The US President Donald Trumpʼs national security adviser Mike Waltz, along with his deputy Alex Wong, will soon resign.
CBS News reports this, citing sources.
They are expected to resign as early as May 1. The White House has not officially commented on this.
The reason for the resignation is unknown. But in March 2025, The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said that he had been accidentally added to a chat on the Signal messenger, where the American operation against the Houthis was being discussed. And this was done by an account named Mike Waltz.
According to Goldberg, the chat included information about targets, the weapons the US would use, and the sequence of attacks. Shortly after, direct attacks on Yemen took place.
Waltz later took responsibility for the incident, saying that he had meant to add another person to the chat instead of the journalist, but the number had mistakenly been added to someone elseʼs list. Trump considered firing Waltz for the “Signal” chat leak, but he did not want to appease his critics and publicly said that he was a "good guy who pleaded guilty". However, sources close to Trump said that this was a temporary solution, and Waltz would still leave.
Mike Waltz.
Alex Wong served as deputy special representative for North Korea in the first Trump administration and as deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs at the State Department. Trump said Wong helped arrange a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2019.
Fox News claims that Waltz and Wong have already been fired. Meanwhile, Politico writes that Trump has long planned to fire Waltz, who has lost “the trust of other administration officials”. According to the publication, the names of those who can replace him have been discussed for several weeks. The main contender for the position of Trump’s national security adviser is Steve Witkoff, a negotiator with Russia and Iran.
What preceded
The Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, the directors of the US National Intelligence and CIA, and President Donald Trump have denied that military plans and classified information were discussed on the “Signal” messenger. Thatʼs why The Atlantic journalists decided to publish this correspondence.
Later, after this incident, the NYT newspaper wrote that Hegseth created a chat room Defense | Team Huddle, in which, among other things, he shared the flight schedule of F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen. This chat room allegedly included Hegseth’s wife, his brother Phil, his personal lawyer and dozens of other people from the personal and professional environment of the minister. The Pentagon denied this information. The department’s spokesman Sean Parnell accused the recently dismissed US Defense Department officials of wanting to “damage the Secretary of Defense and the President’s agenda”.
WP wrote that Hegseth also installed Signal on his work computer. This allowed him to use the messenger in a special room where the phone and other personal devices are not allowed. This way, the Pentagon chief was able to easily communicate with government officials and his family. The NYT specifies that there are two computers in his office, one for personal use and the other for government use, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.
The scandal coincided with internal conflicts at the Pentagon. Last week, Hegseth fired three senior advisers — Dan Caldwell, Colin Carroll and Darin Selnik — and accused them of leaking information. In response, they said they were victims of defamation, although they had previously worked with him for a long time. Joe Kasper is also leaving his post — Hegseth confirmed this in an interview with Fox News.
Hegseth accuses the media and his former colleagues of trying to thwart his initiatives. The US president supports the Pentagon chief and says he is “doing a great job”, but some defense officials believe changes are needed. Admiral William McRaven urged Hegseth to be responsible and listen more to professionals.
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