President Donald Trump’s former nationwide safety adviser Mike Waltz was photographed utilizing Sign throughout a Cupboard assembly on Wednesday, simply in the future earlier than the president introduced he was changing Waltz with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
U.S. Nationwide Safety Advisor Mike Waltz checks his cell phone whereas attending a cupboard assembly held by President Donald Trump on the White Home in Washington, April 30, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
Within the picture, taken by a Reuters photographer, the names of individuals Waltz had been texting included Vice President JD Vance, Rubio, Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Center East envoy.
White Home Communications Director Steven Cheung defended Waltz’s use of the app on Thursday afternoon, saying, “Sign is an permitted app that’s loaded onto our authorities telephones. Thanks in your consideration to this matter.”
Waltz got here underneath hearth in March after he inadvertently invited a journalist, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, to a Sign group chat with different nationwide safety officers, reminiscent of Vance and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth, the place they mentioned a U.S. assault on terrorists in Yemen.
Waltz claimed he didn’t understand how Goldberg received on the chat and claimed no delicate info was shared. Trump defended Waltz and disregarded calls to fireside him.
On Thursday, Trump introduced he would nominate Waltz to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, whereas Secretary of State Marco Rubio will function interim nationwide safety adviser whereas preserving his present function as properly.
U.S. Nationwide Safety Advisor Mike Waltz checks his cell phone whereas attending a cupboard assembly held by President Donald Trump on the White Home in Washington, April 30, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
Although Trump publicly backed Waltz, sources informed ABC Information that the president has been more and more pissed off with him after he got here underneath intense scrutiny over the Sign controversy.
Regardless of the administration’s place that Sign is an permitted app, the Pentagon’s inside watchdog criticized a former official’s use of the Sign app in 2021, calling it a breach of the division’s “data retention insurance policies” and an unauthorized technique of speaking delicate info.
Final month, DOD appearing Inspector Basic Steven Stebbins introduced he was beginning an investigation into Hegseth’s use of Sign throughout the Yemen assault. On Thursday a U.S. official confirmed to ABC Information that the IG was trying right into a second Sign chat by which Hegseth shared timing for the assault along with his spouse, brother and legal professional.
The Wall Avenue Journal forst reported on the expanded investigation.
“The target of this analysis is to find out the extent to which the Secretary of Protection and different DoD personnel complied with DoD insurance policies and procedures for the usage of a business messaging utility for official enterprise. Moreover, we’ll assessment compliance with classification and data retention necessities,” he mentioned in a press release.
Republican leaders have blocked Democrats’ efforts to analyze the Sign chat in regards to the Yemen assault in Congress.
