Trump Not Planning To Fire Mike Waltz Over Signal Chat Leak/ Newslooks/ WASHINGTON/ J. Mansour/ Morning Edition/ President Trump says national security adviser Mike Waltz will not be fired after a leaked Signal chat involving war discussions. Waltz remains on schedule and plans high-level talks despite backlash. Critics, including Democrats in Congress, are calling for investigations and resignations.
Trump-Waltz Signal Leak Quick Looks
- Trump confirms he will not fire Mike Waltz.
- Waltz accidentally included Atlantic editor in Signal war chat.
- Trump: “It was a mistake—nothing important was shared.”
- Leak involved Cabinet-level messages about Houthi strike operations.
- Waltz plans to speak with Russia on Black Sea deal.
- White House says Goldberg’s number was added by mistake.
- No classified info or detailed war plans were discussed, officials say.
- Democrats call for hearings and Waltz’s resignation.
- Defense Secretary Hegseth: “Nobody was texting war plans.”
- Goldberg describes the thread as serious, policy-focused debate.
Trump Not Planning To Fire Mike Waltz Over Signal Chat Leak
Deep Look
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that national security adviser Mike Waltz will not be fired following the controversial leak of a Signal group chat that included sensitive discussion of military actions in Yemen—and mistakenly added The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.
“He’s not getting fired,” Trump told Fox News, dismissing the incident as a “mistake” and emphasizing that “nothing important” was shared in the chat. Trump praised Waltz as a “good guy” and declared the military operation against Houthi rebels in Yemen—reportedly discussed in the Signal group—as a success.
Waltz “has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump tells NBC News
President Donald Trump on Tuesday told NBC News that he still has confidence in national security adviser Mike Waltz.
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump said during a phone interview with NBC’s Garrett Haake.
When asked if he was frustrated that The Atlantic story has gotten so much attention, Trump said no, calling it “the only glitch in two months, and turned out not to be a serious one,” Haake wrote on X.
Trump’s comments to NBC are his first significant response since The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that he was accidentally included in a Signal group chat where discussions about military strikes in Yemen took place.
Trump, in the NBC interview, claimed said it was a staffer who added Jeffrey Goldberg to the Signal group chat, even though Goldberg has said that Waltz added him.
Waltz, according to sources close to the administration, has no plans to resign and continues with his daily schedule. He is expected to speak Tuesday with Russian officials about a potential Black Sea ceasefire deal and will also check in with Trump as usual.
Waltz has reportedly told colleagues that he does not know or has never spoken to Goldberg, whose number somehow ended up in the encrypted group chat among top national security officials. The White House and National Security Council are investigating how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added, possibly due to a saved contact card on Signal.
In a statement Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt downplayed the situation, denying that any war plans or classified materials were included in the chat. She said officials have received updated guidance from the White House Counsel’s Office on which platforms are safe to use.
Leavitt also criticized Goldberg, calling him a “sensationalist,” and praised the Yemen strike’s outcome: “Thanks to the strong and decisive leadership of President Trump, and everyone in the group, the Houthi strikes were successful and effective. Terrorists were killed—and that’s what matters most.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was also part of the Signal conversation, pushed back strongly on claims that war plans were being casually discussed. “Nobody was texting war plans,” he told reporters, adding that Goldberg is a “deceitful and highly discredited journalist” known for spreading hoaxes.
Nevertheless, the backlash continues to build. Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee are demanding a full investigation and have called for Waltz to resign.
“This is an outrageous national security breach and heads should roll,” wrote Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) on X. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) echoed the call for accountability, saying, “We can’t chalk this up to a simple mistake—people should be fired for this.”
Goldberg, who appeared on MSNBC Tuesday morning, said the messages he saw included substantive debate about the Houthi operation, with Vice President JD Vance expressing disagreement with Trump’s strategy.
“It’s significant that the vice president questioned whether the president understood the full stakes,” Goldberg said, calling it a noteworthy policy rift.
Speaker Johnson backs Waltz
House Speaker Mike Johnson defended the Trump administration’s handling of national security officials’ inadvertent release of detailed military strike plans to a reporter, saying he did not believe anyone needed to be fired for the incident.
“They acknowledged there was an error and they’re correcting it. I don’t think someone should have lost their job over that because an errant number found their way onto a dialogue,” Johnson said.
Asked about national security adviser Michael Waltz, Johnson firmly stood by his former House colleague.
“The president said he has total confidence in him, and we do as well,” Johnson said.
Another message reportedly came from a user labeled “SM,” believed to be Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who defended the president’s judgment in the thread. Goldberg also claimed the discussion showed deep frustration with Europe’s role in the Red Sea conflict, with several participants focusing on how little European nations were doing to defend shipping lanes.
The Signal chat’s exposure has drawn scrutiny not just for its content, but for how such high-level discussions occurred on an unclassified app. Goldberg noted that lower-level military personnel could face severe penalties—including jail time—for mishandling classified communications.
“If you’re in the military and you did something like this, you could go to Leavenworth,” Goldberg said. He also defended The Atlantic amid administration criticisms, touting the outlet’s profitability and 1.2 million subscribers.
Despite mounting pressure, Trump remains unmoved. His stance reinforces a familiar pattern in his presidency: fiercely backing loyalists while dismissing criticism as overblown or politically motivated.
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