White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz has been tasked by Donald Trump to investigate the Signal chat debacle that he allegedly caused himself.
Waltz may have started the day wondering whether he would be fired by the president amid reports from the White House that staff had branded him a “f---ing idiot” for the fiasco.
But addressing Waltz in the West Wing, Trump defended his security adviser for mistakenly including a journalist in a war plans Signal chat group with the Trump Cabinet and said there was no need for him to apologize.
Then he said he’d asked Waltz to investigate how the calamity happened with the Signal phone and chat app he acknowledged was widely used by the U.S. military. Presumably, Waltz would also need to identify who was responsible for the mess up.
The president said it was not a matter for the FBI.
“Are people able to break into conversations?” he asked. “And if that’s true, we’re going to have to find some other form of device. And I think that’s something that we may have to do.
“Some people like Signal very much,” said Trump. “Other people probably don’t, but we’ll look into it. I think, Michael, I’ve asked you to immediately study that and find out if people are able to break into a system…I think it’s something we should look into.”
“I don’t think he should apologize. I think he is doing his best. It’s equipment and technology that’s not perfect and probably he won’t be using it again, at least not in the near future.”
“I agree with you,” Waltz intervened. “Let’s get everyone in the room whenever possible.”
“I don’t think it’s something we will be using again,” added Trump. “We may be forced to use it. There may be a situation where you need speed rather than gross safety.
“This was the best technology for the moment, but it wasn’t classified,” he insisted, following the party line set all day that none of the chat included information that should never have been made private.
Asked whether The Atlantic, whose editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, was inadvertently included in the chat, could release all the messages if they’re not classified, Trump answered: “I’d have to ask the military about that because, you know, maybe you wouldn’t want that.
“I will say this, that from what I heard, the man that we’re talking about, who’s somebody that I don’t think most people have never heard of, he left. He found it very boring, and he left early. So, he’s made up a lot of stories. And, you know, I think he’s basically bad for the country, but it’s, it’s a failing venture, very failing venture,” Trump added, referring to The Atlantic.
Goldberg wrote that the person who put together the Signal group chat—and included him in it—was Waltz.
Trump insisted the mission–a U.S. attack on Houthis in Yemen–discussed over the Signal app with Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, State Secrtary Marco Rubio, and Pentagon boss Pete Hegseth involved, was “a tremendous success.”
“I think it was very unfair the way they attacked Michael. He’s a good person,” Trump added.
