‘Reckless’ Trump NatSec Advisor’s Future Reportedly in Doubt After Shocking Leak to Journalist
C-SPAN
The future of National Security Advisor Mike Waltz is very much up in the air after an embarrassing accidental leak involving airstrikes in Yemen, Politico reported on Monday evening.
On Monday morning, Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg published a jaw-dropping report describing how a “Michael Waltz” requested to connect with him on Signal, an encrypted messaging app. Though Goldberg was skeptical it was the national security advisor, two days later, Goldberg was added to a group chat with other prominent national security officials in President Donald Trump’s administration. The journalist suddenly found himself observing exchanges about possible bombings in Yemen targeting Houthi rebels, which were ultimately carried out. Goldberg recounted one group chat update from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
“I will not quote from this update, or from certain other subsequent texts,” the reporter said. “What I will say, in order to illustrate the shocking recklessness of this Signal conversation, is that the Hegseth post contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.”
A spokesperson for the National Security Council told Goldberg, “This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”
Hours after the story dropped, Politico noted that Waltz could be headed for the exit.
“Nothing is official yet, and White House officials cautioned that President Donald Trump would ultimately make the decision over the next day or two as he watches coverage of the embarrassing episode,” the outlet reported. “A senior administration official told POLITICO on Monday afternoon that they are involved in multiple text threads with other administration staffers on what to do with Waltz…”
That official said many staffers don’t expect Waltz to weather the storm.
“It was reckless not to check who was on the thread,” the official said. “It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser.”
Goldberg may have been mistakenly added to the group chat because he shares initials with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who presumably would be involved in the conversation because of the potential impact on shipping routes off the coast of Yemen.
On Monday afternoon, Hegseth responded by attacking Goldberg and The Atlantic. he also denied outright that Goldberg had been leaked war plans.
“Nobody was texting war plans. And that’s all I have to say about that,” he said defiantly.
