In a Tuesday phone interview with NBC News, President Trump confirmed he still has confidence in national security adviser Mike Waltz.
Trump’s comments come one day after it was revealed Waltz accidentally included Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief in a text exchange about Houthis in Yemen.
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” the president told NBC News in a brief interview Tuesday.
From NBC News:
Trump’s comments were his first substantive remarks since The Atlantic broke the story, which detailed how journalist Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently added to a group chat on a private messaging app where plans for military strikes in Yemen were discussed.
Trump said Goldberg’s presence in the chat had “no impact at all” on the military operation.
When asked what he was told about how Goldberg came to be added to the Signal chat, Trump said, “It was one of Michael’s people on the phone.A staffer had his number on there.”
The president expressed confidence in his team, saying he was not frustrated by the events leading up to The Atlantic’s story. The situation, Trump said, was “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.”
Top Democrats on the House Armed Services, Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees are probing the incident, pushing for answers about other instances in which senior officials discussed national security issues “using the Signal messaging service or any other messaging service application that has not been approved for the transmission of classified information.”
White House officials defended the chat, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claiming on Monday that “nobody was texting war plans.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday also claimed war plans were not discussed and “no classified material was sent to the thread.”
White House Press Secretary shared the facts of the story, adding that Jeffrey Goldberg is “well-known for his sensationalist spin.”
Jeffrey Goldberg is well-known for his sensationalist spin. Here are the facts about his latest story:
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…
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) March 25, 2025
More over at The New York Post:
Trump says national security adviser Mike Waltz ‘has learned a lesson’ after Yemen attack leak ‘glitch’ https://t.co/781oFRg3ZT pic.twitter.com/fuIkptkdo6
— New York Post (@nypost) March 25, 2025
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