Trump Has Sought Outside Opinions on Pete Hegseth amid Signal Scandal, Mar-a-Lago Source Says: 'He's Worried'

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Source: People

Trump Has Sought Outside Opinions on Pete Hegseth amid Signal Scandal, Mar-a-Lago Source Says: 'He's Worried' (Exclusive)

Sources close to the president tell PEOPLE that he's gathered input on how to handle an embarrassing security breach brought by Hegseth and national security adviser Mike Waltz

By Meredith Kile and Linda Marx Published on March 31, 2025 03:59PM EDT

• Trump sources tell PEOPLE that the president has asked around about how he should handle Pete Hegseth and Mike Waltz’s roles in his administration following the humiliating group chat scandal.
• Waltz previously took “responsibility” for mistakenly adding The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, to a private Signal group chat with senior Trump officials about U.S. strikes in Yemen.
• Though Waltz apparently created the chat, Hegseth used it to share updates on the United States' attack plans, including timestamps and locations of multiple strikes on Houthi rebels.

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At the time that Waltz initially took ownership of the mistake, Trump stood by him, telling NBC News on March 25 that "Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man.

However, another PEOPLE source says that — while the president "likes and relates" to Hegseth — he is not as close to Waltz.

“[Trump] is worried about the Signal situation,” the political source notes. “He wants to be respected and admired by people in power.”

A separate social source in Mar-a-Lago is of the opinion that the president will "try and leave things alone, because he won’t admit defeat.”

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Read more: https://people.com/trump-sought-opinions-pete-hegseth-mike-waltz-signal-scandal-exclusive-11706035