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Signal Leak Puts Mike Waltz, Trump’s National Security Adviser, in Hot Seat
Despite President Trump’s insistence on Tuesday morning that his national security adviser, Michael Waltz, “has learned a lesson” after inadvertently including the editor of The Atlantic in a cabinet-level chat session on Signal, speculation continues to build about Mr. Waltz’s job security.
Mr. Trump vigorously defended Mr. Waltz in front of television cameras during an event a few hours later, saying he should not have to apologize for the breach.
“That man is a very good man, right there, that you criticized,” Mr. Trump said, pointing to Mr. Waltz after a reporter asked if the president would order practices to be changed. “So he’s a very good man, and he will continue to do a good job. In addition to him, we had very good people in that meeting, and those people have done a very, very effective job.”
Most of the Republican Party leaped to Mr. Waltz’s defense, seeking to blame the news media for the uproar.
But in interviews, several close allies of the president characterized the national security adviser’s standing as precarious, more so than it already was when The New York Times reported on his uneasy status over a week ago. Those who discussed Trump administration views on Mr. Waltz did so on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly. His fate, they say, rests on Mr. Trump’s caprices, with several competing factors coming into play.
On the one hand, it is Mr. Trump’s nature to defy a media firestorm rather than try to quell it by offering up a sacrificial lamb. He parted from this tendency at the beginning of his first administration when he fired his national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, for not divulging his encounters with Russian officials to the F.B.I. According to one adviser from that era, Mr. Trump soon regretted that act of acquiescence.
This time around, according to several people who have spoken to Mr. Trump over the first two months of his term, he wants to avoid firing people because of the narrative of chaos that it will quickly engender. Once he starts firing people, one person familiar with his thinking said, it will be very hard to draw a line if problems arise with other aides down the line. And Mr. Trump has appeared increasingly more concerned with holding his perceived enemies at bay than anything else.
Mr. Waltz also benefits from a much closer relationship to the president than Mr. Flynn had. As a Republican congressman from 2019 until his current appointment, Mr. Waltz had been an unflagging defender throughout Mr. Trump’s political and legal travails. He spent much of last year campaigning for Mr. Trump, often traveling aboard the candidate’s private plane. He aggressively questioned the director of the U.S. Secret Service at a hearing after an assassination attempt on Mr. Trump at a rally near Butler, Pa., and became a defender of Mr. Trump against the agency.
Perhaps more significantly, Mr. Waltz frequently served as a surrogate for the Trump campaign on Fox News, thereby passing the eyeball test for a president-elect who prefers his senior aides to be telegenic.
But Mr. Waltz has now given Mr. Trump reason to second-guess his loyalty, two people familiar with the matter suggested. The detail that Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic, appeared to be in Mr. Waltz’s list of contacts to begin with — and therefore mistaken for another “JG” to be invited into the Signal group chat — has sent up alarms among the president’s allies, according to people familiar with their thinking.
In The American Conservative, a founding editor, Scott McConnell, wrote Tuesday, “I don’t see how National Security Adviser Mike Waltz organizing a group chat with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg goes away without Waltz’s resignation.”
In The Atlantic article, Mr. Goldberg recounted that Mr. Waltz had sent him a connection request on Signal on March 11, adding that he “didn’t find it particularly strange that he might be reaching out to me.” Asked about the Signal fiasco in a news conference with Mr. Trump Tuesday, Mr. Waltz described Mr. Goldberg as someone “I’ve never met, don’t know, never communicated with.” In an interview for this article, Mr. Goldberg said that he had met Mr. Waltz a few years ago at two events but had never interviewed him.
Ironically, it was Mr. Waltz’s familiarity with members of the U.S. foreign policy establishment, including Mr. Goldberg, that provided relief to some quarters after he was named to second Trump administration. A former Green Beret and four-time recipient of the Bronze Star, Mr. Waltz had served in the national security apparatus for the Bush and Obama administrations before working for a defense contracting firm and then running for Congress.
“Mike’s exceptionally well-rounded,” said Peter Bergen, an author and national security analyst who wrote the foreword to one of Mr. Waltz’s books. “I saw it as an inspired choice on Trump’s part.”
