SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
By Michael Koziol
Washington: US 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.
The heat has now shifted on to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who shared details about an imminent military operation in the Signal group and in a second chat that included family members.
Now-ousted White House national security adviser Mike Waltz, left, and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.Credit: AP
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.
“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 Truth Social. “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. They also head the National Security Council (NSC), a powerful body whose primary responsibilities include counter-terrorism, border security, cybersecurity 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 Hegseth, Vice President J.D. Vance 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 mistakenly added the journalist to the group.
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. NSC spokesman Brian Hughes was contacted for comment.
The development piles pressure on the embattled Hegseth, who was embroiled in a second scandal when it emerged he had shared similar sensitive Yemen attack plans in another private Signal group chat – this one including his wife, brother and personal lawyer. The Pentagon inspector general is investigating his use of Signal.
The Associated Press has also reported that Hegseth bypassed Pentagon security protocols to set up an unsecured line for a personal computer in his office – beside terminals where he was receiving classified information – raising the possibility that sensitive defence information could have been put at risk of potential hacking or surveillance.
Hegseth was immediately targeted by Democrats following Waltz’s departure.
Senator Mark Kelly, a veteran who sits on the Armed Services Committee, said Hegseth should have been sacked instead. “I think they fired the wrong guy.”
US Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer posted on X: “Now do Hegseth.”
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, with H.R. McMaster, John Bolton and Robert O’Brien following Flynn.
Waltz will now face Senate confirmation hearings for the UN role. “I think it would be pretty brutal,” Democrat senator Mark Warner told NBC.
Bolton told the BBC: “Signal-gate will now be a major part of Mike Waltz’s confirmation process.”
Waltz survived an NSC purge in early April, when six people were fired after Trump met with far-right activist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who reportedly excoriated officials she deemed to be disloyal.
Laura Loomer arriving in Philadelphia with Trump ahead of a presidential debate in September.Credit: AP
It was not immediately clear whether Loomer, a social media personality, influenced the decision to remove Waltz. She has been an informal adviser to the president and travelled with him on several occasions during Trump’s election campaign.
“Hopefully, the rest of the people who were set to be fired but were given promotions at the NSC under Waltz also depart,” she posted on X after the news broke.
She also posted regarding Wong’s ousting with the word “SCALP”.
