The “case has been closed” at the White House after the high-profile leak of a Signal group chat in which leading Trump administration officials discussed plans for airstrikes on Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Monday.
Leavitt also indicated that National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, who has taken responsibility for the breach, will stay on the job.
“As the president has made it very clear — Mike Waltz continues to be an important part of his national security team and this case has been closed here at the White House as far as we are concerned,” Leavitt told reporters.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on the Signal group chat:
“As the president has made it very clear — Mike Waltz continues to be an important part of his national security team. This case has been closed here at the White House.”pic.twitter.com/Hz9Ow3YTEj
— The American Conservative (@amconmag) March 31, 2025
Since The Atlantic’s Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg broke the news last week that he was added to the Signal chat and revealed its contents, some have called for Waltz to resign or be fired. Waltz told Fox News that he took “full responsibility” for the breach in which Goldberg was added to the chat because he built the Signal group. President Donald Trump informed reporters that Waltz was a “good man” and “would continue to do a good job.”
The controversy that stemmed from the breach, which has become known as “Signalgate,” has embroiled other top members of the Trump administration who took part in the thread. One of those officials, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has also faced calls to resign over the information he shared in the conversation. Some lawmakers have pushed for an investigation by the Pentagon’s inspector general. Hegseth has said his “job” was to “provide updates in real-time, general updates in real-time, keep everybody informed.”
In a post on X last week, Leavitt said that no classified material was included in the thread and warned that Goldberg “is well-known for his sensationalist spin.” She also rejected Goldberg’s characterization that “war plans” were discussed, affirmed that the National Security Council was “looking into how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added to the thread,” and noted that the White House Counsel’s Office had provided guidance on communications across different platforms.
On Monday, Leavitt said there have been “steps made to ensure that something like that can obviously never happen again and we’re moving forward and the president and Mike Waltz and his entire National Security team have been working together very well if you look at how much safer the United States of America is because of the leadership of this team.”
