The Atlantic pushed back against Trump’s claims: “Attempts to disparage and discredit The Atlantic, our editor, and our reporting follow an obvious playbook by elected officials and others in power who are hostile to journalists and the First Amendment rights of all Americans. Our journalists are continuing to fearlessly and independently report the truth in the public interest. Jeffrey Goldberg was the recipient of information about and discussion of military planning among the country’s top national security leaders when he was inadvertently added to their non-secure messaging group. This is stunning - and was confirmed yesterday by the National Security Council”.