SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
Washington: President Donald Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz, who mistakenly added a high-profile journalist to a sensitive Signal group chat, has become the first top official to lose their job in Trump’s second term.
After widespread media reports on Thursday (Friday AEST) that Waltz had been told his time was up, Trump confirmed he would nominate the former Republican congressman to be the US’s ambassador to the United Nations, a body the president generally holds in contempt.
Mike Waltz was responsible for adding a high-profile journalist to a private Signal group chat in March.Credit: Bloomberg
“From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and as my national security adviser, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our nation’s interests first,” Trump said on TruthSocial. “I know he will do the same in his new role.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio would act in the NSA role in the interim, he added. Waltz’s deputy, Alex Wong, was also reportedly ousted.
Waltz later posted on X: “I’m deeply honoured to continue my service to President Trump and our great nation.”
The president’s national security adviser is a prominent position providing advice on matters of national security. They head the National Security Council, a powerful body whose primary responsibilities include counter-terrorism, border security, cyber-security and international security.
Waltz came from a traditional Republican foreign policy background, with more establishment views on how to engage with America’s adversaries. That put him at odds with the MAGA movement, which generally opposes military intervention and wants to normalise relations with Moscow and strike a nuclear deal with Iran.
Waltz’s central role in the notorious Signal group chat put him on shaky ground with Trump and others in the administration. He created the group that included Vice President J.D. Vance, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and several other prominent officials – but inadvertently added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg.
The group went on to discuss upcoming US military strikes on Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, including debate over whether the operation should proceed. Later, in the hours before the strikes, Hegseth shared operational details that were highly sensitive, if not classified.
After Goldberg published a story about the saga, Waltz was forced to admit he was the person who mistakenly added the journalist to the group.
President Donald Trump in the Rose Garden of the White House on Thursday, Washington time.Credit: AP
He lashed out and called Goldberg a “loser”, asserted the journalist somehow disguised his number on Waltz’s phone and suggested the number had gotten “sucked in” to his phone through another contact.
According to US media reports, Waltz’s dismissal had been canvassed among senior White House officials for weeks. National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes was contacted for comment.
Earlier on Thursday, shortly before his termination became widely reported, Waltz appeared on Fox News from the White House praising Trump for boosting US Army enlistments.
“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,” Waltz said. It was not clear if he was aware he was being sacked.
Waltz becomes the first high-profile official to lose his job in Trump’s second term, though he lasted longer than Trump’s first national security adviser in his first term. Michael Flynn was ousted after just 24 days when it was revealed he misled then vice president Mike Pence over his conversations with Russia’s ambassador.
Trump ultimately went through four national security advisers in his first term, comprising H.R. McMaster, John Bolton and Robert O’Brien.
