How did a journalist get added to Waltz’s Signal group?
Laura Blasey
US reporter
Signalgate, the Trump administration’s first so-called scandal did not result from a sophisticated hacking or espionage, but rather a series of mishaps.
Sources told the BBC’s US partner CBS News and the Guardian that National Security Adviser Mike Waltz was trying to add a top spokesman to the Signal chat when he inadvertently added Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg to a sensitive group where top officials were discussing plans to strike Yemen.
Investigators reportedly found that Goldberg’s number had been accidentally saved in Waltz’s phone as an alternative contact for national security spokesman Brian Hughes.
When Waltz went to assemble the Signal group chat in March 2025, Waltz believed he was adding Hughes, the sources said. But it was actually Goldberg’s number added to the conversation.
Waltz told Fox News last month that another, unnamed contact of his was supposed to be in the chat in Goldberg’s place and that “100% I don’t know this guy”.
Goldberg has previously refuted that explanation, and has said the two have met several times.
In the aftermath of the Signal revelations, Waltz took responsibility. “I built the group,” Waltz told Fox News, adding it was “embarrassing”.
Read our full report here: Top US official meant to add spokesman to Houthi Signal chat – reports
Leading Democrats eye Hegseth next for firing
We can bring you comments as more leading Democrats react to Waltz’s reported departure.
“Trump is ousting his National Security Advisor Mike Waltz,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a post on BlueSky.
“Next up? The woefully unqualified Secretary of Defense must resign or be fired immediately.”
Since The Atlantic broke the Signal group chat story, Democrats have been calling for senior officials who were part of the group chat to leave their jobs over the security breach.
“Pete Hegseth shows real leadership by passing the blame to Mike Waltz,” Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said on X following the news of Waltz’s exit.
There has been recent reporting since The Atlantic story that Hegseth also had another Signal chat group that included his wife and brother where he shared information about air strikes against Yemen.
“I think they’re holding the wrong guy accountable,” Arizona Senator Mark Kelly told CNN referring to Hegseth.
‘Mike Waltz has left the chat’
Minnesota governor and former Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz has made light of the national security adviser’s exit.
He posted on X: “Mike Waltz has left the chat.”
The two have history after Waltz during the election campaign accused the governor of exaggerating and lying about his career in the National Guard.
In August, the Harris campaign separately acknowledged that Walz had “misspoke” in 2018 when he said he carried assault weapons “in war”.
The Democratic Party on X also couldn’t resist having a bit of fun, posting an image of a group chat saying “Donald J. Trump removed Michael Waltz” and another image saying “Michael Waltz was ejected”.
Who could replace Mike Waltz?
We still do not have any official confirmation about Waltz leaving his post. But that hasn’t stopped speculations about his replacement in that crucial role.
The job typically goes to individuals with a military, national security, or diplomatic background. But Trump has been known to make unorthodox hiring decisions.
US media reports suggest Steve Witkoff, the real estate developer and Trump ally who is currently a US Special Envoy to the Middle East, as a potential replacement. Though he did not previously have diplomatic experience, Trump appointed him to negotiate a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, and dispatched him to Russia to serve as his personal envoy to Vladimir Putin.
Another name doing the rounds is also one of Trump’s special envoys, Ric Grenell, who has a longer diplomatic track record. In Trump’s first term, he served as US ambassador to Germany and later acting director of national intelligence, a high-profile national security role. This time around, Trump has sent him to negotiate with Venezuela over the return of migrants who came to America, and bringing back US citizens held in the country.
Trump praises other Signal chat members, but no mention of Waltz
US President Donald Trump has been speaking now for several minutes outside the White House.
He’s mostly touched on the “big beautiful bill” which is currently working its way through Congress, as well as boasting about tax breaks he hopes to enact and immigration enforcement conducted by his administration.
After that, he picked out several members of his administration who are sat in front of him, thanking them for their work and highlighting achievements.
Included in this were Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth – both were in the Signal chat.
He said Hegseth is “doing a fantastic job” and when he has a problem he calls up Rubio, who “gets it solved”.
So far, no mention of Mike Waltz and his rumoured exit.
White House appears to have waited for Signalgate dust to settle
Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent
The other shoe finally dropped.
Michael Waltz was always the most likely to pay the price for the Signal chat controversy. It was his account that inadvertently invited journalist Jeffrey Goldberg into the sensitive, high-level Trump administration group chat.
And his job as national security adviser does not require Senate confirmation – so he could be fired and replaced at the will of the president, without accompanying political headaches.
In hindsight, then, it appears the White House was just waiting for some of the dust to settle before he got the boot – and, perhaps, for a clear replacement to come into view.
That man, if media reports are accurate, could be Steve Witkoff, who has served as Trump’s diplomatic jack of all trades, spearheading negotiations in the Middle East, Iran and Russia.
