There is a lot of speculation about the potential for President Trump to remove National Security Advisor Mike Waltz following the SignalGate fiasco. However, I doubt it will come soon.
Yes, CTH predicted in January that Waltz would be the first to get fired; but that prediction was due to the easily identified conflict between Waltz’s ideological mindset and his responsibility to execute a President Trump national security policy that is seemingly counter to Waltz’s worldview.
President Trump is unlikely to dismiss Waltz until some time has passed and his removal doesn’t look like a win for the media narrative operation. Currently the SignalGate issue is diminishing. However, watch what assignments Waltz is given – that’s where we will likely see a shift in responsibility.
I suspect Mike Waltz will no longer have a critical role in the Ukraine-v-Russia conflict that President Trump is trying to bring to an end. If Waltz has lost effectiveness or the trust of President Trump, his role as National Security Advisor will be visibly lessened. The influence of JD Vance, Marco Rubio and to a smaller extent Steve Witkoff will be more prominent.
Politico outlines some background information they are spinning (as usual). However, even within leftist narrative engineering like Politico, they can sometimes get the arc of a storyline correct while being wrong in the details.
What makes the issue around Waltz more problematic is that President Trump restructured the National Security Council and IC apparatus to give his National Security Advisor greater resources and tools [SEE HERE].
It is somewhat likely the participants on the Signal chat were using that convenient communication system to avoid the all-seeing eye of the IC apparatus.
WASHINGTON DC – The president agreed that Waltz had messed up, according to the people, but Trump ultimately decided not to fire him for one reason — for now: Like hell he’d give the liberal media and pearl-clutching Democrats a win.
“They don’t want to give the press a scalp,” said one of the people, a White House ally close with the team.
Despite simmering anger directed at the national security adviser from inside the White House, Waltz still has his job five days after The Atlantic first published its explosive story on the Signal chat. That doesn’t mean he’s safe yet, according to the two people.
In fact, the two allies have heard some administration officials are just waiting for the right time to let him go, eager to be free of the newscycle before making changes.
[…] What’s more, lucky for Waltz, the fever pitch of the drama appears to have faded. And the top headlines are about to quickly turn from “Signalgate” to Trump’s April 2 tariff deadline. And next week’s special elections are already casting into sharp focus the politically precarious position of the party.
Still, behind the scenes — and despite the White House’s public effort to cast the entire episode as a smear campaign by the media — there’s a sense that Waltz has lost the trust of his colleagues and flubbed his response. (read more)
The Nat Sec Advisor is a very powerful position, if used correctly. The absolute power of the President toward the intelligence community in the executive branch is carried by the Nat Sec Advisor (NSA). The NSA has the ability to reach into every silo and control every element of every decision therein.
The NSA organizes the finding memos which authorize all covert intelligence operations globally and domestically. The NSA can shut down bad things in the IC, cancel black-op operations, and essentially hold omnipotent power within the executive branch over every aspect of the 17 intelligence agencies who operate therein. The NSA can also determine what is, and what is not, a national security matter.
As a former House Intel Committee member, Mike Waltz comes from inside the IC machinery and there is a lot more to be concerned about than there is to be optimistic about.
Waltz has publicly said, engaged with, and acted upon, National Security Information (NSI) products, intelligence information, that is demonstrably false and fraudulent.
Perhaps Waltz has changed his disposition, but I see no immediate indications.
Like many others, heck, almost all others, Mike Waltz believes the IC system is inherently good, just under the control of bad actors. There are volumes of direct and specific evidence that this is not the correct perspective.
The IC system is corrupt by design, the mandates and interpreted policies that formulate the mission statements of the bureaucrats within it are the problem, not just the corrupt officials carrying out the mission.
It is almost impossible to understand the scale of the corruption within the IC from a position inside the silos under the control of the IC, the “six ways to Sunday” group. It is only when you exit those silos and engage with the world that is not under the control of the IC that you fully grasp just how fraudulent the constructs are.
