Mike Waltz reportedly on his way out as national security adviser after inviting liberal reporter to sensitive war chat

Mike Waltz won his re-election bid in November to represent Florida's 6th congressional district. The decorated Green Beret decided, however, to give up his seat and corresponding job security to serve as President Donald Trump's national security adviser. He might come to regret that decision sooner rather than later.

Three sources informed journalist Mark Halperin that Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, are expected to step down as early as Thursday afternoon. Multiple sources subsequently confirmed the departures to CBS News and other legacy media outfits. Sources alternatively told Politico that Trump is planning to kick Waltz to the curb, but that the decision is not final.

There has been significant uncertainty about Waltz's future in the administration since March, when he included an anti-Trump polemicist in a private high-level group chat on Signal where senior administration officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance, discussed attacks on Iran-backed Houthi terrorists.

While Waltz insinuated in an interview that Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of the Atlantic, may have infiltrated the group chat by unseemly means or with an insider's help, he ultimately took "full responsibility" for the blunder.

Trump, apparently unwilling to let Democrats and liberal personalities claim a scalp, signaled his continued support for Waltz, telling reporters that "it was very unfair the way they attacked Michael" and that "nobody gives a damn" about the Atlantic.

Despite Trump's supportive messaging on the issue, unnamed White House officials told Politico in the immediate aftermath of the Atlantic's report on the contents of the private Signal chat that there is presently internal debate over whether to kick Waltz to the curb, claiming the general consensus is that "Mike Waltz is a f**king idiot."

'Trump certainly wasn't pleased with this.'

One official who spoke to Politico on the condition of anonymity said some administration staffers are "saying he's never going to survive or shouldn't survive."

"It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can't have recklessness as the national security adviser," said the unnamed official.

A senior White House official told Axios in late March that "Trump certainly wasn't pleased with this," but added "all this talk you see about Waltz not lasting is just way premature. There's a Washington feeding frenzy. And we all know that you don't give the mob what it wants."

One source familiar with the situation told CBS News that Trump thinks enough time has passed since the Signal incident that Waltz and Wong's ousters can be spun as part of a reorganization.

After the removal of Gen. Timothy Haugh as the head of both the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, Trump underscored that where he's concerned, terminations are inevitable and routine: "Always we're letting go of people, people that we don't like or people that we don't think can do the job, or people that may have loyalties to somebody else. You'll always have that."

When asked for comment, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Politico, "We are not going to respond to reporting from anonymous sources."

CNN noted that while Waltz boarded Marine One with the president on Tuesday, he subsequently remained behind while his colleagues boarded Air Force One 10 minutes later — a move some aides figured as possibly significant.

One administration official told CNN that while there have been discussions to find Waltz a "soft landing spot," that recently ceased to be a priority, noting, "President Trump lost confidence in him a while ago."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!