In the first major Cabinet shakeup of his second term, President Donald Trump has removed Mike Waltz from his post as national security advisor.
The president is nominating Waltz for ambassador to the United Nations and appointing Secretary of State Marco Rubio as interim national security advisor until he finds someone to fill the position permanently. The presidential Cabinet member to hold both positions was Henry Kissinger during the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations. (It would be to the benefit of all Americans if those are the only similarities Rubio and Kissinger share.)
Waltz was among the trigger-happy Cabinet members who favored a military attack on Iran over continued attempts at a diplomatic solution to the nuclear dilemma, according to the April 16 New York Times article “Trump Waved Off Israeli Strike After Divisions Emerged in His Administration.”
Signalgate
Waltz was also at the center of “Signalgate,” a pseudo scandal that erupted March 24 and many believe put him on thin ice with his boss. He was in charge of organizing the Signal group chat about U.S. military strikes on the Houthis in Yemen. The conversation included senior Trump administration officials Vice President J.D. Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, Defense Department official Tom Fitton, and others. It also included an unwanted eavesdropper, The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.
Waltz took responsibility. He said he unintentionally added Goldberg to the chat and attributed the mistake to a technical error. Goldberg, as expected, published news stories about the ordeal, down to a full transcript of the conversation among Trump’s Cabinet members. The mainstream media, also as expected, made much of the embarrassing ordeal. They incessantly blasted headlines about it and implied that it proved the administration was incompetent. The media also suggested the scandal threatened national security. “It’s the kind of security breach — and screw-up — that even Hollywood producers wouldn’t dare conjure,” read the lede to a March 25 USA Today story. “Classified material laws and why experts say Signal chat raises concerns,” screeched a March 25 Washington Post headline. The Guardian went so far as to suggest the faux pas made the United States vulnerable to that all-pervasive boogeyman. “Bulletin sent on 18 March said Russian hackers could access messages as Trump officials now downplay blunder,” the left-wing British outlet declared.
The Atlantic, among the most dedicated of media organs in the tank for the Deep State, said the chat revealed war plans. But Waltz and others in the administration said this was not the case. It did not include information on locations, sources, and methods, they said. “NO WAR PLANS,” Waltz said in a March 26 tweet.
The Loomer Connection
According to CBC News, Trump will also remove Waltz’s deputy, Alex Wong, from his White House post. Right-wing influencer Laura Loomer claimed Wong was at the center of Signalgate and celebrated his ousting. Loomer has claimed that, despite Waltz taking responsibility, Wong carried out the legwork setting up the chat. Loomer’s April 2 visit to the White House sparked mass hysteria among mainstream-media outlets. She urged the president to get rid of staffers who, according to her, were not loyal to the MAGA agenda.
Shortly after Signalgate broke, Loomer published an X post about why Trump should fire Wong. Wong is married to U.S. Attorney Candice Chiu Wong, a Chinese woman who was one of the key attorneys involved in prosecuting J6ers. Making matter worse, Lommer added:
Alex Wong worked for Covington & Burling, which is one of the law firms that President Trump recently stripped of its security clearance and terminated all of their government contracts via Executive Order on February 25th, 2025. Trump accused Covington & Burling of being involved in the weaponization of government. Why do we have a CHINESE Deputy National Security advisor who is married to a CHINESE US ATTORNEY who worked under Obama and Biden, and who helped prosecute J6ers after the stolen 2020 election?
Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon said the reason the Trump administration used Signal instead of official government channels to prevent leaks by Deep Staters.
Unpopular Pick
Waltz is a former Army Green Beret who served two terms as a Florida representative before joining the Trump administration. He was among Trump’s most unpopular Cabinet picks. He voted to reauthorize warrantless spying on Americans via FISA, to dole out piles of cash to Ukraine in its inevitable loss to Russia, and against pulling U.S. troops out of Syria. During his time in Congress, Waltz accrued a dismal 67 percent cumulative score in TNA’s Freedom Index.
According to independent journalist Glenn Greenwald, Waltz is a war hawk “fully aligned with the worst prongs of bipartisan DC consensus.” The Times noted that some of Trump’s advisors viewed him in a similar fashion. “Most of Mr. Trump’s advisers had already viewed him as too hawkish to work for a president who campaigned as a skeptic of American intervention and eager to reach a nuclear deal with Iran and normalize relations with Russia.”
Perhaps he’ll be of less consequence as the ambassador to the United Nations, where counselor for Economic and Social Affairs (ECOSOC) at the U.S. Mission to the UN Edward Heartney recently denounced Agenda 2030.
Trump put a happy spin on Waltz’s removal. He said:
I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations. From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation’s Interests first. I know he will do the same in his new role. In the interim, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as National Security Advisor, while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department.
Waltz responded on X, “I’m deeply honored to continue my service to President Trump and our great nation.”
