National Security Advisor Michael Waltz appears to be the most endangered Trump official after The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief revealed he had been invited to a group chat to discuss an attack on Houthi rebels.
Politico reported late Monday that some White House officials believe that Waltz will need to be pushed out.
It was Waltz who invited The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg to join a group on the encrypted app Signal entitled ‘Houthi PC small group.’
Goldberg – who said he believed he might be getting pranked – was then privy to conversations between Waltz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President J.D. Vance and other top administration officials.
It remains unclear who Waltz intended to invite to the group chat but some Trumpworld insiders didn’t mince words.
‘Everyone in the White House can agree on one thing: Mike Waltz is a f**ing idiot,’ said one Politico source, identified as a ‘person close to the White House.’
A senior administration official told the site that they are involved in a number of text threads about Waltz’s future at the White House.
‘Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive,’ the official said.
National Security Advisor Michael Waltz appears to be the most endangered Trump official after The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief revealed he had been invited to a group chat to discuss an attack on Houthi rebels
Two high-level White House aides floated the idea that Waltz should resign to prevent President Donald Trump from having to be in a ‘bad position.’
‘It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser,’ the official said.
A third source told Politico that Trump has spoken to Waltz about the matter.
Earlier Monday Trump denied knowing about The Atlantic’s report during an event alongside the Louisiana governor.
As of now, Trump is officially sticking by the national security adviser.
‘As President Trump said, the attacks on the Houthis have been highly successful and effective. President Trump continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including national security adviser Mike Waltz,’ press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement earlier Monday.
Politically Trump may have the most cover if he axes Waltz over someone like Hegseth, who the White House fought tooth and nail to get through Senate confirmation.
There is some skepticism of Waltz in the MAGAverse due to him previously working for Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, whose ‘neocon’ views differ from Trump’s ‘America First.’
Politically President Donald Trump (pictured) may have the most cover when it comes to firing National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, as some in the MAGAverse are skeptical of him as he formerly worked for former GOP Vice President Dick Cheney, a so-called ‘neocon’
However a handful of Congressional Democrats have pointed to Hegseth’s alleged sharing of classified information over the text chain as a more fireable offense.
Goldberg decided against sharing one of Hegseth’s message verbatim due to fears it could put U.S. military personnel in danger.
‘What I will say, in order to illustrate the shocking recklessness of this Signal conversation, is that the Hegseth post contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing,’ the journalist instead wrote.
Two of Politico’s sources said that Trump could instead of Waltz blame Hegseth or Vance for the embarrassing episode.
The text chain showcased daylight between Trump and Vance on foreign policy issues.
‘I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with this message on Europe right now,’ Vance wrote, according to The Atlantic’s report. ‘There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.’
Trump has pushed the U.S.’s European NATO allies to pony up more cash – especially to go toward the Ukraine war – and Vance said he viewed an attack on the Houthis as the U.S. ‘bailing Europe out again.’
