Trump
Liam O'Dell
14s
Related video: ‘A shocking breach’ - Trump officials leak military attacks to The Atlantic
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As the fallout continues over The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg’s revelation that he was given access to highly sensitive military information via a group chat on Signal, many are now wondering what will happen next, and what action - if any - US president Donald Trump will take in response to the leak.
To recap, Goldberg was added to a group chat comprising government officials earlier this month, in which he was privy to conversations about a strike on Houthi targets in Yemen before they actually happened.
The legitimacy of the messages were confirmed by National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes, who said: “This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”
This was quite the contrast to defence secretary Pete Hegseth’s response to the incident, who attacked Goldberg by describing him as “a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who has made a profession of peddling hoaxes”.
Trump took a similar stance when he was asked for his initial reaction, saying he is “not a big fan of The Atlantic”, but he has since indicated whether his national security adviser Mike Waltz will face any repercussions as a result of the humiliating blunder.
In a phone interview with NBC News on Tuesday, the president said Waltz has “learned a lesson” and that the whole sorry affair was “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one”.
It’s not like the Department of Government Efficiency accidentally terminated – then reinstated - an Ebola prevention programe during its cuts to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), hey, Donald?
Trump’s favourable opinion of Waltz was backed up by his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, on Tuesday, when she took to Twitter/X to say “the President continues to have confidence in his national security team, including Mike Waltz”.
“Stories claiming otherwise are driven by anonymous sources who clearly do not speak to the President, and written by reporters who are thirsty for a scoop,” she wrote.
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