Donald Trump decides fate of White House 'idiot' who leaked war plans to journalist in group chat
US President Donald Trump has spoken out in defence of National Security Advisor of the United States Mike Waltz after a journalist was accidentally added to a Signal chat discussing military strikes in Yemen.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg had been accidentally included in an group chat on encrypted messaging service Signal, where plans for a upcoming series of strikes on Houthi militant groups in Yemen were being discussed.
The strikes were launched on 15 March and are believed to have killed around 53 people in Yemen, with the US claiming that several Houthi leaders (a group which is designated to be a terrorist organisation by America) to have been killed, while health officials in the Middle Eastern country state that women and children were killed in the strikes.
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Goldberg's inclusion in the chat, named 'Houthi PC small group', was accidental and came a couple of days after he'd received an connection request on the app from Waltz.
The chat also included high ranking members of the US government, including accounts believed to be linked to officials such as Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The accidental inclusion of a journalist in a chat which appeared to be discussing US military tactics was a huge blunder, with one anonymous official referring to Waltz as a 'f**king idiot' in a statement to Politico, while another unnamed official said it was 'reckless' to be having such a conversation on a commercial messaging app.
However, the President has surprisingly come out in defence of his National Security Advisor, calling Waltz a 'good man' in a new statement.
"Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he's a good man," he told NBC News, however, the 78-year-old did not elaborate further on what 'lesson' Waltz had learnt.
The president went on to call the incident a 'glitch' and added that The Atlantic's report had 'no impact at all' on the military operation in Yemen.
"It was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his number on there," Trump added, when asked about how Goldberg may have ended up being added to the chat.
Trump's defence of Waltz was echoed by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the leak on X, stating that 'no 'war plans' were discussed' as well as 'no classified material' having been sent to the thread.
"As the National Security Council stated, the White House is looking into how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added to the thread," she added.
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Politics
Brenna Cooper