During a press conference, President Donald Trump rebuffed CNN’s Kaitlan Collins when she questioned him about the surprising revelation that his security team had allegedly used the app Signal to coordinate a forthcoming military action.

The network’s White House reporter, who has clashed with Trump in the past, tried to question him during a White House meeting with U.S. ambassadors.

‘Excuse me – I didn’t pick you,’ Trump scolded her after she tried to question her, indicating he had called on someone else.

She had been trying to ask Trump about his statement that his national security advisor, Mike Waltz, had ‘learned a lesson’ from the experience.

Trump initially disregarded her inquiry but later revisited the topic during a publicized meeting. There, he expressed several striking opinions about the matter and mentioned that Waltz was ‘doing his best’ in handling the situation.

When prompted further on how his security team came to use the commercial messaging app, Trump admitted, ‘We’ll have to find some other form of device,’ following journalist Jeffrey Goldberg’s surprising report of accidentally becoming part of the ‘war plans’ group chat.

‘It wasn’t classified information. This was not classified,’ Trump said, when pressed on the contents of the conversations.

But he also repeatedly acknowledged that such operations should be discussed in person, in a secure environment, when possible.

He even admitted such unsecure conversations could be penetrated.

‘Sometimes somebody can get onto those things. That’s one of the prices you pay when you’re not sitting in the Situation Room with no phones on, which is always the best,’ Trump said. 

‘People do get into those lines,’ he said. 

Trump even described a recent incident where he kicked off two people from a high-level conversation in the Situation Room out of fears their presence made it less secure.

‘Last week, I was in the Situation Room with something very important, and we had a couple of people hooked up by line, and I said, cancel the line. Sorry, fellas, what you do is, we’ll tell you all about the meeting, because I know people do get on those lines, whether it’s Signal or anything else 

He spoke of the convenience of the app, saying ‘everybody else seems to be using it’ but expressed his preference for conducting such business in a room with ‘solid lead walls and a lead ceiling and a lead floor.’

An investigation is ongoing. Waltz, whose office has been identified with making the error, will be in charge.

‘I’ve asked you to immediately study that and find out,’ Trump told him. 

Trump also repeatedly made two points when pressed on the group chat, attacking the reporter, Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic, and touting the military operation the group had been discussing, the attack on the Houthis.

‘The guy’s a total sleazebag,’ Trump said of Goldberg. 

Although Trump called for giving Waltz a break, he was less forgiving toward political rival Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign amid her email scandal. He said she should be put in jail.

Trump was asked whether the FBI would be investigating, after FBI Director Kash Patel told senators he was just being read into the situation.

‘It’s not really an FBI thing. It’s really something having to do with security, security like: will somebody be able to break it? Are people able to break into conversations? And if that’s true, we’re going to have to find some other form of device. And I think that’s something that we may have to do,’ Trump said – ruling out the need for a probe of any improper disclosure.