Trump downplays Signal leak, backing Waltz and pointing finger at journalist

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday characterized an extraordinary security breach as a minor transgression, insisting that top administration officials had not shared any classified information as they discussed secret military plans in a group chat that included the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine.

- TYLER PAGER and DAVID SANGER

"So this was not classified," Trump said. "Now if it's classified information, it's probably a little bit different, but I always say, you have to learn from every experience."

Trump also stood by his national security adviser, Michael Waltz, who had inadvertently added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat on the Signal app, which included Vice President JD Vance and others. In the chat, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared information on timing, targets and weapons systems to be used in an attack on Houthi militants in Yemen, according to Goldberg.

"I think it was very unfair the way they attacked Michael," the president said of Waltz.