President Trump told NBC News on Saturday that he would not fire anyone involved in the group chat, which mistakenly revealed to journalists about plans for air strikes against Yemen.
In a broad interview with NBC's Kristen Welker, Trump pushed back reports that some of his circles encouraged him to fire his national security adviser, Michael Waltz. Waltz appeared to have accidentally added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of the Atlantic Prime Minister, to a sensitive group chat on Signal, a commercial messaging app that opposes Yemen's Iran-backed Hooty militia on March 15th.
The New York Times reported Saturday that Trump spent most of the week consulting with aides on whether Waltz should be fired amid fallout from the episode.
However, Trump told Welker that he still had confidence in Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegses, continuing to downplay the seriousness of the incident. “I don't fire people because of fake news and witch hunts,” he said.
Trump also discussed Greenland the day after Vice President J.D. Vance visited the US military base on the island. Trump has repeatedly not ruled out the use of force on Greenland, Danish semi-automatic territory, but has indicated that he thought he could instead enter into a contract to take it.
When asked about a message he believed such a acquisition would send to other worlds, including Russia, Trump said, “I'm not really thinking about it. I really don't care.”
And with the Trump administration's new car rates set to take effect in a few days, the president said he “can't really care” whether prices will be raised as a result of an increase in the costs of importing cars and auto parts into the United States. Trump added that he believes tariffs could lead to more people buying American-made cars.
Almost half of all vehicles sold in the US are imported, with almost 60% of the parts used in vehicles assembled domestically are similar.
Trump denied reports that he warned automotive executives not to raise prices when discussing tariffs.
“I couldn't care much,” he said. “If that's the case, people are going to buy American-made cars. We have a lot.”