Others saw Mr. Waltz as a curious selection. An avowed hawk, he staunchly defended the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in his 2014 book “Warrior Diplomat.” In a podcast interview in 2021, he warned that withdrawing U.S. troops from the latter, as Mr. Trump had proposed doing, was “the best way to cause another 9/11 to happen.” Mr. Waltz instead advocated a sustained troop presence like the one that has been in Colombia — “a great model” — for over three decades. Such views have caused Mr. Waltz to be branded a “neocon” in right-wing circles.
Many of those who have heralded Mr. Waltz’s capabilities now find themselves at pains to explain his breach of security protocol. At the news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Trump reiterated that Mr. Waltz was “a very good man” and that attacks on him were “very unfair.” But some of the president’s allies have speculated that this appraisal could change if his national security adviser is increasingly viewed with ridicule.
Those who have known Mr. Trump throughout the years point to a striking constant: While he has a high tolerance for lightning rods, he has a very low one for laughingstocks.
Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.
By Hamed Aleaziz, Sutton Raphael, Thomas Vollkommer, Gilad Thaler, Whitney Shefte and Alexandra Ostasiewicz
March 27, 2026
Seth Bodnar, the former president of the University of Montana, is now running for Senate as an independent
Kirk Siegler/NPR
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Kirk Siegler/NPR
BUTTE, Mont. – It’s long been an adage in Montana politics that if you’re running for office, you’d better have a float in the Butte St. Paddy’s Day Parade, which draws thousands to the mining city’s historic uptown, soaking up the nostalgia – and the Guiness.
Here, you’re just steps from the towering old mining headframes and the one mile long and half mile wide Berkeley Pit. Now shuttered, it was once one of the world’s largest copper deposits.
Larry Carden, in a Notre Dame sweatshirt, never misses the parade.
“You’ll see a lot more boos for the Republicans than you will the Democrats, I can guarantee you that,” he says.
That’s a nod to Butte’s long history of Democratic politics and a strong labor movement going back to around 1900, when the “Copper King” mine owners ruled Montana business and media, and bribed their way into political office. Today, Carden, who’s retired, is worried that the mega rich are again influencing politics here, and how expensive life is in his home state.
“Between health care and gas and food, and you go to the store the other day, there’s rib steaks $19.99 a pound, you know,” Carden says.
A political group marches in the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Butte, Montana, March 17 2026
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This year’s parade followed an unusually turbulent few days in Montana’s political scene – half of its congressional delegation abruptly retired. Despite the state’s recent tilt from purple to deep red, the races for their seats could be more in play now because of the way Senator Steve Daines and Congressman Ryan Zinke, both Republicans, gave up them up and chose their successors. In Daines’ case, he withdrew his candidacy just minutes before the filing deadline.
Like a lot of people in Butte, Carden is a longtime Democrat. But he says he’s grown disillusioned with party politics.
“I would rather everything be independent where there is no party designation and then you have to pay more attention to who the person actually is,” Carden says.
New Candidate opts to go independent
That’s exactly what Seth Bodnar, a former Green Beret running for U.S. Senate, is trying to capitalize on. He joined other candidates mixed in with Irish dancing troupes and fire department floats, as he walked the parade route along Park Street shaking the occasional hand and tossing candy.
In an interview with NPR earlier in Missoula, Bodnar, who recently resigned his post as University of Montana president, pitched what he says would be his bi-partisan appeal.
“I’m an independent,” Bondar says. “When I raised my right hand at the age of 18 and I swore an oath to this Constitution when I joined the military, not to a political party.”.
Person over party used to be the playbook in Montana, which some call just one long Main Street. It’s how former Senator Jon Tester used to win despite being a Democrat as the state got redder.
The day after Bodnar formally announced he was gathering signatures to get on the ballot, his long shot bid got taken a lot more seriously.
Sen. Steve Daines, who was elected to the Senate in 2014, sent shockwaves through the state’s political scene when he announced in a video posted to X that he’d decided not to seek reelection.
Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., speaks at the Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing for Scott Bessent, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to be Secretary of the Treasury, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025.
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“I’m also very thankful to have served alongside President Trump and my colleagues in the Senate,” Daines said in the video. “Together we built a conservative majority on the Supreme Court, we delivered the largest tax cut in U.S. history, we unleashed American energy dominance and secured our southern border.”
Daines’ late hour withdrawal presumably clears the way for his chosen successor, Kurt Alme, the U.S. Attorney for Montana until he declared his candidacy for Daines’ seat. Daines later said withdrawing earlier could have enticed a prominent Democrat like Tester to enter the race.
Independent Seth Bodnar says it reminds him of the Montana of old.
“We have direct election of senators in the United States in part because of political corruption in this state 125 years ago, Copper Kings trying to buy U.S. Senate seats,” Bodnar says. “That didn’t work back then and it’s not going to work right now.”
But Democrats say Bodnar’s entry as an independent will just split the liberal vote.
The GOP base is angry too
“Montanans are getting very indignant about what they see as out and out dishonesty,” says Roger Koopman, a former Republican legislator and Montana Public Service commissioner from Bozeman.
Koopman says the party establishment’s backroom dealing is a gift to Democrats and especially Seth Bodnar, who he says is a liberal running as an independent.
“They’re going to say, ‘hey, I’m over these Republicans playing games with me, you can’t do that and expect me to vote for you, I’m not going to vote Democrat, but here’s this guy out here who says he’s independent, let me give him a try,’” Koopman says.
Alme has been keeping a low profile. Political pundits say that might be by design. A campaign spokesperson sent NPR this statement: “Anyone could run for this seat. Kurt is running on his record as the Trump-endorsed candidate of common sense who knows how to be tough on violent crime, dismantle drug cartels, and deliver historic tax relief. Voters will decide, and Kurt is confident in his work serving Montana and helping President Trump put America First.”
At Montana State University, political science department chair Eric Austin says he expects party tensions will cool and Republicans will rally around their nominee by November.
“I think in part that speaks to the changes in the electorate in the state,” Austin says. “As the state has become more red, people have more strongly affiliated themselves with the Republican Party and less as independents.”
However, Austin says the midterms will be a referendum on President Trump and there’s growing economic anxiety in Montana. Farmers are getting hurt by Trump’s tariffs. His Iran War has sent fertilizer prices soaring, raised interest rates and the cost of gas.
Back in Butte, at the St. Paddy’s Day parade, longtime Democratic activist Evan Barrett says there’s a resurgence in populist resentment in Montana.
Longtime Montana Democratic party activist Evan Barrett at the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Butte, Montana, March 17 2026
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“It’s almost like a repetition of the past,” says Barrett, a one time economic aide to former Governor Brian Schweitzer.
Ducking into an old storefront to take a break from the spectacle of the parade, Barrett told NPR there’s a feeling in the electorate that a lot of outside money is coming into influence politics, but not staying in Montana and being invested into things like schools.
“So this is a really wild and different year,” Barrett says. “Anybody that tells you they know what’s gonna happen, well, be a bit skeptical.”
President Trump has endorsed last minute Senate candidate Kurt Alme but it’s not clear what kind of effect that might have on voters in November.
new video loaded: Savannah Guthrie Says She Believes Her Mother Was Taken for Ransom
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Savannah Guthrie Says She Believes Her Mother Was Taken for Ransom
Savannah Guthrie spoke on the “Today” show in her first interview since her mother, Nancy Guthrie, was abducted from her home near Tuscon, Ariz.
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“The ransom note, notes for ransom requests came. Did you believe those to be real?” “The two notes that we received that we responded to — I tend to believe those are real.” “Really?” “We still don’t know. Honestly, we don’t know anything. We don’t know anything. So I don’t know that it’s because she’s my mom. But yeah, that’s probably — which is too much to bear to think that I brought this to her bedside, that it’s because of me. And I just say, I’m so sorry, Mommy. I’m so sorry. We need answers. We cannot be at peace without knowing. And someone can do the right thing. And it is never too late to do the right thing.”
By Christina Kelso
March 26, 2026
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