Trump national security advisor Mike Waltz leaves post

National security advisor Mike Waltz is leaving his post in the Trump administration on the heels of controversy over his creation of a Signal messaging app group that was used to discuss U.S. military plans in March.

President Donald Trump confirmed Waltz’s departure in a social media post hours after media outlets reported that the advisor was being ousted.

Trump said he would nominate Waltz as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would serve as interim national security advisor until the post could be filled.

Deputy national security advisor Alex Wong is also expected to leave his job, according to three sources who spoke to NBC News about the two exits on Thursday.

Waltz was conspicuously absent from a Rose Garden event at the White House marking the National Day of Prayer on Thursday. Many other senior Trump administration officials were in attendance.

The Signal group that Waltz created inadvertently included The Atlantic’s editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, who reported details of messages exchanged between high-level Trump administration officials.

The group’s other members were Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

Goldberg reported that the texts ended with Hegseth on March 15 detailing plans that “included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing” of attacks on Houthi forces in Yemen, which were launched within hours of those texts.

Waltz, 51, is the first major official to leave the White House since the beginning of Trump’s second term in January.

Trump earlier this week told The Atlantic that Waltz’s job was secure.

In a discussion with Atlantic reporters, Trump was asked if he believed that Hegseth would remain as Pentagon chief. 

Hegseth has been criticized for his disclosure of the attack plans on the group that included Goldberg, and for his separate use of the app to send some information about the planned strikes on Houthi forces to his wife, his brother, his attorney and some aides.

“Yeah, he’s safe,” Trump said of Hegseth.

Asked if Hegseth would stay in the administration longer than Waltz, Trump replied, “Waltz is fine. I mean, he’s here. He just left this office. He’s fine. He was beat up also.”

The Pentagon’s internal watchdog is investigating Hegseth for his use of Signal to discuss pending military strikes.

The probe by the Office of Inspector General will determine if Hegseth and other Defense Department staff complied with rules over the “use of a commercial messaging application for official business,” the office said last month.

Hegseth and others in the Trump administration have downplayed the controversy, saying no classified information was shared on the Signal chats.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters on Thursday that he believed Waltz should be dismissed from his post.

“Look, they should fire him, but they’re firing the wrong guy,” Schumer said. “They should be firing Hegseth.”

Trump’s first national security advisor, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, resigned under fire in early 2017 after just 24 days for having misled then-Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition.

In late 2017, Flynn agreed to plead guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Kislyak.

Trump pardoned Flynn in late 2020, months before leaving office.

Correction: John Ratcliffe is director of the CIA. An earlier version misstated his name.