“Claim: ‘Waltz Office Staff Invited Journalist to Chat Room… Not a Serious Matter'”,
(Washington = Yonhap News) Correspondent Cho Joon-hyung = On the 25th (local time), U.S. President Donald Trump downplayed the ‘civilian messenger discussion and leak of war plans’ incident, defending Mike Waltz, the White House National Security Advisor in charge, claiming it was “not a serious matter.”
In a phone interview with NBC News, Trump referred to the incident as “the only glitch (a small problem) that has occurred in the two months since the Trump administration took office,” and insisted it “turned out to be not a serious matter.”
Trump expressed that he was not frustrated by the situation, and regarding the resignation discussions surrounding Waltz, he stated, “Mike Waltz learned a lesson,” adding, “He’s a good person.”
Moreover, Trump explained that the individual who mistakenly invited Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of the weekly magazine The Atlantic, to a Signal chat room discussing a U.S. military plan against Yemen’s Houthi rebels was an employee in Waltz’s office.
During a meeting at the White House with ambassadors designate from various countries, Trump showed confidence in Waltz by giving him a chance to speak, to which Waltz responded by listing the changes since Trump took office.
In the NBC interview, Trump also refuted that Goldberg’s invitation to the chat room had “no impact at all” on U.S. military operations.
Prior to the U.S. military’s airstrike on pro-Iran Houthi rebels in Yemen on the 15th, the American diplomatic and security lines discussed the attack plan using the civilian messenger service Signal. The fact that Goldberg was included in the chat room came to light in his report on the 24th.
The U.S. public and media have raised concerns, noting that not only was it a problem for diplomatic and security figures to discuss war plans outside government networks, but inviting a journalist to participate was an unforgivable mistake.