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- Saturday Night Live mocked the Trump administration’s group chat blunder with The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg multiple times during the March 29 episode.
- Andrew Dismukes portrayed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, alongside Bowen Yang as Vice President J.D. Vance in the episode’s Cold Open.
- The late-night comedy show also joked about the mishap during the Weekend Update segement.
Saturday Night Live poked fun at a recent blunder made by the Trump administration.
During the Cold Open on the March 29 episode of the late-night comedy sketch series, host Mikey Madison was joined by Ego Nwodim and Sarah Sherman, as they played teenagers in a group chat that was crashed by Andrew Dismukes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Bowen Yang as Vice President J.D. Vance, parodying the moment from earlier this week when senior advisers accidentally added The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a group chat, in which they discussed U.S. “war plans.”
The sketch started with the teenagers texting, as Nwodim, 37, said, “Did you guys see what Jessica Lawrence wore at school today? Oh my god, she is such a pick-me girl,” to which Madison, 25, responded, “Hey, it takes one to know one, Vanessa!” Sherman then said, “That’s hilarious, Jennabelle. This is exactly why you’re the Queen Bee.”
As their conversation continued, a random text message suddenly appeared, saying, “FYI: Green light on Yemen raid.” Dismukes’ Hegseth then appeared onscreen as he joined the group chat.
“Tomahawks airborne 15 minutes ago,” the SNL cast member continued while texting. “Who’s ready to glass come Houthi rebels? Flag emoji, flag emoji, flag emoji … fire emoji, eggplant.” Madison then replied, “Uh … who is this?” before Dismukes’ Hegseth awkwardly introduced himself and stayed in the chat, sharing highly classified intel on nuclear submarines with the teens.
“Stop sending us this stuff!” Madison exclaimed, as Dismukes, as Hegseththen, added Yang’s Vance to the chat.
“Nice job on the strike, fam,” Yang, 34, said, as Vance, 40, before Dismukes’ Hegseth later added Secretary Marco Rubio (Marcello Hernández), who spilled more intel, before realizing the teens were in the chat.
“Could be worse. We could have added the editor of The Atlantic again,” Yang stated, before Mikey Day appeared as Goldberg, 59, and joined the chat. “You did,” he replied.
Elsewhere in the episode, Colin Jost mocked the group chat flub during the Weekend Update segment. “This week, we learned our entire National Security team has the texting skills of my aunt Janet,” Jost, 42, joked.
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SNL‘s parodies came after Goldberg detailed the ordeal in a report for The Atlantic, titled “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans,” earlier this week. In the editorial, he wrote that he was inadvertently added to a group chat that included several major officials within Trump’s administration, including his vice president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The group, to which the editor-in-chief of the major political magazine was added, allegedly spoke about a military operation to bomb Houthi targets in Yemen, with exact information about weapons, targets and timing of an attack before it took place, per Goldberg.
The journalist said he became involved when he received an unexpected connection request on Signal — an encrypted messaging app that is not classified and can be hacked — on March 11 from a user with the name “Mike Waltz,” the White House national security adviser. Two days later, he was added to a group chat called “Houthi PC small group,” which he believed to stand for “principals committee.”
In the messages, the group discussed a strike against the Houthis, a group of Yemeni rebels designated as a terrorist organization by the White House. Goldberg said Hegseth even shared messages a day later that he would not publish because they contained information that “could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel, particularly in the broader Middle East, Central Command’s area of responsibility.”
After the release of the messages, representatives for the National Security Council (NSC) told CBS News in a statement that the texts appeared to be “authentic.”
“At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” a spokesman for the organization told the outlet. “The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to our service members or our national security.”
Later, on March 25, Waltz admitted to Fox News’s Laura Ingraham that he was the person responsible for adding Goldberg to the chat.
Trump, meanwhile, initially told reporters after the news broke that he was not aware of the incident, according to the Associated Press. He later spoke about the gaffe in a telephone interview with NBC News, saying, “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man.”
Saturday Night Live airs weekends on NBC.
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