Image source, AFP

US President Donald Trump has been speaking now for several minutes outside the White House.

He's mostly touched on the "big beautiful bill" which is currently working its way through Congress, as well as boasting about tax breaks he hopes to enact and immigration enforcement conducted by his administration.

After that, he picked out several members of his administration who are sat in front of him, thanking them for their work and highlighting achievements.

Included in this were Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth - both were in the Signal chat.

He said Hegseth is "doing a fantastic job" and when he has a problem he calls up Rubio, who "gets it solved".

So far, no mention of Mike Waltz and his rumoured exit.

White House appears to have waited for Signalgate dust to settlepublished at 17:16 British Summer Time 1 May

17:16 BST 1 May

Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent

The other shoe finally dropped.

Michael Waltz was always the most likely to pay the price for the Signal chat controversy. It was his account that inadvertently invited journalist Jeffrey Goldberg into the sensitive, high-level Trump administration group chat.

And his job as national security adviser does not require Senate confirmation – so he could be fired and replaced at the will of the president, without accompanying political headaches.

In hindsight, then, it appears the White House was just waiting for some of the dust to settle before he got the boot – and, perhaps, for a clear replacement to come into view.

That man, if media reports are accurate, could be Steve Witkoff, who has served as Trump’s diplomatic jack of all trades, spearheading negotiations in the Middle East, Iran and Russia.

While Witkoff, a lawyer and real estate investor, is not a typical national security candidate, he has the president’s trust – which may be the most important job qualification in this White House.

Waltz lost that confidence, and it ultimately cost him his job.

Image source, Reuters

Other key administration members who were in the Signal group chat organised by Mike Waltz are on sitting on the White House lawn as President Trump speaks at a prayer service.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio turned up minutes ago, smiling and laughing, as they embraced other guests before taking their seat.

Also there are CIA director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, also reported to be in the chat.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Attorney General Pam Bondi Ratcliffe are also at the service.

Image source, Reuters

US President Donald Trump is going to speak soon, as he attends a prayer event at the White House.

The podium is out and people are taking their seats ahead of the event.

We aren't sure if he will address the reports about Mike Waltz, but you can watch the event by clicking the watch live button at the top of this page.

We'll bring you key lines if we get them.

As a reminder, the White House has still not commented on the reports.

The inadvertent inclusion of a US journalist in a high-level Signal group chat in March was a huge diplomatic embarrassment for the White House among its European allies, says the BBC's State Department correspondent Tom Bateman.

The group chat provided close insight into senior officials' attitude towards Europe as they discussed the merits of launching airstrikes on Houthi rebels. The Iran-backed group has attacked ships in the Red Sea, a key route for Europe.

In the chat, Vice-President JD Vance was seen to tell Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth: "If you think we should do it let's go. I just hate bailing Europe out again."

Hegseth replied: "I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It's PATHETIC."

Since the chat's disclosure, Waltz has been relegated from the Trump administration's frontlines.

As a reminder, Waltz said at the time that he took "full responsibility" for accidentally adding a journalist to the group chat.

Image source, Getty Images

Only a few hours ago, Mike Waltz was speaking to US media in his capacity as national security adviser.

Speaking to the Fox News morning show Fox & Friends, Waltz praised Trump's administration for modernising the military and getting US troops the right equipment.

"This is exactly what our modern force needs as it moves out of those protracted Middle East wars to deal with the modern warfare that we're seeing, from space to cyberspace to drones to missiles," he said.

"All of those in the hands of our war-fighters now."

Tom Gerken
Technology reporter

Image source, Getty Images

As we wait to hear from President Trump this morning, here's what you need to know if not familiar with Signal app.Signal has estimated 40-70 million monthly users - making it pretty tiny compared to the biggest messaging services, WhatsApp and Messenger, which count their customers in the billions.

Where it does lead the way though is in security.

At the core of that is end-to-end encryption (E2EE).

Simply put, it means only the sender and the receiver can read messages - even Signal itself cannot access them.

Its owners say it collects far less information from its users, and in particular does not store records of usernames, profile pictures, or the groups people are part of.

But even that level of security is considered insufficient for very high level conversations about extremely sensitive national security matters.

That is because there is a largely unavoidable risk to communicating via a mobile phone: it is only as secure as the person who uses it.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

Things at the White House are a bit chaotic this morning, where we already had a busy start reporting on the aftermath of the Ukraine-US minerals deal announcement.

