Mike Waltz is probably impatient that this week ends. Donald Trump’s national security advisor has been at the center of the case that has shaken Washington since Monday, March 24, revealed by a journalist for The Atlantic. As he reported in an article, Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of this magazine, was mistakenly integrated into a discussion group on the signed encrypted application where the highest officials of the US administration have mentioned military operations against the Houthi rebels of Yemen. He thus had access to the strike plan against the Houthis.
Thursday, March 27, a judge ordered the government of Donald Trump to keep the messages of the conversation in which the lieutenants of the American president speak of future military strikes. Mike Waltz, at the origin of this spectacular security flaw, said “assuming his full responsibility”. “I created this group,” said Fox News advisor.
Michael Waltz has since been on the hot seat. His fate was discussed this week by Donald Trump and his relatives, reports the New York Times. In public, Donald Trump defended his national security advisor, minimized the scope of the case and attacked the media. Tuesday, the day after the revelation by Jeffrey Goldberg of his inclusion in the discussion, the American president said that Mike Waltz was a “good man” who had nothing to blame himself for. But, behind the scenes, Donald Trump asked people, internal and external to the administration, if he were to dismiss him.
“We support our entire national security team”
According to Donald Trump relatives interviewed by the famous American daily, Mike Waltz was able to remain in part because some members of the administration still support him, and because Donald Trump wanted to avoid any comparison with the chaotic management of the staff of his first mandate. This had experienced the highest rotation rate of the main employees of all modern presidential administrations, recalls the New York Times. According to two daily sources, the Republican billionaire clearly said that he did not want to start a cycle of dismissal so early, after a few months in terms of mandate. The tenant of the White House, who regretted having dismissed his first national security advisor, Michael T. Flynn, less than a month after his arrival at the White House, in 2017, estimated that a departure from Mike Waltz or another advisor would feed the speech that he sowed Chaos.
In addition, Donald Trump would not want to give in to any pressure. Friday, from Greenland, the vice-president JD Vance, who accompanied Mike Waltz to try to put pressure so that the United States took control of the Danish autonomous territory, defended the national security advisor and Donald Trump at the same time. “If you plan to force the President of the United States to fire anyone, you are wrong,” said JD Vance, who also participated in the Signal Discussion Group. “President Trump said it on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, on Tuesday, on Thursday, and I am the vice-president who says it here on Friday: we support our whole national security team.”
According to the New York Timesfor Donald Trump, the real problem does not seem to be the carelessness of his national security advisor to discuss military projects on a commercial application, but rather his potential link with Jeffrey Goldberg, a journalist whom the American president does not appreciate. The republican leader expressed his dissatisfaction with the possession of the Mike Waltz number by the magazine’s editor-in-chief The Atlantic.
If the national security advisor should stay at his post, he still seems to be threatened. Even before the leak of military data on signal, Mike Waltz was in a precarious position: he is deemed too fellow by certain advisers of the American president and too quick to advocate a military action against Iran while Donald Trump himself clearly indicated preferred an agreement.