National security adviser Michael Waltz is reportedly leaving the Trump administration following a bombshell report in The Atlantic that revealed he accidentally added a reporter to a group chat discussing highly sensitive national security matters.
His imminent departure, alongside that of his deputy Alex Wong, comes after he inadvertently invited Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg to join a group thread with senior administration officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance, on encrypted messaging app Signal to discuss upcoming military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. The news was first reported by CBS News and Politico on Thursday.
In the days since, more stories have emerged about security concerns in his department. The week after the Atlantic story dropped, Politico reported that Waltz’s team regularly set up Signal chats to coordinate work on Ukraine, China, Gaza, Middle East policy, Africa and Europe. Politico sourced the news from four people who have been personally added to Waltz’s Signal chats.
The Washington Post also found that Waltz used his personal Gmail account for government communications and that one of his senior aides used it to discuss sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems relating to an ongoing conflict.
And earlier, Wired uncovered a Venmo account apparently belonging to Waltz that was open to the public until the magazine asked his office about it, potentially giving adversaries a way to target people connected to him.
Trump and the White House initially stood by Waltz after the Atlantic story broke.
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” the president told NBC News.
And White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement: “President Trump continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.”
Waltz even suggested that Goldberg may have hacked his way into the Signal chat.
“I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but of all the people out there, somehow this guy who has lied about the president ... he’s the one that somehow gets on somebody’s contact and then gets sucked into this group,” he said on Fox News.
“I don’t text him. He wasn’t on my phone, and we’re going to figure out how this happened,” he continued.
Waltz, a retired Army Special Forces officer and war veteran, has been a close ally of Trump and supported his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The former GOP congressman from Florida won reelection in November but resigned from Congress after he was picked to serve as Trump’s national security adviser. During his time in the House, he served on several committees related to national security.
Waltz also worked for the Pentagon and advised then-Vice President Dick Cheney on counterterrorism in the George W. Bush administration.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.