Trump Pins Signal Chat Leak on Waltz, Dismisses Scandal as 'Witch Hunt'

President Donald Trump has pointed the finger at National Security Advisor Mike Waltz in connection with the Signal chat scandal. While signing an executive order on Wednesday evening, Trump was asked who he believed was behind the leak. Without skipping a beat, he responded, "It was Mike, I guess. I don’t know, I always thought it was Mike." He then went on to dismiss the media’s intense focus on the matter, labeling it a "witch hunt."

This marks a shift from his earlier stance. During a phone interview with NBC on Tuesday, Trump had pinned the blame on an unnamed staffer, saying it was "one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his number in there." It seems the blame game is getting a little musical over at the White House.

When asked if Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s position was in jeopardy due to the scandal, Trump was quick to defend him. "Hegseth, he was doing a great job… How do you bring Hegseth into it? He had nothing to do with this," the president declared. He also mused that Signal, the encrypted messaging app at the center of the fiasco, "could be defective." Defective app or not, the real “malfunction” seems to be in the chain of communication.

Trump also attempted to downplay the severity of the scandal, urging reporters to focus on the "unbelievably successful" military attack that was being discussed in the leaked Signal chat. The president seemed unfazed, brushing off the leak as a minor hiccup in an otherwise smooth operation.

For context, the Signal chat in question came to light after The Atlantic’s Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg accidentally got added to a group chat involving senior Trump administration officials. The group was reportedly discussing a planned attack on the Houthis in Yemen. Goldberg, after initially doubting the chat’s authenticity, verified its contents and published a bombshell story earlier this week.

Goldberg remarked that he had "never seen a breach quite like this" and noted that while U.S. officials frequently use Signal, it is typically for logistical purposes—not for hashing out "imminent war plans." This might be a good time for Washington to brush up on its cybersecurity protocols.

The Trump administration has been working overtime to diminish the report’s impact. They even celebrated a small victory when The Atlantic revised its terminology, describing the chat discussions as "attack plans" rather than "war plans." White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the story as a "hoax" by a "Trump-hater" with a penchant for sensationalism. In her words, it’s all just another day in the "fake news" cycle.

Leavitt did confirm that tech mogul Elon Musk is assisting with the investigation into the Signal leak. However, despite all the drama, Trump has made it clear that Waltz will not face the axe over the scandal. It seems the administration’s strategy is to shake this one off and keep moving—though it’s hard to ignore the shadow this breach has cast over their operations.