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A Reuters photographer captured an image of Michael Waltz’s phone screen during a White House cabinet meeting, a day before he was ousted from his job as national security adviser.
May 2, 2025Updated 1:08 p.m. ET
Michael Waltz got himself in trouble with the White House when, as national security adviser, he inadvertently added a journalist to a sensitive chat on Signal, a commercial messaging app.
Now, as he leaves that job, he has raised a new set of questions about White House use of the encrypted app. A photograph of him looking at his phone on Wednesday during a cabinet meeting makes it clear that he is communicating with his colleagues — including the secretary of state and the director of national intelligence — using a platform originally designed by an Israeli company that collects and stores Signal messages.
This discovery of the new system came when a Reuters photographer, standing just over Mr. Waltz’s left shoulder, snapped a photo of him checking his phone.
He was not using a privacy screen, and when zoomed in, the photo shows a list of messages and calls from several senior officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Steve Witkoff, the special envoy who is negotiating on three fronts: the Israel-Hamas talks, the increasingly tense dance with Vladimir V. Putin about Ukraine and the Iran nuclear talks. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, are also on his chat list.
While the app that Mr. Waltz was seen using on Wednesday looks similar to Signal, it is actually a different platform from a company that advertises it as a way to archive messages for record-keeping purposes. That is critical, because one concern that came up when senior officials were using the app was whether it complied with federal record-keeping rules.
One of Signal’s benefits is that it is both encrypted and can be set to automatically delete messages. But while that is a feature for users seeking secure communications, it is a problem for the National Archives, as it seeks to retain records.
