Washington: US National Security Advisor (NSA) Mike Waltz is leaving, multiple news reports citing unidentified sources said Thursday.
Also leaving with Waltz is his deputy, Alex Wong.
“National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and other staffers are out at the National Security Council,” Fox News reported, citing sources.
Waltz had been on exit watch for weeks over the sharing of military attack plans on the Houthis of Yemen on a group of Trump administration officials on Signal, a messaging app, which he had set up. The group included Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others.
The group also included Jeffrey Goldberg, the Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic. He wrote about messages shared in the group, especially about weapons to be used and the timing of the strike on Houthis by Secretary Hegseth.
There had been no comments on the departures by the White House, so far.
“Trump and senior administration officials, including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, had been frustrated with Waltz even before the Signal debacle,” The Wall Street Journal reported on Waltz’s departure.
“Waltz hired aides that his critics said didn’t appeal to Trump’s MAGA base and struggled to relay the President’s national security priorities on television — once seen as the former Florida Congressman’s strength, according to administration officials. He also was sometimes ideologically out of step with Trump, pushing more traditionally hawkish views on Ukraine and Iran, and clashed with other White House officials,” the Journal said, further citing people close to President Donald Trump.
President Trump had publicly defended both Waltz and Hegseth, who has faced even more scrutiny because of another Signal group he has set up that included his wife, brother and lawyer.
If confirmed, Waltz’s departure, although so early in President Trump’s second term, will still be far longer than Mike Flynn, the first of four National Security Advisors in President Trump’s first term. He had left after only 24 days in office.
Waltz’s exit will mark the first major departure of a senior political appointee in President Trump’s second term. There have been multiple firings of military leaders, including General Timothy Haugh, head of the National Security Agency and the US cyber command. There have been multiple other departures at the Pentagon.
Waltz is a former member of the House of Representatives, who served as the Republican co-chair of the India Caucus alongside Democrat Ro Khanna and his appointment to the top national security council job had been widely celebrated by India watchers.
IANS
