The White House is ready to move past the Signalgate scandal a week after a journalist was accidentally added to a group chat in which top Trump officials—including National Security Adviser Tim Waltz—discussed war plans.
“As the president has made it very clear, Mike Waltz continues to be an important part of his national security team,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at the White House on Monday. “This case has been closed here at the White House, as far as we are concerned.”
A week ago, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, published a bombshell report revealing that top members of the Trump administration—including Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and National Security Adviser Tulsi Gabbard—had discussed plans to bomb Yemen in a Signal chat that included Goldberg.
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In the aftermath, Democrats have called on Hegseth and Waltz, who added Goldberg to the chat, to resign—or for Trump to fire them. Trump has declined to do so, calling the scandal a “witch hunt.”
The White House press secretary told reporters on Monday that the administration had taken steps to address security concerns.
“There have been steps made to make sure that something like that can obviously never happen again, and we are moving forward,” Leavitt added.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has also said that the Justice Department would not investigate the leaks, nor would the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Nevertheless, the president has expressed his frustrations with the leak in private. Last week, Trump met with Vance, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and Personnel Chief Sergio Gor to discuss whether Waltz should be fired, according to the Wall Street Journal. Trump feared letting Waltz go would require the administration to admit wrongdoing, and the president did not want to hand Democrats a win.
In public, Trump has stood behind his national security adviser.
“If it was up to me, everybody would be sitting in a room together,” Trump said in an interview with NBC on Tuesday after the leak. “The room would have solid lead walls and a lead ceiling and lead floor.”
Trump said personnel in his administration “won’t be using [Signal] very much” going forward.
