New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said she believes that National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and other officials embroiled in the Signalgate security breach will not be fired.
Haberman, known for regularly breaking stories about the Trump administration, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Thursday that President Donald Trump will resist firing Waltz because he doesn’t want to be seen as “giving in to Trump the media.”
“Trump is very clear that, according to a number of people I’ve spoken to, he does not want to fire someone because he sees that as giving in to the media,” Haberman, who also serves as a political analyst for CNN, explained.
“People around him see that as weak and I think you will hear that for a while. Whether this is sustainable for them is another story.”
Haberman argued that the Trump administration is keeping the story on the front pages by constantly trying to pass the buck and downplay the scandal.
Maggie Haberman laid into Donald Trump Thursday and explained why she thinks he will not fire any of the Signal group chat officials (Getty Images for The New York Times)
“Nobody wants this—in the Trump administration—to continue,” she said. “They have tried talking about a number of other issues—tariffs, executive orders, about law firms, executive orders about history and cultural institutions. This is not going away.”
Politicians on both sides of the aisle have called for the president to take action against those involved in the leaks, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Waltz admitted sole accountability for the security lapse, telling Fox News: “I take responsibility. I built the group.”
The journalist’s comments come as a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to preserve records of the Signal message chat where senior national security officials discussed sensitive plans for a U.S. military strike in Yemen in front of The Atalantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg after he was mistakenly invited to the group by Waltz.
President has repeatedly attempted to brush aside the Signalgate saga and defended those in the group chat (AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg barred administration officials from destroying messages that were sent over the encrypted messaging app earlier this month. A government attorney said the administration is already taking steps to collect and save the messages.
The order was requested by nonprofit watchdog American Oversight, which sued this week to ensure that the records are kept per the Federal Records Act. The group suspects that administration officials routinely use Signal to communicate.
“Defendants use of a non-classified commercial application even for such life-and-death matters as planning a military operation leads to the inevitable inference that Defendants must have used Signal to conduct other official government business,” American Oversight’s attorneys wrote in a court filing.
Boasberg limited his order to messages sent between March 11 and March 15.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg barred administration officials from destroying messages this week (AP)
The Atlantic went on to publish the entire Signal chat on Wednesday.
Goldberg, its editor-in-chief, had been added to a discussion that included Hegseth, Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
On the chat, Hegseth provided the exact timings of warplane launches and when bombs would drop before the attacks against Yemen’s Houthis began earlier this month.
Hegseth laid out when a “strike window” would open, where a “target terrorist” was located and when weapons and aircraft would be used. The images of the text chain posted by The Atlantic show that the messages were set to disappear in one week.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
