Mike Waltz, President Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor and a central figure in the SignalGate scandal, is reportedly on his way out—and may have already been removed—according to multiple reports. His deputy, Alex Wong, is also departing, though it remains unclear whether they are resigning or have been dismissed. Additional departures are expected. President Trump reportedly is expected to discuss the situation.
Waltz would be the first top official of the second Trump administration to exit under a cloud.
“Trump is planning to oust national security adviser Mike Waltz,” Politico’s Pentagon and national security reporter Paul McLeary wrote late Thursday morning, stating that he “has lost the confidence of other administration officials, according to three people familiar with the decision.”
“Names for a replacement,” Politico reported, “have been discussed around the West Wing for weeks, but the plans to remove Waltz potentially as soon as this week gained steam in recent days, according to two of the people and another person close to the White House.”
But Fox News‘ Haris Faulkner on-air has reported that Waltz is “out,” and Fox News chief national security reporter Jennifer Griffin added that “it’s been confirmed” that Waltz and Wong “have been pushed out of that position by the President.”
Griffin also reported that “what we have seen, we’ve seen a vacuum created here, surrounding Defense Secretary Hegseth.”
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“So there has been incredible instability at the top of the National Security team for the President,” Griffin said, noting that Fox News’ Jackie Heinrich “is reporting that there could be more shoes to drop.”
Griffin stated that U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat, “believes that that more shoes could drop, is suggesting that there are more firings to come.”
Kaine also talked about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Griffin said, and “had expressed extreme concern about a late night tweet by defense Secretary Hegseth, in which he threatened Iran with potential military action, if they don’t control the Houthies.”
Online, Fox News reported that its sources “said additional staffers removed from the office will likely be announced, and President Donald Trump is expected to speak publicly about the matter.”
“Just yesterday,” CNN’s Kaitlan Collins added, “officials insisted his job was safe. But he’s been fighting for it all week after it was made clear earlier that he couldn’t stay on.”
Semafor reports that its sources “stressed that nothing is final until Trump announces it.”
Waltz had accidentally added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic to an insecure Signal group chat that national security experts say should never have been used to discuss battle plans, and later, specific details of an attack on the Houthis in Yemen.
Calling him “sometimes ideologically out of step with Trump,” The Wall Street Journal suggested that Waltz’s SignalGate scandal was not the only challenge he was facing.
“Trump and senior administration officials, including White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, had been frustrated with Waltz even before the Signal debacle. Waltz hired aides that his critics said didn’t appeal to Trump’s MAGA base and struggled to relay the president’s national security priorities on television—once seen as the former Florida congressman’s strength, according to administration officials.”
And CNN senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem noted, “I suspect this has less to do with Signalgate than it does with Russia. Waltz has diminished for a bit. This was not a surprise.”
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U.S. foreign policy expert Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, also noted Waltz’s exit is “Not surprising,” but for different reasons:
“Trump had something like 6 DHS Sec; 4 SecDefs; 4 DNI; 4 AGs; 2 SecStates; 4 NSAs in Trump 1.0. Loyalty and no screwups are currency of the realm in 2.0.”
Waltz was a Republican U.S. Congressman from Florida who was first elected in 2018, and resigned to work in the Trump administration. He graduated with honors from the Virginia Military Institute and served in the U.S. Army Special Forces during the war in Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, during Trump’s Cabinet meeting, Waltz said, “Mr. President, over the last four years, the world experienced a total lack of zero leadership under Biden, and then we’ve had 100 days of your leadership with respect, with strength, starting with they’ll be all hell to pay if you don’t let our people go.”
And just hours ago, Waltz was praising the Commander-in-Chief and the Defense Secretary on Fox News.
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