Two people familiar with the matter have confirmed to the Guardian that Donald Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz and his deputy Alex Wong will be leaving their posts.
The confirmation comes weeks after Waltz found himself at the center of a scandal involving his accidental adding of the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg into a secret Signal chat regarding US attack plans in Yemen.
As the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports: “The president briefly considered firing Waltz over the episode, but reportedly decided he was unwilling to give the news media the satisfaction of forcing the ouster of a top cabinet official weeks into his second term.”
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Key events
White House national security adviser Mike Waltz being forced out – report
Trump also shouted out his defense secretary Pete Hegseth, which is perhaps notable following the news that just broke that national security adviser Mike Waltz has been forced out of his job, according to Reuters citing four people briefed on the matter.
One source familiar with the situation at the National Security Council told CBC News the president thinks sufficient time has passed since the Signal debacle that Waltz and Wong’s departures can be framed as part of a reorganization. Trump has been hesitant to oust Waltz – which he considered doing at the time – over the perception that doing so could be seen as bending to outside pressure.
Meanwhile Trump has continued to back Hegseth, whom Democrats and a number of Republicans have called on to be fired for his repeated use of Signal to discuss sensitive military operations in Yemen, including with family and friends.
Trump claims he will ‘save’ Medicaid as Republicans decide how much to slash in budget negotiations
Trump claims he will be “saving Medicaid” and strengthening it.
Trump fears that cuts to Medicaid – under discussion by congressional Republicans as they seek to fund the tax cuts in his aforementioned “big, beautiful bill” – will harm him politically, so just how he plans to “save” it remains to be seen. Politico reported last night that he is reluctant to sign off on such a plan, and Axios reported that he will soon be shown a menu of Medicaid possibilities by top House Republicans, including per capita caps on funding to states that have expanded the program.
Trump says tax bill is ‘right on schedule’
Trump says he just received an updated from congressional leaders on his “big, beautiful bill” and praises House speaker Mike Johnson for doing “an incredible job”.
He says “things are moving along very well” and “the final details are coming together”, adding “we’re right on schedule”.
“We’re bringing back religion in our country and we’re bringing it back quickly and strongly,” Trump says.
Donald Trump is set to speak shortly at the White House as part of a National Day of Prayer event.
It remains to be seen whether he will address reports of Mike Waltz and Alex Wong’s alleged departure from his administration.
Two people familiar with the matter have confirmed to the Guardian that Donald Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz and his deputy Alex Wong will be leaving their posts.
The confirmation comes weeks after Waltz found himself at the center of a scandal involving his accidental adding of the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg into a secret Signal chat regarding US attack plans in Yemen.
As the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports: “The president briefly considered firing Waltz over the episode, but reportedly decided he was unwilling to give the news media the satisfaction of forcing the ouster of a top cabinet official weeks into his second term.”
For the full story, click here:
According to one source speaking to Reuters, one potential option for Mike Waltz’s replacement as national security adviser is Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy.
Trump himself has yet to comment publicly on the reports of Waltz’s alleged departure from the White House.
Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, will be leaving their posts, CBS News reports citing multiple sources familiar with the matter. They are expected to leave on Thursday.
Waltz has been under intense scrutiny over the Signal group chat scandal. Infamously, Waltz put together a Signal chat – and mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg – disclosing sensitive discussions with top national security officials about plans for a military strike on Houthi targets in Yemen. The information shared included the timing of the strikes and the weapons packages used.
Trump repeatedly defended Waltz as well as others involved in the Signal chat, including defense secretary Pete Hegseth whose resignation has been called for by Democrats and a number of Republicans. The president told NBC News in late March: “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man.”
Trump administration sues Michigan to block planned climate change lawsuit
The Trump administration has sued the state of Michigan, seeking to prevent it from suing major oil companies over the role they have played in causing climate change, saying the Democratic-led state was standing in the way of domestic energy production.
Reuters reports the US Department of Justice in a lawsuit filed late Wednesday in Michigan said the state’s intended lawsuit constitutes an “extraordinary extraterritorial reach” that will undermine federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and the administration’s foreign policy objectives.
