The national security adviser has been walking a tightrope even before the disclosure of the group chat.
The national security adviser has been walking a tightrope even before the disclosure of the group chat. The national security adviser has been walking a tightrope even before the disclosure of the group chat.
Michael Waltz, the national security adviser under fire after The Atlantic reported that he included its editor on a Signal group chat where top U.S. officials discussed sensitive military plans, is a former three-term Florida congressman and Fox News fixture.
Before reaching the House, Mr. Waltz served tours in Afghanistan and Africa, rose to the rank of colonel and received four bronze stars, including two for battlefield valor. He worked as a Fox News commentator before becoming the first Green Beret elected to Congress.
But Mr. Waltz, a 51-year-old with a slight Southern drawl, had been walking a tightrope even before the disclosure of the group chat. As a custodian of traditional conservative foreign policy doctrine and a former strong supporter of Ukraine, he has been viewed uneasily by the president’s fiercest loyalists.
Some even wondered if Mr. Waltz might be an early administration casualty, squeezed out like previous national security advisers by opposing, powerful forces: the Washington political class who feared who was too much like Mr. Trump, and the loyalists who suggested he did not go far enough.
By Tuesday, as Mr. Waltz faced calls for his resignation over the revelation that he invited a reporter into a sensitive chat with other top officials, Mr. Trump appeared to throw his national security adviser a lifeline, at least for now.
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson,” Mr. Trump told NBC News. “And he’s a good man. “’
Mr. Waltz, for his part, hasn’t spoken publicly on the leak.