Special Poll
President Donald Trump on Saturday made it clear he has no intention of firing anyone over the now-infamous accidental leak of his administration’s airstrike plans targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen, despite growing concerns in national security circles and renewed scrutiny from the press.
“I don’t fire people because of fake news and because of witch hunts,” Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker during an interview, firmly dismissing the idea that there would be any personnel shake-up over the breach.
Trump expressed continued confidence in both Mike Waltz, his national security adviser, and Pete Hegseth, his Secretary of Defense, despite their central roles in the incident. Waltz was the official who inadvertently added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to an encrypted Signal group chat where senior officials were actively discussing the strike. During that chat, Hegseth shared sensitive operational details of how the strike would be carried out before it happened.
The leak, once exposed by The Atlantic in a detailed article, sent shockwaves through the national security community and raised serious questions about how sensitive military planning is being handled at the highest levels of government. Yet Trump appears determined to stand by his top advisers, downplaying the severity of the episode and signaling he won’t be pressured into making staff changes.
Trump has shown a clear desire to avoid the kind of internal upheaval that plagued his first term, where firings and resignations were frequent, particularly during the early months of the Russia investigation, which led to the ousting of then-National Security Adviser Mike Flynn. This time around, Trump is signaling that outside pressure especially from the media won’t dictate his personnel decisions.
When asked directly if firing Waltz was ever on the table, Trump replied, “I’ve never heard that. And nobody else makes that decision but me, and I’ve never heard it.”
While some officials and legal experts have warned that the leak could have compromised operational security and even risked lives, Trump has remained defiant, dismissing the fallout as media hysteria and vowing to stay the course. But the incident has once again highlighted concerns about how tightly information is controlled within the administration, and whether loyalty continues to outweigh accountability.
Critics argue that the president’s unwillingness to hold his team responsible sends a dangerous message, especially in matters of national defense. Still, Trump seems more focused on shielding his inner circle from blame than on addressing the systemic issues that led to the leak in the first place a stance that, while consistent with his leadership style, is likely to fuel ongoing debate about trust, competence, and discipline within the highest levels of his administration.