Trump stands by Mike Waltz after Signal textual content leak amid requires resignation: Live

White House National Security adviser Mike Waltz mistakenly invited The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to an encrypted chat including secret war plans just days before a wave of air strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, it was revealed on Monday.

The 18 national security and cabinet officials—including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth—have been criticizedfor the security lapse from both sides of the aisle.

James Liddell reports.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has doubled down on the assertion that President Donald Trump has confidence in Mike Waltz, his national security adviser, after yesterday’s embarrassing revelations regarding the group chat on Signal.

She tweeted: “As I said yesterday, 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.’”

Here’s Greg Evans with The Daily Show host’s reaction to last night’s explosive developments.

The former secretary of transportation has suggested that the president should fire officials involved in the Signal leak, calling it the “highest level of f***up imaginable.”

“If I made a mistake like this as lieutenant, I would be probably not just fired, but probably indicted and tried and maybe in prison,” Buttigieg told Kaitlan Collins on CNN’s The Source last night.

“And, if there’s no accountability for a screw-up like this, especially from a president who used to fire people every day on television for sport, what are we even doing here?”

Here’s James Liddell.

If you’re late to all of this, Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense has responded to allegations that he and other U.S. national security officials accidentally leaked highly-sensitive plans about military airstrikes on Yemen to a journalist over a group chat.

Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic, broke the story Monday when he reported that members of the Trump administration had mistakenly added him to a Signal group chat that discussed a classified military operation targeting Houthi positions in Yemen.

A White House national security spokesperson has since confirmed the text thread disclosed in Goldberg’s piece was real.

Here’s Madeline Sherratt on what Hegseth has had to say for himself as he faces calls to resign just two months into a job many felt he was never qualified to hold.

The president has not posted anything on Truth Social so far today but has expressed his support for his National Security Adviser in response to The Atlantic’s story, telling a reporter: “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man.”

Here’s a former Trump insider’s take on all of this:

And here’s the latest from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, once more attacking Jeffrey Goldberg’s credibility and seeking to downplay the whole mess.

In better news for the president, a picture he complained about for being insufficiently flattering has been taken down in Denver.

Here’s more from Io Dodds.

“Our national security is being guarded by a bunch of doofs you wouldn’t trust to throw your cousin a surprise party,” the late night host said last night.

Here’s James Liddell with more from the comedian.

In amongst all yesterday’s security breach excitement, the president threatened to unilaterally impose a 25 percent tax (that Americans would have to pay) on any imports from foreign countries that permit their domestic industries to make use of Venezuelan oil or gasoline.

Trump’s latest tariff aggression will start next month alongside a number of other new import taxes he will be imposing as part of a push to reverse decades of global supply chain integration and free trade efforts.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump claimed that “tens of thousands” of Venezuelan refugees who have fled that country’s authoritarian regime in recent years were actually “high level… criminals, many of whom are murderers and people of a very violent nature” who were “purposefully and deceitfully” sent “undercover” to the United States by that same government.

He also claimed that the presence of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan street gang, in the United States, was entirely due to deliberate efforts by the Nicolas Maduro dictatorship, contradicting language he used in a proclamation purporting to give him the power to summarily remove alleged members of that gang without due process under the terms of a 1798 law, the Alien Enemies Act, while also noting that the Maduro government has been “been very hostile to the United States and the Freedoms which we espouse.”

Here’s Andrew Feinberg.