Mike Waltz leaving the White House in a traffic light chat fallout
National security adviser Mike Waltz is set to leave the White House post after a continuing fallout from a signal messaging accident involving the Trump administration’s chief executive.
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WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz is set to leave his White House mail a few weeks after journalists invited him to chat between top national security officials discussing plans for air strikes in Yemen.
Sources familiar with the situation on May 1 confirmed the Waltz exit and Deputy National Security Advisor Alex Wong. Their departure marks the first major staff reforms since Trump returned to the White House in January.
Trump was standing by the Waltz after his national security adviser and other members of the chat vehemently denied sharing of war plans classified by public app signals. The chat was revealed when Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg released a March 24 story detailing how the Waltz accidentally invited him to communicate.
But behind the scenes, the embarrassing accident that even Trump began calling him a “signal gate,” has hit Waltz’s relationship with former Republican lawmaker from Florida.
Although no alternative to the waltz has been named, one possibility could be Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East.
The waltz departure just 102 days after Trump’s second term marks the first high-ranking official to leave since President’s inauguration. But the waltz lasted longer than Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Trump was fired in February 2017 24 days after his first term.
The Waltz move comes after far-right activist Laura Rumer increased her influence on Trump’s decision-making.
“Hopefully the rest of the people who are expected to be fired, but who are given promotions at the NSC under Waltz will also leave,” Rumer said in an X’s post shortly after news about Waltz’s exit was broken.
In a recent podcast hosted by reporter Tara Palmeli, Rumer spoke of his recent oval office visit with Trump, saying he is ready to show past footage from the 2016 Waltz campaign as he criticized comments about American service members.
“I was trying to show you this video of Michael Waltz, so President Trump went into an oval office,” Rumer said.
Hours before his departure, Waltz appeared on Fox News and touted “the best leadership, our best commander led to discussing new military technology investments.”
The three original Trump picks from the top post, who had been a Republican MP in the US home, were gone, and did not carry out it, in the case of Matt Getz, Trump’s first candidate to lead the Justice Department, and Elise Stefanik of his omtamedame selection for the American ambassador to United.
On the day of the first Atlantic report that revealed the Signal Chat, Waltz said he took “full responsibility” for his “embarrassing” blunder. “We’re going to get to that bottom,” he told Laura Ingraham on Fox News.
Waltz accidentally added longtime national security journalist Goldberg to his chat with an encrypted messaging app signal in mid-March.
Group officials discussed military plans to attack Yemen’s Hooty extremist movement, and Hegses sent a message detailing the strike times of US fighter jets and drones, as reported in the bomb article.
Trump defended Waltz at the start of the controversy, saying that it was “a mistake” and that “he hasn’t been fired.” However, the fallout from the incident saw lawmakers on the House and Senate Intelligence Email Committee burn officials in Trump’s Intelligence Email Bureau and share sensitive military information with their wife and brothers following reports of additional signal chats created by Heggs.
Hegseth repeatedly denied the accusations that he shared a classified war plan, so Atlantic detailed screenshots of messages Hegseth sent over the chat, detailing the exact times of planned strikes and how they were delivered.
Waltz was also rebellious for weeks of news of his departure. “There is no place, there is no source or way. There is no war plan,” he posted to X in March.
A former member of the Army Green Beret, Waltz served three terms representing the Sixth Congressional District in northern Florida. He was replaced by Republican Randy Fine, who won the special election in Congress in March.
Waltz was first elected to the house in 2018 and replaced Ron DeSantis after he rose to Governor of Florida. Waltz, an Army National Guard officer, served in the Combat Zone multiple times. He was the Pentagon’s Director of Defence Policy during the George W. Bush administration before being tapped by Vice President Dick Cheney, the Vice President of Terrorism. Waltz retired from the National Guard last fall as a colonel rank.
Dina Boyles Pulver contributed to this report.
(Addition: App notification to this story incorrectly stated the status of national security advisors. It is not a cabinet-level position.))
