Donald Trump’s fiasco with journalists seems to be never-ending. Previously, after mistakenly adding The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a private Signal chat, the President has now butt-dialed two of the same news outlet’s journalists, Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer.
Trump already had an interview set with the two, which he later went on to cancel and chose to blast them on social media. He posted on Truth Social, “Ashley Parker is not capable of doing a fair and unbiased interview. She is a Radical Left Lunatic, and has been as terrible as is possible for as long as I have known her.” He also had opinions on Michael Scherer, as he posted, “Likewise, Michael Scherer has never written a fair story about me, only negative, and virtually always LIES.”
However, these two journalists were not to lose hope after being treated this way and they found out Donald Trump’s number instead and gave him a call. About finding out the number, the journalist duo mentioned in their Atlantic article, “Don’t ask how we got his number. All we can say is that the White House staff have imperfect control over Trump’s personal communication devices.”
After they found his number and gave him a call, they tried to follow up with him regarding the various events that have happened including the accidental inclusion of Goldberg to their private Signal chat. However, Trump kept ignoring them till later that night until at about 1:28 am he gave a callback to Scherer.
Trump called my cell at 1:28 am. I slept through it. I asked what had happened in the Oval Office. https://t.co/RwBwg3pg2m pic.twitter.com/eptGmjwdQw
— Michael Scherer (@michaelscherer) April 28, 2025
Scherer talked about this in detail on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, saying, “I should just say it was two conversations and actually one late night, 1:28 A.M. butt dial from the president.” The journalists also talked about it in their Atlantic article, saying, “Had he been calling to ask if we’d seen what had transpired—the display of obeisance from these gladiators, and from his base? Or was this merely a late-night pocket dial? His team declined to clarify.”
Following this, the journalists were finally invited to Trump’s Oval office along with Jeffrey Goldberg. When Scherer asked him about the butt dial, saying, “Did you mean to call me at 1:30 in the morning after the UFC fight?” Trump did not seem to remember anything about the same. After Scherer explained to him how he had received a call from him that night, Trump said, “Oh, no, that’s another—that sounds like another Signal thing.”
Despite previously being warned by his aides during his first term about the dangers of talking on his unsecured personal mobile phone with his friends, Trump seems to have maintained that habit.
