On Wednesday, before the news of his eviction was broken, the national security advisor now training, Mike Waltz, was photographed at a meeting of the cabinet, looking at what seemed to be the encrypted, signal messaging application.
He was a key player in a signal snufu in the second administration of President Donald Trump, called online and in media coverage as “signalgate”. The editor -in -chief of the Atlantic was inadvertently included in a sensitive defense conversation on military action in Yemen conducted in a group group via the application.
Trump announced the eviction of Waltz Thursday via social media.
Trump plans to appoint Waltz as the next American ambassador to the United Nations, according to a position that the president shared Social truthAdding that Waltz “worked hard to put the interests of our country first” and will continue to do so in its new role.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio will now also be a national security advisor.
Waltz, a former Special Forces of the Army, previously represented the 6th district of the Florida Congress from 2019 to 2025 before becoming Trump National Security Advisor in January.
In a photo of Thursday's firm's meeting, contact with the name of Vice-President JD Vance and parties of a message were visible, as are additional message wires. Although the point of view of content has been clogged, the names of the “Rubio”, “Witkoff” and “Gabbard” family names were visible, potentially referring to the Secretary of State, in the United States special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and the National Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Representatives of Rubio, Witkoff and Gabbard did not immediately respond to requests for comments from Business Insider.
The bottom of the Waltz phone screen displays a message that looks like the typical signal pin check, but instead, the displayed message asks Waltz to check its “SGNL TM pin”. The message “TM SGNL PIN” is displayed on an unofficial – and less secure – signal version created by a company called Telemessage, which manufactures popular messaging applications clones, but allows you to archive messages, 404 media And The Washington Post reported.
A zoomed photo seems to show parts of the communication between Mike Waltz and other officials of the Trump administration on signal. Images Reuters / Evelyn Hockstein TPX of the day
Trump, in an interview with the Atlantic published on Monday, said: “I would frankly say these people not to use the signal.” The editor -in -chief of the point of sale, Jeffrey Goldberg, said last month that he had inadvertently added by Waltz to a group cat on the application.
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The Goldberg Chat signal group says it was added, called “Houthi PC in a small group” contained other officials, including the defense secretary Pete Hegseth, and included the discussion of the details of a We have planned a strike on the Houthis rebels.
Business Insider previously pointed out that a former Pentagon spokesperson described the signal incident involving Goldberg as causing a “complete collapse” to the Pentagon, and “a real problem for the administration”.
However, despite generalized public critics, Waltz and some other administration officials still seem to use the application.
“As we have said on several occasions, Signal is an approved application for government use and is responsible for government phones,” said the assistant press secretary of the White House, Anna Kelly, to Business Insider of the use by Waltz of the application.
A vance spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comments from Business Insider.
Under the administration of President Joe Biden in 2024, the Cybersecurity and infrastructure safety agency (CISA) has published a guide “for all audiences” describing best practices for secure personal communications in the midst of a cybersecurity attack linked to the Chinese government. The CISA guide included the optional signal for safer personal messaging.
However, the advice published by the Ministry of Defense During the Biden administration, explicitly declared that unmanaged messaging applications, including the signal, “are not authorized to access, to transmit, to process non -public information”.
