Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth criticised The Atlantic and its editor Jeff Goldberg, a day after it published the transcript of messages accidentally shared in a chat group of senior US officials on Signal, a commercially available messaging app.

Mr Hegseth wrote that the “war plan” included “No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information.” He further hit out at Mr Goldberg for never having seen a war plan. “We will continue to do our job, while the media does what it does best: peddle hoaxes,” he wrote in a post on X.

The magazine initially withheld the details of the attack plans, but finally published them on Thursday after White House had insisted that no classified details were involved and attacked Mr Goldberg as a liar. Mr Hegseth revealed details in the chat, including the times of strikes on Iran-backed Houthi rebels and the type of aircraft, missiles and drones used, before the attacks actually happened, The Atlantic said.

US President Donald Trump had on Wednesday dismissed a scandal over leaked plans for Yemen air strikes as a “witch hunt” and defended Mr Hegseth amid calls by Democrats for him to quit. “Hegseth is doing a great job, he had nothing to do with this,” Trump said when asked by AFP in the Oval Office whether Hegseth should consider his position over the scandal. “How do you bring Hegseth into this? Look, look it’s all a witch hunt,” added Trump, who was taking questions after announcing new tariffs on foreign-made cars.

Trump added that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz “took responsibility” for the error, which led to the biggest scandal since Trump returned to power in January.

US Vice President JD Vance, who fired a rifle on a shooting range while visiting a Marines base near Washington, said The Atlantic had “overplayed” what happened. Only Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted that there had been a “big mistake,” while highlighting his own limited role.