WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump on Saturday made his clearest commitment to not fire anyone over an embarrassing accidental leak of his administration’s plans for an airstrike against the Houthis in Yemen.
“I don’t fire people because of fake news and because of witch hunts,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News’ Kristen Welker.
He also said that he had confidence in Mike Waltz, his national security adviser, and Pete Hegseth, his Pentagon chief.
Waltz inadvertently added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic magazine, to a group text using the Signal encrypted messaging service where top officials were discussing plans to attack the Houthis.
During the chat, Hegseth included details on how the strike would unfold before it took place.
Afterwards, The Atlantic published an article on the internal exchange, shocking the national security establishment.
Trump is eager to avoid repeating some of the turnover that characterized his first term. Mike Flynn, his first national security adviser, was pushed out after only a few weeks during the early phase of the Russia investigation. He’s also shown resistance to bowing to outside pressure, especially if it comes from the news media.
Asked if there were conversations about firing Waltz, Trump insisted, “I’ve never heard that. And nobody else makes that decision but me, and I’ve never heard it.”