Officials, so far, have been quiet on reports of Waltz's departure, noting - not for the first time - that they do not comment on reports based on anonymous sources.

An announcement of this magnitude, however, will almost certainly come from Trump himself - so we'll all be watching his upcoming National Day of Prayer event.

He will also be flying to Alabama later today to deliver a commencement speech and may well speak to reporters on-board Air Force One, or on departure or arrival.

For most of us who cover the White House on a day-to-day basis,Waltz's departure - again, if confirmed - will perhaps be no surprise.

Earlier in the administration, Waltz was a fixture outside the Oval Office, often stopping to chat to us after doing early morning TV hits.

But following "Signalgate" - for which he was largely blamed - he became a much more rare presence.

The role of national security adviser is key to the president - they are the principle adviser on national security issues and on US response to foreign threats.

As of now, there's a lot to juggle, including the war in Ukraine, the Israel-Gaza war and Iran's nuclear position.

When appointing Waltz, Donald Trump described him as an "expert on threats posed by China, Russia, Iran and global terrorism".

In his previous term, Trump fired three of the four he chose to serve in that position.

Reacting to the reports about Waltz leaving his post, Democrats in the House Oversight Committee say they will continue to investigate the Administration's "carelessness with national security".

In a post on X, they wrote that Waltz "should've been fired months ago" along with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The committee is is the main investigative committee in the US House of Representatives.

Mike Waltz was seen entering the White House this morning, before reports came out suggesting he is leaving his role as national security adviser.

He waved to the media congregated outside and greeted a security guard before heading inside.

Image source, Reuters

It was just about 24 hours ago when key members of the Trump administration assembled around a long table at the White House to lavish praise on their boss's accomplishments in the first 100 days.

Vice-President JD Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth were also in the room as each member took turns listing their achievements..

When it was National Security Adviser Mike Waltz's turn, he told the president that his leadership had been conducted with "respect" and "strength".

"It's an honour to serve you in this administration," he said.

"Thank you very much Michael," the president replied.

Things appear to have changed since then.

Image source, Reuters

Waltz is the first high profile official to exit Trump's administration which just crossed 100 days yesterday.

His position had become tenuous after it was revealed that he accidentally added a journalist from The Atlantic magazine to a message group where plans for military strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen were discussed.

Waltz said he took '"full responsibility" for the signal leak.

In late March, Atlantic magazine editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported that he was accidentally added to a Signal chat by a user named Mike Waltz.

In this chat were top-ranking administration officials, accounts identified as being Vice-President JD Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Goldberg says he saw classified military plans for US strikes in Yemen, including weapons packages, targets and timing, two hours before the bombs struck.

Waltz initially said he didn’t know how Goldberg came to be in the chat, but took “full responsibility” in an interview with Fox News, as he said he is the one who “built the group”.

Sources told the BBC's US partner CBS News and the Guardian that Waltz had been trying to add a top spokesman to the Signal chat when he inadvertently added Goldberg instead.

They said investigators found that Goldberg's number had been accidentally saved in Waltz's phone as an alternative contact for national security spokesman Brian Hughes.

President Trump ultimately said he would "look into" the issue.

Image source, Reuters

Michael Waltz, who US media reports has just left his post, was Donald Trump's national security adviser. He was among Trump's first appointments after his election.

Before the White House role, he was a congressman from Florida's sixth congressional district from 2019 until he resigned in January to take up the new job with Trump.

In Congress, he served on the Intelligence, Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees.

He was previously an officer in the US Army and National Guard, retiring after 27 years with the rank of colonel.

Democrats have wasted no time in reacting to the reports that Mike Waltz its stepping down from his role as National Security Adviser.

"One less person who will put our troops in harm's way and risk our national security," Congresswoman Julie Johnson writes in a post on X.

Congressman Herb Conway simply writes: "Good start."

And Congressman Eugene Vindman says they are "halfway there", calling for Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to also be let go.

US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz is stepping down from his role according to CBS, the BBC's US news partner, and Reuters.

His deputy, Alex Wong, will also be leaving his post, the reports say.

The White House says it won't comment on anonymous sources.

It comes weeks after Waltz took responsibility for a group chat in which high-ranking officials planned military strikes in Yemen in the company of a journalist who was inadvertently added.

This is the first major administration member to leave during Trump's second term. We'll bring you the latest on this breaking news when we have it.