Mike Waltz to Depart Trump Admin 6 Weeks After Disastrous Signalgate Mishap: Report
AFP
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz is set to leave his post along with his deputy, different outlets reported.
Both Waltz and Alex Wong are expected to leave on Thursday, CBS News detailed, quoting sources familiar with the matter. "Unhappiness with Waltz's performance has been growing at State, Treasury, NEC, West Wing, and elsewhere," said Mark Halperin, who first reported on the development.
BREAKING NEWS: 3 sources say that @michaelgwaltz deputy NSC adviser Alex Wong & others there are on their way out as early as today.
More on "The Morning Meeting" on @2waytvapp LIVE at 9am EThttps://t.co/7Qn5jbWc1G
Unhappiness with Waltz's performance has been growing at… — Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) May 1, 2025
The development comes weeks after Waltz came under heavy scrutiny after inadvertently adding a journalist to a Signal chat where highly sensitive information related to an upcoming attack on Yemen's Houthi rebels was discussed.
The string of events began in October 2024, the Guardian reported in early April. Back then, The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg emailed the Trump campaign about a critical story the publisher planned to run.
The email chain was forward to Trump's then spokesperson Brian Hughes, who sent the email body along with Goldberg's contact information to Waltz in a text message to brief him on the matter.
Waltz's iPhone then allegedly saved Goldberg's number in a "contact suggestion update" for Hughes, who is now the national security council's director of communication.
At the time, the top security official did not realize his now spokesperson's contact information had been updated with Goldberg's number until he went to add Hughes to the "Houthi PC small group" Signal group chat last month while the group discussed the U.S. attack on Yemen.
President Donald Trump has defended Waltz throughout the backlash over the security risks and for discussing sensitive information over Signal. It is not yet clear if Waltz is leaving his post as a result of the incident.
Wong, on his end, made headlines in April after MAGA firebrand and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer had a meeting with Trump in the Oval Office and pressed him to fire specific staffers, who she labeled as "neocons," a term used to refer to people who hold hawkish foreign policy views associated with the Bush administration.
Alex Wong was among them, with Loomer suggesting that he was the one who added Jeffrey Goldberg, claiming that it was done "on purpose as part of a foreign opp to embarrass the Trump administration on behalf of China."
Trump fired to top officials right after: Gen. Timothy Haugh, the director of the NSA and who also leads the U.S. Cyber Command, and Haugh's deputy, Wendy Noble.
Originally published on Latin Times
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