While Witkoff, a lawyer and real estate investor, is not a typical national security candidate, he has the president’s trust – which may be the most important job qualification in this White House.
Waltz lost that confidence, and it ultimately cost him his job.
Trump about to speak at prayer service
US President Donald Trump is going to speak soon, as he attends a prayer event at the White House.
The podium is out and people are taking their seats ahead of the event.
We aren’t sure if he will address the reports about Mike Waltz, but you can watch the event by clicking the watch live button at the top of this page.
We’ll bring you key lines if we get them.
As a reminder, the White House has still not commented on the reports.
Ramifications of Signal chat leak were far-reaching
The inadvertent inclusion of a US journalist in a high-level Signal group chat in March was a huge diplomatic embarrassment for the White House among its European allies, says the BBC’s State Department correspondent Tom Bateman.
The group chat provided close insight into senior officials’ attitude towards Europe as they discussed the merits of launching airstrikes on Houthi rebels. The Iran-backed group has attacked ships in the Red Sea, a key route for Europe.
In the chat, Vice-President JD Vance was seen to tell Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth: “If you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again.”
Hegseth replied: “I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”
Since the chat’s disclosure, Waltz has been relegated from the Trump administration’s frontlines.
As a reminder, Waltz said at the time that he took “full responsibility” for accidentally adding a journalist to the group chat.
Waltz spoke to US media as national security adviser only hours ago
Only a few hours ago, Mike Waltz was speaking to US media in his capacity as national security adviser.
Speaking to the Fox News morning show Fox & Friends, Waltz praised Trump’s administration for modernising the military and getting US troops the right equipment.
“This is exactly what our modern force needs as it moves out of those protracted Middle East wars to deal with the modern warfare that we’re seeing, from space to cyberspace to drones to missiles,” he said.
“All of those in the hands of our war-fighters now.”
What is the Signal messaging app and how secure is it?
Tom Gerken
Technology reporter
As we wait to hear from President Trump this morning, here’s what you need to know if not familiar with Signal app.Signal has estimated 40-70 million monthly users – making it pretty tiny compared to the biggest messaging services, WhatsApp and Messenger, which count their customers in the billions.
Where it does lead the way though is in security.
At the core of that is end-to-end encryption (E2EE).
Simply put, it means only the sender and the receiver can read messages – even Signal itself cannot access them.
Its owners say it collects far less information from its users, and in particular does not store records of usernames, profile pictures, or the groups people are part of.
But even that level of security is considered insufficient for very high level conversations about extremely sensitive national security matters.
That is because there is a largely unavoidable risk to communicating via a mobile phone: it is only as secure as the person who uses it.
All eyes on Trump at a chaotic White House
Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House
Things at the White House are a bit chaotic this morning, where we already had a busy start reporting on the aftermath of the Ukraine-US minerals deal announcement.
Officials, so far, have been quiet on reports of Waltz’s departure, noting – not for the first time – that they do not comment on reports based on anonymous sources.
An announcement of this magnitude, however, will almost certainly come from Trump himself – so we’ll all be watching his upcoming National Day of Prayer event.
He will also be flying to Alabama later today to deliver a commencement speech and may well speak to reporters on-board Air Force One, or on departure or arrival.
For most of us who cover the White House on a day-to-day basis,Waltz’s departure – again, if confirmed – will perhaps be no surprise.
Earlier in the administration, Waltz was a fixture outside the Oval Office, often stopping to chat to us after doing early morning TV hits.
But following “Signalgate” – for which he was largely blamed – he became a much more rare presence.
Waltz lavished praise on Trump at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting
It was just about 24 hours ago when key members of the Trump administration assembled around a long table at the White House to lavish praise on their boss’s accomplishments in the first 100 days.
Vice-President JD Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth were also in the room as each member took turns listing their achievements..
When it was National Security Adviser Mike Waltz’s turn, he told the president that his leadership had been conducted with “respect” and “strength”.
“It’s an honour to serve you in this administration,” he said.
“Thank you very much Michael,” the president replied.
Things appear to have changed since then.
The Signal chat error explained
In late March, Atlantic magazine editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported that he was accidentally added to a Signal chat by a user named Mike Waltz.
In this chat were top-ranking administration officials, accounts identified as being Vice-President JD Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Goldberg says he saw classified military plans for US strikes in Yemen, including weapons packages, targets and timing, two hours before the bombs struck.
Waltz initially said he didn’t know how Goldberg came to be in the chat, but took “full responsibility” in an interview with Fox News, as he said he is the one who “built the group”.
Sources told the BBC’s US partner CBS News and the Guardian that Waltz had been trying to add a top spokesman to the Signal chat when he inadvertently added Goldberg instead.
They said investigators found that Goldberg’s number had been accidentally saved in Waltz’s phone as an alternative contact for national security spokesman Brian Hughes.
President Trump ultimately said he would “look into” the issue.
