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President Trump told NBC News on Saturday that he would not fire anyone involved in a group chat that inadvertently disclosed plans for airstrikes on Yemen to a journalist, and said he \u201ccouldn\u2019t care less\u201d if automakers raise prices in response to the tariffs he plans to impose because it could change buyer behavior.<\/p>\n
In a wide-ranging interview with NBC\u2019s Kristen Welker, the host of \u201cMeet the Press,\u201d Mr. Trump pushed back on reports<\/a> that some in his circle had encouraged him to fire Michael Waltz, the national security adviser who was at the center of the group chat.<\/p>\n Mr. Waltz had seemingly inadvertently added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, to a sensitive group chat<\/a> on Signal, a commercial messaging app, ahead of U.S. strikes against the Iranian-backed Houthi militia<\/a> in Yemen on March 15.<\/p>\n The New York Times reported on Saturday that Mr. Trump<\/a> had spent much of the week consulting with aides about whether he should fire Mr. Waltz amid mounting fallout from the episode.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But Mr. Trump told Ms. Welker that he still had confidence in Mr. Waltz and in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and he continued to downplay the seriousness of the incident. \u201cI don\u2019t fire people because of fake news and because of witch hunts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump also discussed the 25 percent tariff he has promised to impose starting Thursday on imported cars and auto parts, saying that he was not concerned that automakers could raise prices as a result. Experts have insisted the levies will increase prices by thousands of dollars<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t care less,\u201d Mr. Trump said. \u201cI hope they raise their prices, because if they do, people are going to buy American-made cars. We have plenty.\u201d<\/p>\n Nearly half of all vehicles sold in the United States are imported, as are almost 60 percent of the parts used in vehicles that are assembled in the country.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump denied a report<\/a> that he warned auto executives not to raise prices when discussing the tariffs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n