For much of the week, President Trump was consumed by a problem. How should he deal with his national security adviser Michael Waltz?
“Should I fire him?” He asked his assistants and allies as he blew up the stunning leak of the signal group chat set up by Mr. Walz. Mr. Walz accidentally added a reporter to the topic of an upcoming military strike in Yemen.
In public, Mr. Trump’s breach of contract stance was to defend Mr. Walz and attack the media. On Tuesday, Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic broke the story about being included in the chat, and the president said Mr. Walz was a “good guy” who could do everything.
But behind the scenes, Mr. Trump asked people inside and outside the administration what they thought he should do.
He told the Allies that he was not satisfied with the news, but he did not want to be seen as a trapped part of the media group. He said he would not want to fire people so early in his second term.
But for Mr. Trump, the real problem doesn’t seem to be his national security adviser’s carelessness in discussing military plans on business applications. Mr. Walz may have some kind of connection with Mr. Goldberg, the Washington journalist who Trump hates. The president expressed dissatisfaction with how Mr. Walz had Goldberg’s phone number on the phone.
On Wednesday night, Mr. Trump met with Vice President JD Vance; White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles; White House Personnel Head Sergio Gor; his Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff and others insisted on whether to stick to Mr. Waltz.
Later Thursday, as the controversy rotated, Mr. Trump summoned Mr. Waltz to the Oval Office. By the next morning the president sent a signal to those around him that he was willing to stick with Mr. Walz, three people with presidential thinking said.
In an interview with NBC News on Saturday, Mr. Trump continued to downplay the episode, centering around officials’ involvement in witch hunting.
People close to Trump say Mr. Walz was able to continue because some in the administration still supported him and because Mr. Trump wanted to avoid comparing the chaos of his first term, the highest turnover rate for any presidential administration in modern history.
While Mr. Trump can always change his mind, the episode shows that Mr. Trump ignores external pressure during his second term while also struggling to address the limits of the loyalty test he imposes on the entire administration.
Even before the signal leaked, Mr. Walz was in a shaky foothold, when some of the president’s advisers thought it was too hawkish and eager to advocate military action against Iran when the president himself made it clear that he preferred to reach a deal.
The connection with Mr. Goldberg, how hazy, gave Mr. Walz’s opponent more fuel to feed skepticism.
Some of Mr. Trump’s recent allies question whether former George W. Bush administration official Mr. Walz is compatible with the president’s foreign policy. According to several briefings, Mr. Walz had intersecting discussions with Mr. Vance and Ms. Wells in the policy discussions.
Mr. Trump has a team whose members debate with each other but know he is the “final decision-maker,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “When he made the decision, everyone was executing in the same direction,” she added.
A few weeks ago, discussions were sparked among some aides about whether Mr. Waltz was aligned with the president. Mr. Trump sometimes made a private attitude towards Mr. Walz, and he made it clear that he didn’t want to start the cycle of being fired in the early days of the second administration. Mr. Trump regrets launching his first national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, less than a month in 2017.
After the signal thread leaked, someone shared a 2016 video clip of Mr. Waltz on X, produced by a group mainly funded by the billionaire Koch brothers. Waltz, a veteran, said he looked straight at the camera when he denounced Mr. Trump as a draft pick and said, “Stop Trump now.” The clip caught the attention of Mr. Waltz’s critics.
In contrast, the work of Defense Minister Pete Hegseth seems to be safe, although he shares details about the strike time of Houthi militants in Yemen in the signal thread. Maga stalkers like Charlie Kirk have defended him online.
The president said Wednesday that Mr. Heggs “has nothing to do with that.”
With Mr. Vance’s help, Mr. Heggs survived the Senate’s bruising confirmation process, and he has a strong relationship with Mr. Trump.
While Mr. Walz can continue to work, the controversy reminds Mr. Trump’s aide, the president’s crisis management strategy – doubling and denying that, no matter how problematic the facts are, doesn’t seem to work as much as Mr. Trump.
When the Atlantic story broke, Mr. Walz denied meetings, understood or communicated with Mr. Goldberg. However, this statement was quickly questioned by photos that surfaced from 2021 in 2021. The event was held at the French Embassy in Washington, where Mr. Goldberg and Mr. Walz were next door to each other. Mr. Walz’s allies refuted the idea that the photo hints at the two people know each other.
Mr. Goldberg said in his initial story about signal chains that he had met Mr. Waltz in the past. Asked on Saturday about any relationship with Mr. Waltz and whether he had a phone number for Mr. Waltz, he simply said: “I will not comment on my relationship with public figures or sources in one way or another.”
Although Mr. Trump calls on his staff loyalty, the reality is that some senior officials are long-time Washington officials who have relationships with people Mr. Trump despises, past experiences and contacts.
“What I’m going to say is to get a group of men and yes, the women around him are the guiding principle, which is the basis for any past that has not proved the contrary,” said John R. Bolton.
“Anyone who has 115 years of ten years has a variety of backgrounds,” Mr. Bolton said.
On Friday, in Greenland, Mr. Vance visited with Mr. Walz to try to put pressure on the United States to occupy the territory and made it clear that Mr. Walz was wrong for adding Mr. Goldberg to the signal thread.
But Mr. Vance also made this point again in the group chat, having defended Mr. Walz internally in the past. This is a sign that Mr. Trump is now ready to move forward.
“If you think you’re going to force the president of the United States to fire anyone, you’re going to think of it,” he said. “President Trump said Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, that I’m the vice president here on Friday, and we’re standing behind the entire national security team.”
