Trump fires NSA Waltz as churn continues in his second term

TOI correspondent from Washington: US President Donald Trump is firing his National Security Adviser Michael Waltz and some other senior staffers, several media outlets including Fox News reported on Thursday as the MAGA supremo's quixotic style spilled over into his second term that has just completed 100 days.

Waltz has been on the chopping block ever since he organized a group chat on the commercial messaging app Signal, accidentally including a journalist in a discussion on military operation in Yemen. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was also in on the chat, and he appears to have survived the purge for now, although his job is also on the line for other contretemps.

While Waltz is the first cabinet casualty in Trump's second term, the US President wheeled through six National Security Advisors in his first term, besides four Defense Secretaries and two Secretaries of State, making it tough for counterparts like Ajit Doval, S. Jaishankar, and Rajnath Singh to develop personal equations.

Doval, who has been India's NSA since 2014, has had to engage with counterparts Michael Flynn, HR McMaster, John Bolton, and Robert O'Brien in Trump's first term, besides two acting NSAs. Waltz incidentally lasted longer than Flynn, who was fired after less than a month on the job in 2017. In contrast to Trump, Obama had three NSAs over eight years, and Bush had two.

Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff is being spoken of as Waltz's potential replacement in a White House that increasingly resembles an imperial court. Cabinet members fawn over Trump and he in turn lavishes praise on those who dote on him. "Would it be possible to have a cabinet meeting without the Kim Jong il-style tributes?" Ann Coulter, an influential rightwing commentator remarked snarkily on Wednesday after yet another display of sycophancy more prevalent in monarchies.

While Trump had indicated that Hegseth will stay in his job for now, such is the level of distraction in Washington DC that the Pentagon made no comment or release a read-out of the phone call between the US Defense Secretary and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday. The US DoD did not contest the Indian Defense Ministry's statement that Hegseth said the US stands in solidarity with India and supports India’s right to defend itself in the context of the Pahalgam terrorist attack.