(CNN) — National security adviser Mike Waltz is expected to depart from the Trump administration in the coming days, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN, the first major staff shakeup since the president took office in January.
Waltz’s job has been in limbo after it was made clear to him earlier this week that his time leading the National Security Council had come to an end, according to a source familiar with the matter. Alex Wong, the deputy national security adviser, and other national security advisers are also expected to depart, per multiple sources familiar with conversations, though timing is unclear.
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and even Secretary of State Marco Rubio have been floated to replace Waltz on a temporary basis while the president weighs a more permanent replacement, according to a source familiar with the talks.
Special envoy Steve Witkoff, a real estate developer and friend of President Donald Trump, is also under consideration to replace Waltz as national security adviser, one person said, though no decision has been made. But Witkoff has told people close to him he does not want the job, two sources close to Witkoff told CNN, and they do not anticipate he’ll ultimately be selected as Waltz’s replacement. Though, they cautioned, he could still take the position if Trump asked him directly.
Witkoff has led discussions with Russia and Iran as Trump looks for international deals.
“Why would he do that? Be saddled with managing the interagency instead of doing what he is doing now?” said a person familiar with Witkoff’s thinking.
Waltz had been on shaky ground – having lost most of his influence in the West Wing – after he inadvertently added a journalist to a messaging app group chat about highly sensitive military strikes.
Trump had considered firing him after the incident, but declined to do so because he didn’t want to provide his enemies a perceived victory, and he hoped to avoid the type of chaos that colored his first administration.
But while Trump stood by him at the time, Waltz’s standing hadn’t ever really recovered, according to four sources, and he lost clout with top aides inside the West Wing. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has privately been one of the officials most unimpressed with Waltz — even before the Signal fiasco.
At 100 days into his second term, Trump no longer appears as concerned about the appearance of disorder. Multiple people familiar with the matter had increasingly described Waltz’s potential ouster as a matter of “when, not if.” Mark Halperin first reported Waltz being pushed out.
Watlz’s influence internally had been waning for weeks, illustrated best by Trump’s decision to dismiss several staffers from the National Security Council at the urging of far-right activist Laura Loomer, who told him they were disloyal. Loomer told CNN Thursday she had previously tried to raise concerns about Waltz directly with Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office, where Loomer was urging the removal of certain national security officials. She said she planned to show Trump a 2016 campaign ad in which Waltz criticized him, but before she could play the clip on her phone, Waltz entered the room.
Loomer said she had also targeted Wong, citing his past work for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.
Democrats on Capitol Hill largely reacted to the news by saying Trump was firing the wrong national security official — they believed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth deserved the boot more after he discussed bomb targets in Yemen in the Signal chat.
“I think they’re holding the wrong guy accountable,” Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly said, adding that he thought Waltz accidentally including a journalist on Signal was an “unfortunate mistake” but that he found it most troubling that Hegseth shared “incredibly sensitive information about a strike off of an aircraft carrier, putting pilots at risk.”
But Trump’s thinking on Hegseth has sharply differed from how he regarded Waltz after the Signal episode, according to people familiar with the matter. The president was never able to move beyond the question of how Waltz invited Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic into the group chat in the first place, people familiar with the matter say.
While Trump did not think Hegseth exercised good judgment in sharing the Yemen war plan in at least two group chats, according to the people familiar, he believed his Defense secretary should not be dismissed after the administration spent so much political capital to confirm him.
Hegseth also has more far support outside the administration through the Trump-inspired MAGA movement than Waltz, who was viewed with deep suspicion among the base. Plus, unlike Hegseth, replacing Waltz would not involve a Senate confirmation fight.
Wiles has ordered Hegseth and the Pentagon to step up their performance, offering an admonition weeks ago that there is “no room for more mistakes or embarrassments.”
Waltz boarded Marine One with Trump on Tuesday, but when his colleagues boarded Air Force One about 10 minutes later, he instead remained on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews. One White House official said he was never slated to travel with the president to Michigan, but the move was viewed as odd by other aides inside the administration.
Asked about the impact of Waltz’s dismissal, multiple foreign officials — including some from the Middle East — expressed apprehension about who would replace him. Many said the impact would all depend on who follows as national security adviser, and several said his ouster was expected.
“Of all of them, we never thought he would be the first [to be fired],” said a senior western official.
Behind the scenes, some administration officials had begun quietly discussing an off-ramp for Waltz over the last several days. Trump has expressed frustration with him on multiple fronts, including the Signal episode. He was also irritated the Florida congressional race to replace Waltz was closer than expected, two sources familiar with the conversations told CNN.
But on Thursday, one administration official suggested the search for a soft landing spot was no longer a top priority.
“President Trump lost confidence in him a while ago,” this source said.
Manu Raju and Steve Contorno contributed to this report.
The-CNN-Wire
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