JD Vance dismisses 'Signalgate' controversy as reason for Waltz's departure, says his move to UN is a 'promotion'

Vice President JD Vance said in an interview that former Rep. Mike Waltz remains a man trusted by both him and President Donald Trump, ruling out that his departure from the National Security Council was triggered by "Signalgate."

According to Vance, Waltz's nomination for U.N. ambassador is a "promotion," not a punishment.

Waltz served as national security advisor for four months.

"I think you could make a good argument that it’s a promotion," Vance said in an interview on host Bret Baier's Special Report program. "We brought Mike on to do some serious reforms at the National Security Council. He has done that."

The vice president went on to explain that Waltz can better serve the White House from the United Nations and further argued that the "Signalgate" scandal is a "nothingburger," meaning news with no substance.

"Signalgate" erupted in late March, when Waltz, then national security advisor, created a group on the encrypted Signal app to discuss potential attacks against the Houthis in Yemen. The problem is that Waltz inadvertently added Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, to the conversation.

In the group were several senior government officials, including JD Vance himself and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who shared allegedly sensitive information about military operations the US was about to conduct. When Goldberg released the details after Washington's strikes against the Houthis, Hegseth assured that the data was unclassified, but the fact was already generating multiple criticisms for the informal handling of national security communications, prompting an internal Pentagon investigation. Waltz was the main target of the press.

While both Trump and senior administration officials had denied that Waltz would be relieved of his position, some analysts perceive his resignation and transfer to the UN as punishment for a leak that should never have happened.