No one is expected to be fired over the Signal national security group chat incident.
That is according to President Donald Trump, who spoke with NBC News on Saturday.
āI donāt fire people because of fake news and because of witch hunts,ā Trump said.
The issue came to light March 24 when āThe Atlanticā revealed its editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, was inadvertently added to a national security group chat, per The Daily Wire.
The chat included top Trump officials discussing airstrikes in Yemen. Vice President JD Vance, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard were some of the others who were part of the chat on March 15
Trump replied, āI do,ā when asked if he still had confidence in Hegseth and Waltz.
āI think itās just a witch hunt and the fake news, like you, talk about it all the time, but itās just a witch hunt, and it shouldnāt be talked ,ā Trump said.
āWe had a tremendously successful strike. We struck very hard and very lethal. And nobody wants to talk about that. All they want to talk about is nonsense. Itās fake news,ā Trump added.
Trump admitted he was not familiar with the Signal app.
āI have no idea what Signal is. I donāt care what Signal is,ā Trump said Saturday. āAll I can tell you is itās just a witch hunt, and itās the only thing the press wants to talk about, because you have nothing else to talk about. Because itās been the greatest 100-day presidency in the history of our country.ā
The White House said no classified information was a part of the call.
The Trump administration has pushed back against āThe Atlantic,ā calling Goldberg a hack.
āThe National Security Advisor has taken responsibility for this matter, and the National Security Council immediately said alongside the White House Counselās Office that they are looking into how a reporterās number was inadvertently added to this messaging thread,ā White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. āWe have said all along that no classified material was sent on this messaging thread. There were no locations, no sources or methods revealed, and there were certainly no war plans discussed.ā
She then attacked Goldberg.
āThereās arguably no one in the media who loves manufacturing and pushing hoaxes more than Jeffrey Goldberg,ā she said. āGoldberg is an anti-Trump hater,ā said Leavitt. āHe is a registered Democrat. Goldbergās wife is also a registered Democrat and a big Democrat donor who used to work under Hillary Clinton. This is the same Jeffrey Goldberg who infamously lied about weapons of mass destruction to get us into the Iraq War, which cost trillions of dollars and thousands of American soldiers.ā
