Washington DC - President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and other senior administration officials responded to the accidental leak of war plans to the editor of The Atlantic.

Trump shared a post by Elon Musk in which the tech billionaire makes light of the scandalous security breach by criticizing The Atlantic.

"Best place to hide a dead body is on page 2 of The Atlantic magazine, because no one ever goes there," Musk said on X, after it was revealed that senior officials had added Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg to a secret group chat on Signal.

The message thread was full of classified information, as senior officials including Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance discussed whether to bomb Houthi targets in Yemen.

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Trump went on a rant about The Atlantic when taking questions from reporters at the White House on Monday, before claiming that he didn't know anything about the leaks.

"I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic," Trump said. "To me, it’s a magazine that’s going out of business. I think it’s not much of a magazine, but I know nothing about it."

The White House has not indicated how it will respond to the leak of classified information, and instead stood behind National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, the official who is thought to have added Goldberg to the chat.

When asked about the report from The Atlantic, Secretary Hegseth denied having been part of the Signal chat, despite the fact that The White House had already confirmed its authenticity.

"So, you’re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who has made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again," Hegseth ranted to reporters.

"To include, I don't know, the hoaxes of 'Russia, Russia, Russia,' or the 'fine people on both sidesæ hoax, or the 'suckers and losers' hoax? This is the guy who peddles in garbage," Hegseth said. "This is what he does."

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"I'd love to comment on the Houthi campaign, because of the skill and courage of our troops. I monitored it very closely from the beginning."

Hegseth then went on to attack the Biden administration for mismanagement and refused to address the leak any further, all while touting Trump's defense policy.

"Nobody was texting war plans, and that's all I have to say about that, thank you," Hegseth said before walking away.