Trump's national security adviser claims 'full responsibility' for leaked Europe-bashing Signal chat

US National Security advisor Mike Waltz took full responsibility for the group chat in which top officials in the Trump administration slammed Europe while planning strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

"I take full responsibility. I built the group," Waltz told Fox News on Tuesday, adding he didn't know how the Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who leaked details of the text thread, was added.

"It is embarrassing," Waltz admitted of the bombshell leak critics say has put US national security at risk.

His comments come a day after Goldberg reported that a user named Mike Waltz added him to the Signal chat.

Goldberg, in an article that broke the story, says he saw classified military plans for US strikes in Yemen and detailed conversations between US officials in which they criticised what they said was "European free-loading."

"I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s pathetic,” US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is reported to have said when discussing how unblocking trade routes via strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen would benefit Europe more than the US.

Vice President JD Vance, who questioned the necessity of launching immediate strikes, said: "I just hate bailing Europe out again".

Furthermore, Washington officials discussed potentially finding ways to get Europe to pay for the US protecting key shipping lanes in the Red Sea.

Waltz could not explain how Goldberg was added to the group, telling Fox News that he didn't know the journalist and that another, unnamed contact was supposed to be there instead of Goldberg.

He contradicted US President Donald Trump by saying that a member of his staff was not responsible.

Trump on Tuesday alleged that somebody who worked with Waltz at a lower level