US national security advisor Michael Waltz has assumed full responsibility for a leaked Signal group chat involving senior Trump administration officials, where discussions reportedly took place about a forthcoming strike on the Houthis in Yemen.
“I take full responsibility. I built the group,” Waltz said during an appearance on The Ingraham Angle on Tuesday. “It’s embarrassing. We’re going to get to the bottom of it.”
The controversy began when The Atlantic‘s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, recounted receiving a Signal connection request on March 11 from what appeared to be Waltz. Upon accepting, Goldberg was added to a group chat titled “Houthi PC Small Group,” where he observed key Trump officials discussing what turned out to be an imminent military operation. Critics have labeled this a major national security breach.
Reports indicate that several high-ranking officials were part of the chat, including Vice President JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio, secretary of defense Pete Hegseth, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
US President Donald Trump, when questioned about the leak at the White House on Monday, dismissed concerns and took a swipe at The Atlantic.
“I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic,” Trump told reporters. “To me, it’s a magazine that’s going out of business. I think it’s not much of a magazine, but I know nothing about it.”
Waltz, in his remarks, also criticised The Atlantic and Goldberg, saying that he did not personally know the journalist and had never texted him.
“I can tell you for 100% I don’t know this guy. I know him by his horrible reputation, and he really is the bottom scum of journalists,” Waltz said. “He wasn’t on my phone. And we’re going to figure out how this happened.”
Waltz further explained that another contact was supposed to be added instead of Goldberg.
“You got somebody else’s number on someone else’s contact,” Waltz said. “Now, whether he did it deliberately or it happened in some other technical way is something we’re trying to figure out.”
Waltz did not disclose the identity of the intended recipient.
Despite the leak, Trump assured NBC that Goldberg’s unintended inclusion in the chat had “no impact at all” on the Yemen operation.
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also commented on the situation via social media, asserting that no classified material was shared in the chat.
“No ‘war plans’ were discussed,” Leavitt said. “As the national security council noted, the White House is investigating how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added. Thanks to the decisive leadership of President Trump and those involved, the Houthi strikes were successful and effective. Terrorists were killed, and that’s what matters most to President Trump.”
Reflecting on the incident, Waltz emphasised the need for greater security measures within the administration.
“Lesson learned number one is you’ve got journalists out there who have made fame and fortune trying to trash this president,” Waltz told The Ingraham Angle. “We’ve got to tighten up. We are tightening up, and we have some of the best technology minds looking into how this happened.”
“We made a mistake. We’re moving forward, and we’re going to continue to knock it out of the park for this president.”
