Donald Trump ignored the advice of several of his closest advisors – including Vice President JD Vance – who suggested he fire National Security Advisor Mike Waltz over the Signal chat leak.
Waltz has faced intense scrutiny for accidentally adding Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg to a group chat in which they were discussing sensitive plans to attack Houthi targets in Yemen.
However, Trump has stood behind Waltz – who took full responsibility – repeatedly during the saga, though the president has been rumored to be furious with him.
Now, it has been revealed that Vance, as well as Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and advisor Sergio Gor told Trump to give Waltz the sack, Politico reports.
While Trump was angry at Waltz for the slip-up, he refused to fire him, because he didn’t want to give the press ‘a scalp,’ an anonymous source said.
Trump doesn’t want to be seen as caving in to the Democrats and the liberal media by sacrificing a key advisor.
However, the report also states that Waltz is not safe yet, one source even suggesting he could be ‘gone in a couple of weeks’ if they find the right time once the news cycle passes.
‘President Trump continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including National Security Advisor Mike Waltz,’ White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
DailyMail.com has reached out to a spokesperson for Vice President Vance for comment.
Waltz is currently with Vance on he and the Second Lady’s trip to Greenland, as Trump continues to push the idea of taking over the territory.
Despite the report suggesting he pushed to get rid of Waltz, he too was defiant on Friday.
Vance said: ‘If you think you’re going to force the president of the United States to fire anybody you’ve got another thing coming! I’m the vice president saying it here on Friday: We are standing behind our entire national security team.’
Waltz’s spokesperson added that ‘the chattering of unnamed sources should be treated with the skepticism of gossip from people lacking the integrity to attach their names.’
‘Mike Waltz serves at the pleasure of President Trump and the president has voiced his support for Mike,’ Spokesperson Brian Hughes added.
‘The entire National Security leadership team has led a successful and effective counter terrorism mission and that is what media and Democrats are trying to obscure.’
Waltz told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham earlier this week he ‘built the group’ but claimed the ‘mistake’ may have actually been an act of subterfuge by the journalist.
‘I take full responsibility,’ Waltz said during his tortured explanation of the debacle on Tuesday night.
‘I don’t text him,’ Waltz said about The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg. ‘He wasn’t on my phone, and we’re going to figure out how this happened.’
The national security advisor was pressed on how the journalist was included in the conversation about military strikes in the Middle East.
‘We have the best technical minds looking at how this happened,’ he claimed.
Waltz then floated the idea that the journalist did something to wiggle his way into the text chain.
‘We’re going to figure out how this happened,’ he reiterated, adding his team is working to determine if the journalist ‘did it deliberately or it happened in some other technical mean is what we are trying to figure out.’
The conflicting answers did little to shed light on a scandal surrounding the messages among government leaders about planning an attack on Houthi fighters in Yemen, that included details on weapons and strike coordinates.
Reacting to the national security advisor’s appearance, one U.S. official slammed Waltz as a leaker and a traitor to the administration.
‘He never liked the president and he leaks,’ they told DailyMail.com.
It was the national security advisor’s first appearance addressing the scandal since the journalist who was added to the sensitive chat, Goldberg, published a story about being added to the top secret group on Monday.
‘Have you ever had somebody’s contact that shows their name and then you have somebody else’s number there?’ Waltz asked Ingraham.
‘What I can tell you for certain, wasn’t reaching out or talking to him at all,’ Waltz said, later adding he doesn’t know the reporter, despite Goldberg saying the pair have met.
The national security boss said he was so concerned about how the reporter got into the chat that he has spoke to Elon Musk, the president’s self-proclaimed tech support, about investigating the matter.
Waltz also skewered Goldberg, ridiculing his past reporting and making myriad accusations against him.
Trump’s advisor made it seem like it was Goldberg’s fault for being added to the group chat with Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and more.
Waltz told the Fox News host that Goldberg the ‘scum’ of journalists and said he has a ‘horrible reputation.’
Waltz struggled to send a clear message about who was exactly to blame for the ordeal, vacillating between saying he was responsible and it was Goldberg’s fault.
Practically all Republicans have tried to explain away the scandal as a non-issue.
Waltz noted how the operation was a success and the attack on the Houthis last week was ‘an incredible strike.’
‘They don’t want to talk about the success here,’ the national security advisor complained.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., even suggested earlier in the day that former President Joe Biden bears some blame for the Signal chat fiasco.
‘The Biden Administration authorized Signal as a means of communication that was consistent with presidential recordkeeping requirements for its administration — and that continued into the Trump Administration,’ Cotton said.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who was on the group chat, similarly noted in a Senate hearing Tuesday that Biden officials used Signal.
He confirmed to congress he was indeed on the controversial chat and that no classified information was shared on the chat.