Trump offers details on leaks and negotiations with Russia and Ukraine in an interview

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, commented Tuesday during an interview with Newsmax that he was "very comfortable" with how the scandal of war leaks produced in a Signal chat between officials of his administration, in which the editor of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was mistakenly included. During the interview on the Greg Kelly Reports program, Trump commented that the resolution and explanation of the whole scandal turned out to be satisfactory. "I can only base it on what I was told; I was not involved. I feel very comfortable," the president added.

Likewise, the president added that while he supports secure phone lines as a method of meeting, there are also other in-person options to avoid any kind of risk. "Well, I like hard lines, but the best way is to be in the situation room, or some other room, where you're all together, where you don't have — any time you have a line, whether it's air or whether it's hard, there's always a risk that people are listening," explained Trump, who also criticized both Goldberg and The Atlantic, whom he called "a loser" and a "a big loser."

"There was no classified information."

At another point in the interview, after Kelly asked him for his opinion on the fact that the liaison to the media outlet's editor had come from the national security adviser's own team, Mike Waltz, Trump explained that the matter was not that serious given that all the information that ended up being shared in the chat was unclassified. "And what it was, we believe, is somebody that was on the line with permission; somebody that was with Mike Waltz — worked for Mike Waltz at a lower level — had, I guess, Goldberg's number or called through the app, and somehow this guy ended up on the call. Now, it wasn't classified, as I understand it. There was no classified information. There was no problem," the Republican leader commented.

Peace negotiations with Ukraine and Russia

Asked about negotiations with the governments of Ukraine and Russia to end the war, Trump explained that it was quite possible that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was buying time on a peace deal. "I don't know. I mean, I'll let you know at a certain point. But I think that Russia wants to see an end to it, but it could be they're dragging their feet. I've done it over the years, you know; I don't want to sign a contract, I want to sort of stay in the game, but maybe I don't want to do it, quite … I'm not sure. But no, I think Russia would like to see it end, and I think [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy would like to see it end at this point."