The US Vice President JD Vance and two top White House officials, in a private meeting, suggested to President Donald Trump that he fire his national security adviser Mike Waltz.
This was reported by Politico, citing two anonymous sources.
According to media reports, in addition to Vance, such advice was given by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and the head of the administrationʼs personnel department Sergio Gore.
The journalistsʼ interlocutors say that Trump agreed that Waltz had made a mistake, but ultimately decided not to fire the adviser for the time being for one reason — not to let the liberal media and Democrats win.
According to sources, some Trump administration officials are simply waiting for the right moment to fire him, seeking to “get out of the news cycle before making changes”.
"Theyʼll hold on to him for now, but in a few weeks heʼll be gone," says one of the interlocutors.
Vanceʼs office declined to comment. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that "Trump continues to have full confidence in his national security team, including National Security Advisor Mike Waltz".
The vice president included Waltz in his delegation on a trip to Greenland the day before. A source familiar with the matter told Politico that Vance appeared to “quickly accept” Trump’s decision regarding Waltz and was “happy to leave personnel decisions” to the American leader.
According to media sources, some White House staff were disappointed that Waltz did not at least offer his resignation to Trump to see if the president wanted it.
Journalists claim that despite the administrationʼs public stance supporting Waltz, behind the scenes it seems that the advisor has lost the trust of his colleagues.
What preceded
The editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine Jeffrey Goldberg said that he was accidentally added to a chat on the Signal messenger, where the American operation against the Houthis was being discussed.
He was added to the chat by an account under the name Mike Waltz, the name of the US Presidentʼs national security adviser. According to Goldberg, the chat contained information about targets, the weapons the US would use, and the sequence of attacks. Shortly after, direct attacks on Yemen took place.
There were only 18 people in this chat, including accounts writing on behalf of the Vice President JD Vance, the Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, the CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Trump advisor Steve Witkoff, and others.
Goldberg then sent emails to a number of officials who were present in the chat, asking if he was genuine and if they knew they had added a journalist to it. Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council, responded, confirming the authenticity of the Signal groupʼs message.
The US President Donald Trump, commenting on the situation, supported Waltz. He will not be fired. He also stated that although the journalist from The Atlantic accidentally got into a private chat about military plans, his presence “in no way affected” the strikes on the Houthis in Yemen.
Waltz took responsibility for the incident, saying that someone else was supposed to be added to the chat instead of the journalist, but the number was mistakenly added to someone elseʼs list. He said they were currently trying to figure out whether it was a mistake or a technical issue. Waltz did not say who exactly was supposed to be added to the chat.
The head of the Pentagon, the directors of the US National Intelligence and CIA, as well as President Donald Trump, denied that military plans and classified information were discussed on the Signal messenger. Therefore, journalists at The Atlantic decided to publish this correspondence.
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