US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz will check his phone while attending a cabinet meeting held by US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC on April 30, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein |Reuters
Former White House national security adviser Mike Waltz appears to be communicating with other Trump officials about the signal after President Donald Trump was disappointed using a messaging app in the wake of a leaked controversy called “Signalgate.”
Photos taken by Reuters’ Evelyn Hockstein at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting show Waltz making a call under the table.
It also shows Waltz has active conversations with at least six other users, including those identified as “JD Vance.”
The names of other users in the photo are partially obscure at the hands of the Waltz, but they appear to be the Director of National Intelligence, Secretary Marco Rubio, Tulsi Gabbard and Steve Witkov, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East and his de facto Russian Ukraine negotiator.
The timestamps displayed in the thread indicate that they were as active as Wednesday Tuesday or morning, the cabinet meeting day.
US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz will check his phone while attending a cabinet meeting held by US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC on April 30, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein |Reuters
When asked to comment, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told CNBC, “As we’ve said many times, Signal is an approved app for government use and is installed on government phones.”
But it was the use of signals by top Trump administration officials earlier this year to discuss the pending military strike that sparked one of the biggest controversies ever in Trump’s second term.
In mid-March, Waltz was part of a thread by Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegses, who discussed upcoming airstrikes on targets of Hooty in Yemen.
Waltz accidentally added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of the Atlantic Prime Minister, to the thread.
Goldberg reported that the app was used to discuss sensitive military intelligence and sparked a call from Democrats to resign.
Trump publicly defended the Waltz, and his administration tried to justify their actions by arguing that none of the information discussed about the threat was classified.
The Atlantic responded by publishing the entire text thread, urging retired military personnel to question how the information is deemed unclassified.
The Pentagon’s internal watchdog has launched an investigation of Hegseth’s investigation into what is called a “commercial messaging application for official business.”
In an interview with the Atlantic, published two days before Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, Trump was asked if he had learned policy lessons from the Signalgate scandal.
“I think we learned: Maybe don’t use signals, okay?” Trump said.
“If you want to know the truth. I candidly tell these people not to use signals, but that’s used by a lot of people,” he said in an interview last Thursday. “But no matter what it is, anyone who has it, anyone who owns it, I don’t want to use it.”
Trump said he was not using the signal himself.
The Reuters photo drew attention on social media Thursday afternoon hours after Trump announced plans to nominate the Waltz as U.S. ambassador for the United Nations.
The announcement immediately reported that Waltz will soon leave his role as national security adviser, marking the first big staffing of Trump’s second term.
Rubio will serve as interim national security adviser until the post is met, Trump said in True Society.
“It’s an honor to continue serving President Trump and our great nation,” Waltz wrote in X later Thursday.