The state has not filed the lawsuit yet. But Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel, a Democrat, in October said the state was seeking proposals from law firms to represent it in climate change-related litigation. The Trump administration’s unusual preemptive lawsuit follows a pledge during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to “stop the wave of frivolous litigation from environmental extremists”.
Numerous Democratic-led states have in recent years filed similar lawsuits against companies including Exxon Mobil , Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Shell and BP accusing them of deceiving the public about the role fossil fuels have played in causing climate change. The companies deny wrongdoing.
The justice department in the lawsuit cites an executive order Trump signed on his first day back in office on 20 January declaring a national energy emergency to speed permitting of energy projects, rolling back environmental protections, and withdrawing the US from an international pact to fight climate change. The lawsuit said:
As a result of state restrictions and burdens on energy production, the American people are paying more for energy, and the United States is less able to defend itself from hostile foreign actors.
It said Michigan was standing in the way of the administration’s efforts to boost the domestic energy supply with its announcement in October that it was planning to pursue litigation against the fossil fuel industry.
This Nation’s Constitution and laws do not tolerate this interference.
Nessel’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Similar lawsuits by state and local governments have accused energy companies of creating a public nuisance or violating state laws by concealing from the public for decades the fact that burning fossil fuels would lead to climate change. Many remain in their early stages after years of litigation by oil companies over whether the states could sue in state rather than federal court.
The US supreme court in March rejected a bid by 19 Republican-led states, led by Alabama, to block five Democratic-led states from pursuing such lawsuits. The Republican-led states raised similar claims of the justice department’s case.
More than 3,300 scientists sound alarm on cuts to Noaa in open letter to Congress and Trump administration
More than 3,300 scientists and experts have signed an open letter from the Union of Concerned Scientists urging Congress and US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick to halt the ongoing assault on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) and restore staffing and funding for the agency.
Workers and scientists at the Noaa – the nation’s foremost science agency, with a mandate that spans oceans, fisheries, climate, space and weather – have warned of the drastic impacts of cuts on science, research and efforts to protect natural resources. More than 800 probationary employees at the agency were fired, reinstated, then refired last month, and contractors for the agency have been furloughed.
The letter warns that Noaa “has been under an unrelenting barrage of attacks” and has lost more than 20% of its already lean workforce. Further cuts to staff and budget loom as the Trump administration looks to slash the federal budget and cut or eliminate more research centers and programs across the country.
Dr Rachel Cleetus, policy director for the Climate and Energy Program at UCS and a letter signatory, said:
Too many members of Congress are staying compliantly on the sidelines even as the Trump administration takes a wrecking ball to our nation’s foremost science agency. Noaa’s invaluable scientific enterprise has been built up over decades through investments by US taxpayers for the public’s benefit. Local decision makers, communities, meteorologists, first responders, farmers, mariners, and businesses depend on Noaa’s crucial weather and climate data provided free of charge. Congress must do its job: reclaim its constitutional power and limit the worst excesses of this increasingly authoritarian, anti-science and destructive administration.
The letter ends:
A world without Noaa and other leading US science institutions would not only upend decades of invaluable scientific research, but it would also signify an abdication of US leadership in climate science, and an erosion of US status as a scientific powerhouse.
Last week an Noaa veteran told the Guardian the cuts are disrupting the collection of data sets, including recordings of global temperatures in the air and ocean, and that data cannot be replaced. The dismantling of Noaa, they said, would harm work in many areas, from finding solutions to combat harmful algae and improving sustainable fisheries to work on new medicines and industrial products and collecting information for disaster preparation.
Miller is asked about reports that the Trump administration has inquired about Kilmar Ábrego García’s return, and asked whether that’s to “check a box” or because Trump wants him back on US soil.
He says the administration isn’t going to publicly discuss the inside details of foreign policy negotiations.
He adds that Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, is “managing the day-to-day relationship with El Salvador”.
