President Donald Trump has indicated that national security adviser Mike Waltz is responsible for the recent Signal chat leak scandal, while strongly defending Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Speaking during an executive order signing on Wednesday evening, Trump remarked:
“Mike Waltz, I guess he said, he claimed responsibility. I would imagine it had nothing to do with anyone else. It was Mike, I guess I don’t know. I always thought it was Mike.”
Conversely, Trump expressed frustration over the scrutiny directed toward Hegseth, despite the defense secretary reportedly sharing detailed information about military operations, including specific launch times.
“How do you bring Hegseth into it? He had nothing to do — look, look, it’s all a witch hunt,” Trump stated.
Despite the controversy, Trump affirmed Tuesday that he would not dismiss Waltz, previously stating in a television interview that his national security adviser had “learned a lesson and he’s a good man.”
The controversy surrounding the Signal chat began when Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic reported being accidentally added to a conversation involving top administration officials, including Waltz, Hegseth, and Vice President JD Vance.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt earlier confirmed Trump had reviewed the entire leaked conversation, describing it as “a sensitive policy discussion” rather than classified information.
However, some military and government officials, both current and former, have raised alarms about Hegseth’s comments in the leaked chat, describing the disclosure of sensitive attack details as “reckless and dangerous.”