President Donald Trump has been considering firing National Security Advisor Mike Waltz from his position after it was reported that Waltz had leaked information on US Houthi strikes in a private messaging chat, according to a Monday Politico report.
According to the report, the alleged leak incident occurred after Waltz included The Atlantic magazine editor-in-chief and former Jerusalem Post columnist Jeffrey Goldberg in a private chat that discussed a military strike the US had set to conduct on the Houthi terror group.
It is still uncertain if Waltz will be fired from his position as the national security advisor, according to the Politico report.
The report said that White House officials claimed Trump would make the decision on whether to fire Waltz over the next day or two.
One official who spoke to Politico said that Trump is expected to support Waltz despite the leak.
US official response to the leak
Further, the report noted that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also remarked on her belief that Trump continues to support Waltz.
“President Trump continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including national security adviser Mike Waltz,” she reportedly said in a Monday statement.
However, another official expressed an opposing stance, telling Politico that the overall consensus regarding Waltz in the White House was not positive.
“Everyone in the White House can agree on one thing: Mike Waltz is a f**king idiot,” the official said.
An additional official reportedly told Politico that the leak could possibly lead to Waltz’s own resignation.
Yet, the same official also added that “what happens to Waltz largely depends on how Trump personally feels about the matter. He also reportedly raised the involvement of other administration officials in the chat as well.
Speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson told Politico that Waltz should not resign, according to the report.
“He’s exceptionally qualified for the job. He is trusted — trustworthy,” Johnson said. “He was made for that job, and I have full confidence in him,” Johnson said.
The details of Waltz’s alleged leak
The incident of Waltz’s leak allegedly occurred after Goldberg had received the information on the strikes against the Houthis on Signal, an open-source encrypted messaging service.
Goldberg described the details of being added to the chat on The Atlantic magazine platform on Monday. He wrote that he received a connection request from Waltz, whom he initially just believed to be someone else masquerading as him.
Goldberg added that he received a notice to be included in a group chat on the messaging service known as the “Houthi PC small group.”
Waltz himself then reportedly sent a message in the group chat, Goldberg continued, saying that it was “establishing a principles [sic] group for coordination” on the Yemeni-based terrorist organization for over the next three days.
“Pls provide the best staff POC [principals committee] from your team for us to coordinate with over the next couple of days and over the weekend. Thx,” The Atlantic piece quoted Waltz’s text, which was referring to a group of the most senior national security officials to assist in coordinating their war plans against the Houthis.
Goldberg then said he saw US Secretary of State Marco Rubio responding to Waltz’s request in the chat, noting that he endorsed State Department Counselor Michael Needham as his representative.
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