‘Signal is an approved app that is loaded onto our government phones,’ the White House said on X after the photos of Waltz came out.
Mike Waltz to exit White House amid Signal chat fallout
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz is set to leave his White House post following continued fallout from a Signal messaging mishap involving top Trump administration officials.
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Mike Waltz, the soon-to-be departing national security adviser at the center of “Signalgate,” is seen in new photos using the commercial messaging application during a Cabinet meeting held by President Donald Trump.
The former Republican congressman from Florida is expected to leave his White House role, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to USA TODAY’s Joey Garrison on May 1. The decision comes after the fallout from a scandal involving him and other prominent government officials using Signal to converse about highly sensitive details regarding a planned U.S. military strike in Yemen.
Trump confirmed Waltz was leaving his role, but said May 1 in a post on Truth Social that he wants Waltz to continue in his administration as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
The recent photos show Waltz, who had only held his position for just over three months, looking down at his phone while using the application during a Cabinet meeting on April 30.
In response to the photos of Waltz, the White House said in an X post: “Signal is an approved app that is loaded onto our government phones. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
How was Mike Waltz involved in ‘Signalgate’?
The Signal group chat between Waltz and other officials became public knowledge after reporter Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly added to their ongoing conversation. In a March 24 article for The Atlantic, Goldberg wrote that Waltz was the one who added him to the chat.
The conversations had in the chat, which Goldberg was privy to, included information on planned U.S. airstrikes on Iran-backed Houthi sites in Yemen on March 15. The messages were exchanged hours before the airstrikes. One message exchange includes Waltz responding to news of an airstrike with emojis of an American flag, fire and a fist.
Golberg’s reporting, which included him detailing how he could see descriptions of the types of weapons used and the timing of the strikes, led to Democrats calling for discussions surrounding security breaches and the resignations of Waltz and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
When the Atlantic article revealed the Signal chat, Waltz said he took “full responsibility” for the “embarrassing” blunder, adding that he “built the group.”
Trump defended Waltz in immediate aftermath of ‘Signalgate’
Trump publicly defended Waltz after the Signal chat and the discussions involving confidential information were made public. Other members of the chat vigorously denied sharing any classified military plans.
At one point, Trump said on “Greg Kelly Reports” that he believed a “lower-level” employee was to blame for adding Goldberg to the chat, not Waltz.
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” the president said in an interview with NBC News, calling the situation “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.”
Before joining Congress, Waltz served as defense policy director in the Pentagon under Secretaries of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates in the Bush administration. He was also a counterterrorism advisor to former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Contributing: Cybele Mayes-Osterman and Joey Garrison, USA TODAY