National Security Adviser Mike Waltz is exiting his role in President Donald Trump‘s cabinet, CBS and Politico reported Thursday.
Waltz, 51, is the first cabinet member to leave his position in Trump’s second term.
The former congressman from Florida faced significant backlash from Trump allies and supporters after he mistakenly added The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal group chat discussing an attack on Yemen in March. He staved off initial calls to resign, but faced more pressure after a report revealed his Venmo contact list was filled with journalists and MAGA rivals.
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Also leaving his role is Waltz’s deputy, Alex Wong, CBS reported.
Politico reported Waltz had “lost the confidence of other administration officials.” It added that the White House has been searching for a replacement “for weeks,” but the plans to remove Waltz on Thursday only “gained steam in recent days.”
Waltz got the boot despite an epic suck-up in a cabinet meeting on Wednesday in which he praised the “strength” of Trump’s leadership.
“Mr. President, the last four years the world experienced a total lack of leadership under Biden,” Waltz said. “We’ve had 100 days of your leadership, with respect, with strength, starting with ‘there’ll be all hell to pay if you don’t let our people go.’ Dozens, over 40 Americans, have come home under your leadership, far fewer terrorists are no longer threatening the homeland under your leadership.
“Mr. President,” Walz gushed, “everything from revitalizing shipyards to cyber to space, that takes this entire team working together. It’s an honor to serve you in this administration. And I think the world is far better, far safer for it.”
Trump thanked Waltz for his praise but said little else. The president also did not comment on Waltz writing a Trump-praising column in The National Interest with the headline “100 Days of National Security Wins.”
The New York Post reported that Waltz was at the White House on Thursday morning and “gave no indication that his job was in jeopardy,” suggesting he may have been blindsided by Thursday’s news reports.
Waltz was comfortably re-elected to his Florida district in November but gave up the gig to join Trump’s cabinet. It is too late for him to return to this Congress as he has already been replaced by the Republican Rep. Randy Fine, who won a hotly contested special election a month ago.
Politico reports there is no clear choice to replace Waltz. It noted, as of Thursday morning, that a “leading pick” for the role was Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who spent the early months of the second Trump term handling peace negotiations with Russia, Iran, and Hamas. Witkoff, 68, has also faced pressure from the right in recent weeks as talks between Ukraine and Russia are making little progress.
The White House did not immediately address rumors about Waltz, but Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt did not deny reports about his ouster. She told Politico, “We are not going to respond to reporting from anonymous sources.”
Many, especially Democrats and die-hard Trump supporters who viewed Waltz as a liability, like Laura Loomer, celebrated Waltz’s departure or mocked him.
“Waltz lasts 9.2 Scaramuccis,” Trump’s shortest-lived White House adviser, Anthony Scaramucci, joked on X.
Scaramucci made it just 11 days before Trump fired him during his first term. His short tenure has since been used as a measure of how long aides last in Trump’s administration.
“Mike Waltz has left the chat,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz joked succinctly.
