President Donald Trump has reiterated his support for national security adviser Mike Waltz after Waltz added a journalist to a top secret group chat of administration officials discussing battle plans against the Houthis.
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump told NBC News in an interview.
Trump added that Goldberg’s inclusion in the chat had no impact on the “perfectly successful” attack and that he wasn’t that bothered the “glitch” was getting so much attention.
“The only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one,” Trump said.
In one of the second Trump administration’s first major scandals, Waltz added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, to a Signal chat with nearly 20 top administration officials. Goldberg witnessed the group discuss sensitive matters regarding U.S. plans to strike the Yemeni-based Houthis. Immediately after the news broke, Trump was urged to fire his national security adviser.
“Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive,” a senior administration official told Politico. Two high-level White House aides believe Waltz should be fired to prevent Trump from being put in a “bad position.”
The Washington Examiner spoke to more than a dozen senior administration officials and Trumpworld operatives about Waltz’s prospects, with the majority suggesting the national security adviser would face very few, if any, consequences.
Two senior administration officials directly said Waltz would stay on as national security adviser, with one adding that the “uproar” voiced by the Trump resistance was making the president “[want] to close ranks.”
“The president has seen more than his fair share of scandals cooked up by the fake news,” the second official added. “This one will blow over. They always do.”
Still, one Republican strategist with close ties to the White House suggested that Waltz could end up being a “sacrificial lamb” should GOP lawmakers begin voicing more criticism of the breach, specifically noting that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe are set to testify before the congressional intelligence committees this week.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt similarly stood by Waltz in a statement that took a shot at Goldberg and the Atlantic.
“Jeffrey Goldberg is well-known for his sensationalist spin. Here are the facts about his latest story,” she posted. “1. No ‘war plans’ were discussed. 2. No classified material was sent to the thread. 3. The White House Counsel’s Office has provided guidance on a number of different platforms for President Trump’s top officials to communicate as safely and efficiently as possible.”
Publicly, other Republicans and administration officials are also sticking behind Waltz.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told Politico that Waltz should “absolutely not” resign, saying he has “full confidence in him.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, one of those in the chat who allegedly shared classified information through the unsecured app, downplayed the matter when asked, targeting Goldberg as a “deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.”
“Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” he concluded.
Goldberg said that was a “lie” and that detailed war plans were discussed, but he decided not to publish the specifics for fear of endangering American service members.
National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes confirmed the leak’s authenticity on Monday. He told the Washington Examiner, “This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”
JEFFREY GOLDBERG SAYS HEGSETH LIED IN DISMISSING INTELLIGENCE LEAK
Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Ratcliffe, and Gabbard were all in the chat.
The incident has drawn bipartisan outcry from Congress, with Democrats calling for a prompt congressional investigation.
