Mike Waltz to be fired as Trump’s national security adviser after Houthis attack plan leak? ‘It was reckless’

The future of Mike Waltz, national security adviser in Donald Trump's Cabinet, is under scanner after a US strike plan against Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels were shared with a journalist of The Atlantic.

Jeffrey Goldberg was added to a Signal group where top officials of the Trump Cabinet – including JD Vance, John Ratcliffe – discussed the plan to attack Houthis in Yemen a day before the strikes, exposing war plans to the journalist in a major security breach.

It is likely that his future as national security adviser might be decided by President Donald Trump in a day or two after the security breach.

Some have suggested that Mike Waltz should resign after the US attack plan leak through Signal to avoid Donald Trump being put in a bad position.

“Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive. It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser,” an official was quoted as saying by Politico.

The Yemen attack plan leak

Jeffrey Goldberg was added to a Signal group which apparently discussed a strike on the Houthis in Yemen. A few days later, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told the group in a message that strikes would be launched against the Huthis in the coming hours.

After the message exchange, the group's members congratulated each other using emojis.

As the story by Jeffrey Goldberg went viral, Hegseth remained defiant and said, “No one sent any war plans, and that's all I have to say about it” as he called the journalist a “highly discredited so-called journalist” who peddles hoaxes.

Donald Trump's first reaction

In his first reaction on the accidental war plan leak before strikes on Houthis in Yemen, Donald Trump said that the attack was very effective but mostly, he chose to not answer anything about the sensitive information breach.

Speaking to reporters from the White House, Donald Trump said, “I do not know anything about it. I am not a big fan of The Atlantic. To me, it's a magazine that is going out of business and I don't know anything about it.”

“It couldn't have been very effective as the attack [on Houthis] was very effective. You are telling me about it for the first time; I do not know anything about it,” Donald Trump said.

(With agency inputs)