The extraordinary leak of top secret war plans to a journalist accidentally included on a Trump cabinet group chat may lead to the dismissal of Michael Waltz, according to reports.

The national security adviser set up the chat to discuss an imminent strike on Houthi targets in Yemen, but appeared not to realise that he had added Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic magazine editor, into the discussion.

On Monday, Mr Trump said he was not aware of the security breach when questioned by a reporter, saying he was “not a big fan” of The Atlantic and described it as a failing business.

According to Politico, several officials within the administration believe that Mr Waltz should be dismissed for his “recklessness”, with one person close to the White House saying: “Everyone in the White House can agree on one thing: Mike Waltz is a f---ing idiot.”

The decision, they told the news website, will be left to the US president and will likely come within the next few days.

‘He’s never going to survive’

One senior Trump administration official said: “Half of them [are] saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive.

They added: “It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser.”

Another person told the website that Mr Trump had already spoken to Mr Waltz and was sticking by him – for now.

Four top Trump officials also told Axios that they expected Mr Waltz to remain in his post.

A Trump adviser was quoted as saying: “We don’t care what the media says. We can easily handle what would kill any other administration. This will blow over.”

A senior White House official said: “Trump certainly wasn’t pleased with this. But all this talk you see about Waltz not lasting is just way premature.”

The official added: “There’s a Washington feeding frenzy. And we all know that you don’t give the mob what it wants.”

The group chat on Signal, which is an encrypted messaging app, contained precise information about weapons packages, individual targets and the scheduled timings for the March 15 strike on Yemen, in which more than 50 people died.