Donald Trump has fired a lot of underlings for a lot of reasons, but never because that underling accidentally added a prominent journalist to a group chat in which sensitive plans for an attack on Yemen were discussed.
And according to one report, he won’t fire the man who did just that.
On Monday, The Atlantic published a shocking story by its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, in which he revealed that he had been accidentally added to that group text on the app Signal in mid-March. Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, invited Goldberg to the chat, presumably by accident. The discussion included 18 top government officials, including the Secretaries of State and Defense, the vice president, and top presidential adviser Stephen Miller.
On it, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared very specific war plans about the attack that was planned on Yemen, which matched the attack that later happened. Goldberg had been skeptical about the chat, even considering it possible that the entire thing was a disinformation campaign, at least until the Yemen attack happened and he realized it was real.
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On Tuesday, Trump went on the record to state that he was defending Waltz.
Trump defends national security chief Waltz after Signal texts about Houthi strike sent to reporter- got bitch rolled by Goldberg https://t.co/jI3CMm72up
— Paula McEneaney (@paula_mceneaney) March 25, 2025
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump said, per NBC News. When asked why Waltz had Goldberg listed in his contacts in the first place, the president stated that “it was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his number on there.”
Other reports had stated otherwise, including one in Politico, which noted that Trump was “poised to fire” Waltz, although nothing had been decided yet.
Trump expresses confidence in Waltz amid war plans chat fallout https://t.co/PfYgz88fW1
— POLITICO (@politico) March 25, 2025
Citing texts among Trump advisers, one anonymous staffer told Politico that “half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive” and that “it was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser.”
A “person close to the White House,” in speaking to Politico, was more blunt:
“Everyone in the White House can agree on one thing: Mike Waltz is a fucking idiot.”
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
