Trump’s National Security Advisor and Deputy Being Pushed Out After Signalgate: Reports

Mike Waltz, the national security advisor who accidentally added the editor of The Atlantic to a Signal chat discussing an attack on Yemen, is being pushed out of his position, according to reports from Fox News and CBS News. Waltz’s deputy, Alex Wong, is also being shown the exit. And curiously, far-right influencer Laura Loomer appears to be taking credit for the ouster.

Waltz and Wong “will be leaving their posts,” according to CBS News, though it’s not clear when that might be. If Walz leaves this week, his tenure will be the fifth shortest of any Trump appointee. Trump’s first national security advisor in the president’s first term, Michael Flynn, was ousted after just 24 days after he had reportedly lied about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak.

Back in March, Waltz mistakenly added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to a Signal group chat along with some of the most senior officials in President Donald Trump’s government. The chat included Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, among a host of others. Goldberg saw the group discussing strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen, and Hegseth shared details about the attacks, prompting the magazine editor to remove himself from the chat.

When Goldberg revealed he had been on the chats, Waltz took responsibility for adding the editor but framed it as a technical mistake. Laura Ingraham of Fox News asked Waltz how such a thing could happen, and he gave a confusing response about how contact details are added to phones.

Laura Loomer, an online influencer perhaps best known for reveling in bigotry against Muslims, seemed to take credit for the dismissals with a tweet that reads, “VETTING MATTERS, Don’t ever forget that.” She also tweeted “SCALP” over an older tweet of hers that criticized Wong. Loomer has reportedly presented Trump with “vetting” materials in the past and took credit in early April for getting the director of the NSA and other officials pushed out of their roles.

Loomer seemed to have a particular fixation on Wong, who’s married to an attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice. The influencer has tried to make this sound scandalous, given the fact that she was appointed to her role during the Obama era, but there’s no evidence that this makes Wong politically hostile to President Trump’s agenda.

It’s notable that Waltz is being shown the door before Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who may not have added Goldberg to the Signal group but was the one sharing the most sensitive information on that chat. Oddly, Hegseth was revealed to have been using a second Signal group chat to discuss attacks against the Houthis that included his wife, his brother, and his personal attorney. And Hegseth has tried to go on the offense, acting like the scandal is no big deal and actually just an example of shadowy media forces out to get him. Hegseth is easily the least qualified secretary of defense in U.S. history and appears to have been selected for the role because he was on Fox News.

Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, apparently thinks it’s odd that Hegseth still has his job. Kelly told CNN’s Manu Raju, “I think they’re holding the wrong guy accountable … I think they fired the wrong guy,” according to a tweet from the reporter.

Other Democrats saw humor in the situation. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz tweeted, “Mike Waltz has left the chat.“