US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz is leaving his post with the Trump adminstration, according to media reports.
Waltz, who was the president’s principal adviser on national security issues, has had a difficult tenure amid accusations that senior officials used insecure methods of communication to conduct government business.
Last month, he took responsibility for a group chat on the Signal messaging app in which high-ranking officials planned military strikes in Yemen in the company of a journalist who was inadvertently added.
Waltz’s deputy Alex Nelson Wong has also reportedly been removed from his post in what appears to be a shakeup of the US’ security establishment.
In March, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine Jeffrey Goldberg revealed he had been mistakenly added to a group chat on Signal, in which senior officials – including Waltz, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – discussed confidential information about a planned military strike on Yemen.
Mr Goldberg revealed he was added to the chat by Mike Waltz, who later took responsibility for the fiasco.
At the time, Trump and US intelligence chiefs downplayed the security risks and said no classified material was shared.
President Trump had defended Waltz, saying he was “doing his best” with “equipment and technology that’s not perfect”.
But Democrats and some Republicans had called for an investigation into what several lawmakers described as a major breach.
