White House national security adviser Mike Waltz is set to depart the administration, marking the first major staff shakeup of President Donald Trump's second term, after being embroiled in a scandal over a chat group leak, sources and reports said on Thursday.
Waltz came under searing scrutiny in March after revelations that he added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to a private text chain on the encrypted messaging app Signal, which was used to discuss planning for a sensitive March 15 military operation against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
A far-right ally of the president, Laura Loomer, has also targeted Waltz, telling Trump in a recent Oval Office conversation that he needs to purge aides who she believes are insufficiently loyal to the "Make America Great Again" agenda.
Waltz's deputy, Alex Wong, is also expected to depart, the Associated Press (AP) said, citing people familiar with the matter. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel move not yet made public. Wong is an Asia expert who was a State Department official focused on North Korea in Trump's first term.
The National Security Council did not respond to a request for comment. A White House official did not confirm the reports, saying they "do not want to get ahead of any announcement."
CBS News also reported the departures, while Fox News said Trump was expected to comment on the matter soon.
Waltz, who served in the House representing Florida for three terms before his elevation to the White House, is the most prominent senior administration official to depart since Trump returned to office.
In his second term, the Republican president had been looking to avoid the tumult of his first four years in office, during which he cycled through four national security advisers, four White House chiefs of staff and two secretaries of state.
The Signal chain also showed that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provided the exact timings of warplane launches and when bombs would drop.
Waltz had previously taken "full responsibility" for building the message chain and administration officials described the episode as a "mistake," but one that caused Americans no harm. The 51-year-old maintained that he was not sure how Goldberg ended up in the messaging chain, and insisted he did not know the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic Magazine.
Trump and the White House – which insisted that no classified information was shared on the text chain – have stood by Waltz publicly throughout the episode. But the embattled national security adviser was also under siege from personalities such as Loomer, who had been complaining to administration officials that she had been excluded from the vetting process for National Security Council aides.
In her view, Waltz relied too much on "neocons" – referring to hawkish neoconservatives within the Republican Party – as well as others who Loomer argued were "not-MAGA-enough" types.
However, the Signal controversy was not the only mark against Waltz.
A person familiar with the Cabinet's internal dynamics said Waltz was too hawkish for the war-averse Trump and was seen as not effectively coordinating foreign policy among a variety of agencies, a key role for the national security adviser.
"The system isn't running properly," under Waltz, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.
Waltz was on television as late as Thursday morning, promoting the administration's agreement with Kyiv that would allow the U.S. to access Ukraine's critical minerals and other natural resources.
"Nobody said (it) could be done. President Trump said 'get it done'," he said.
Saying Trump has boosted U.S. military recruitment, he added: "I'm so excited about this. This is leadership at its finest, led by our commander in chief, who loves the troops and they love him."
As reports began to circulate that Waltz could be leaving the administration, Loomer appeared to take credit in a post on the social media site X, writing: "SCALP."
It was not immediately clear who would take over from Waltz, but one option included U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been involved in both Russia-Ukraine diplomacy as well as the Middle East, Reuters reported, citing sources.
The national security adviser is a powerful role but one that does not require Senate confirmation.
