REPORT: Trump cleans house at NSC

When the Signal chat fiasco took place, I advocated for heads on a platter, and it now appears I am getting them.

Reports are breaking that Trump has cleaned house at the National Security Council after the departure of Mike Waltz, who has since been nominated to serve as the United States ambassador to the UN.

Signalgate

Just a few months into his appointment as Trump’s National Security Adviser, former Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) added a reporter to a chat thread on Signal to inform everyone of an attack against Houthis.

Among those added was a reporter for The Atlantic.

When the threat was first exposed, it was made to sound like an aide added the reporter, but it wound up being Waltz who added him. Waltz then denied he had ever met the journalist, but then pictures surfaced of Waltz at an event with the reporter right next to him. In other words, Waltz got caught lying twice.

In my opinion, Waltz should have been fired, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth should have been disciplined for even having a discussion of that nature on a chat app rather than on a secure device.

Give him a promotion

For years, Trump and his loyalists raged about how Joe Biden never held anyone accountable, but here he was, giving Waltz a free pass on what I believe was a major security breach.

Trump did finally remove Waltz, naming Secretary Rubio as the acting NSA until someone else could be appointed, giving Rubio double duty.

Waltz, however, was not dismissed completely, with Trump immediately naming Waltz as his new appointment to replace Rep. Stefanik (R-NY) as the UN ambassador.

When Trump was asked about the removal, Trump insisted he was happy with Waltz, and that this was actually a promotion, not a punishment.

Cleaning house

Reports are now breaking that there was some fallout at the National Security Council (NSC), as numerous people have reportedly been given their walking papers after Rubio took over.

When Trump was asked about the terminations, he took a very no-nonsense approach to the question.

He responded, “We’re always going to let go of people – people we don’t like or people that take advantage of or people that may have loyalties to someone else.”

I agree with that, and love the fact he is removing people not loyal to the administration, especially in this particular area, where everyone has to be on the same page. At the same time, I still think his loyalty to Waltz is a bit much when you consider what could have happened had that conversation gotten out in real time.