Waltz would be the first inner-circle official shown the door in Trump’s new term after he embarrassed the White House by accidentally adding a powerful journalist to a group chat about Yemen strikes
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Updated on May 1, 2025 03:03PM EDT
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National security adviser Mike Waltz is expected to be ousted from his White House role, marking the first major departure in Donald Trump‘s inner circle this term, according to several reports.
On Thursday, May 1, multiple outlets including Politico, The New York Times, and CBS News reported that Waltz’s time in the administration will soon come to an end just months after he abandoned his congressional career to join the White House team.
Waltz’s hawkish views on foreign policy have reportedly been too traditional to fit in with the MAGA crew, and the adviser was already on thin ice with the president after making headlines in March for an embarrassing group chat mishap.
Alex Wong, the principal deputy to Waltz, is reportedly also on the chopping block.
The anticipated ousters come more than a month after the fallout from a shocking group chat scandal, in which The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to a Signal messaging group of top Trump advisers and saw them discussing plans to bomb Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Screenshots published by The Atlantic show that — in addition to mocking the United States’ European allies and discussing the rationale of the bombings — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared a “TEAM UPDATE” with the chat, which included time-stamped details and locations about the planned attacks before they happened.
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“There is a clear public interest in disclosing the sort of information that Trump advisers included in nonsecure communications channels,” justified The Atlantic, “especially because senior administration figures are attempting to downplay the significance of the messages that were shared.”
Perhaps just as damning for Waltz was one of the first screenshots from the chat, which showed that he was the one to add Goldberg to the group.
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The former Florida congressman and Army Special Forces veteran did previously take responsibility for Goldberg’s inclusion to the chat, but claimed in a Fox News interview with Laura Ingraham that it was a case of mistaken identity.
Trump Officials Accidentally Add Journalist to Secret Group Chat About U.S. War Plans: Report
“Have you ever had somebody’s contact that shows their name and then you have somebody else’s number there?” Waltz asked the host. “You’ve got somebody else’s number on someone else’s contact, so of course I didn’t see this loser in the group. It looked like someone else.”
“Now, whether he did it deliberately, or it happened in some other technical mean is something we’re trying to figure out,” he continued.
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Waltz positioned himself as the fall guy for the mistake, however, he continued to insist that he didn’t knowingly add The Atlantic editor.
“I don’t know this guy,” he said, referring to Goldberg. “I know him by his horrible reputation and he really is the bottom scum of journalists. I know him in the sense that he hates the president. But I don’t text him, he wasn’t on my phone, and we’re gonna figure out how this happened.”
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At the time of Waltz’s initial confession, Trump stood by him. “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” the president told NBC News on March 25.
But in late March, sources told PEOPLE that Waltz — who has not been well-received in the White House by some MAGA hardliners — was standing on shaky ground.
“Donald has asked people around him what they think about both Pete Hegseth and Mike Waltz and assesses their opinions,” a Mar-a-Lago source said at the time, adding that Trump was eager for the Signal scandal to “go away.”
A political source said that Trump was “worried about the Signal situation” and “wants to be respected and admired by people in power.” The source said that while the president “likes and relates” to Hegseth, he is not as close to Waltz.
“If things get worse concerning either man, Trump will steer himself away from the whole thing in a bigger way than he has now,” a separate Mar-a-Lago source added, claiming that he will “do what he has to do” to move past it.
