During an exclusive interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, President Donald Trump discussed the ongoing Signal messaging app controversy involving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Trump expressed optimism that Hegseth would recover after facing early challenges.
“I think he’s gonna get it together,” Trump said in the Oval Office discussion, published by The Atlantic Monday morning.
“I had a talk with him, a positive talk, but I had a talk with him.”
Trump also voiced continued confidence in national security adviser Mike Waltz, who was implicated in the incident that mistakenly added Goldberg to a Signal chat. Goldberg later published a series of articles accusing Trump officials of mishandling classified material.
Waltz, according to Trump, handled the situation well despite the backlash he endured for mistakenly bringing Goldberg into a private chat about planned strikes on the Houthis in Yemen.
Waltz was “fine” after being “beat up” for the mistaken addition of the reporter to the Signal chat to discuss strikes on Yemen’s Houthi terrorists, Trump told Goldberg.
In light of the mishap, Trump reportedly advised his team afterward with a simple directive:
“Maybe don’t use Signal, OK?”
Hegseth, for his part, has pushed back firmly against accusations, blaming the media for distorting the story and vehemently denying any improper handling of sensitive information.
“We talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession peddling hoaxes time and time again – to including the, I don’t know, the Russia, Russia, Russia, the ‘fine people on both sides’ hoax, or ‘suckers and losers’ hoax: This is a guy that peddles in garbage,” Hegseth said in a sharp denunciation of Goldberg when the story about the Signal group first emerged this spring.
{Matzav.com}