The day before President Trump removed him from his job as a national security adviser, Michael Waltz checked his phone at a White House cabinet meeting – perhaps forgetting that there was a camera in the room.
A Reuters photographer caught the moment on Wednesday, and Mr. Walz saw from the side other officials sitting around the table. Zoom in, the photo clearly shows what is on his phone screen: a list of conversations about a modified version of the messaging application signal.
The content on the screen shows that Mr. Waltz has been talking to several senior Trump administration officials: Vice President JD Vance; Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard; Steve Witkoff, Special Envoy of the Middle East; Secretary of State Marco Rubio was announced as the interim replacement for Mr. Waltz on Thursday. Some clips of the message are visible.
Mr. Walz appears to be using a modified version of the signal sold by Telemessage, which retains a copy of the message to comply with government rules for keeping records, as first reported by 404 Media. The screen shows his request asking him to verify his “TM SGNL PIN”. Time stamps show that communications are as close as the morning of the cabinet meeting.
“The signal is an approved app that has been loaded on our government phones,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a post on X. Smarsh, a Portland company that owns Telemessage, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nevertheless, this moment raises more questions about senior security officials handling potentially sensitive information. Mr. Walz has been under scrutiny since March’s revelation, and he accidentally included a journalist while setting up a group chat on the signal to discuss the details of Yemen’s military operations.
Democrats at the time called on the resignation of Defense Secretary Mr. Walz and Pete Hegseth, citing discussions on sensitive defense messages outside the security government channels.
Aides said President Trump did not want to be fired at the time Mr. Waltz succumbed to the news media. On Thursday, the president removed Mr. Walz from office and nominated him as ambassador of the United Nations.
Mr. Trump dissuaded his employees from using signals that encrypted messages but did not receive sensitive government communications. “I think we’ve learned: maybe not using signals, okay?” he said in an interview with Atlantic last month. “I’m frankly telling these people not to use signals, even though many people use signals.”
Earlier, he downplayed concerns about signal leaks and dismissed concerns about the app’s shared attack plan, which was a “waste of time.”
