President Donald Trump said he trusted his national security advisor, Mike Waltz, a day after a report detailed how a journalist added to a journalist to a group of signals that argue Yemen’s war plans.
Trump told NBC News On Tuesday that Waltz “has learned a lesson and is a good man.”
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz observes while feeling next to the Secretary of Defense of the United States, Pete Hegseth, while President Donald Trump meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on March 13, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
The president ruled out the concerns about the group Chat in the courier application, which, according to the reports, included operational details about the war plans in Yemen, and included the chief editor of the Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg, according to a Goldberg report published on Monday.
Trump told NBC News that Goldberg’s presence in the chat “had no impact” and described the entire test “the only fault” that his administration has faced since the day of the inauguration.
Goldberg said he received a Waltz signal invitation, who was a member of the group chat. Goldberg said the group chat also seemed to include Secretary of Defense Pete Heghseth, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among others.
The spokesman for the White House National Security Council, Brian Hughes, told ABC News on Monday that the group’s chat “seems to be authentic.”
The National Security Advisor Michael Waltz participates in an interview with the political commentator Mercedes Schlapp at the Constitution of Conservative Political Action (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel and Convention Center, on February 21, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty images, file
Trump took advantage of Waltz, a former Florida congressman, to be his national security advisor in November, calling him “a nationally recognized leader in national security” and an “expert in the threats raised by China, Russia, Iran and global terrorism.”
Waltz is a Falcon from China and was the first green beret chosen for Congress. During the presidential campaign, Waltz proved to be a key substitute for Trump, criticizing Biden-Harris foreign policy history.
Chosen for the Chamber in 2018, Waltz sat in the Intelligence Committees, Armed Services and Foreign Affairs. It also serves in China’s task force of the House of Representatives with another 13 Republicans.
Before running for the chosen position, Waltz served in several national security policy roles in the George W. Bush administration in the Pentagon and the White House. He retired as a colonel after he turned 27 in the Army and the National Guard.
Rachel Scott of ABC News, Benjamin Siegel, Katherine Faulders and John Santucci contributed to this report.
