Why Trump's White House turned on Mike Waltz

Mike Waltz has been a dead man walking in the White House for the past month, and the outgoing national security adviser started to act like it, Trump administration sources tell Axios.Why it matters: "Signalgate" badly damaged Waltz, but it wasn't his only problem. He got on the wrong side of everyone from conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.After a flood of reports that Waltz was being pushed out, President Trump confirmed the news but announced he was nominating him for a new role outside of Washington: UN ambassador.Behind the scenes: Waltz didn't work as well with other Cabinet and White House officials as was hoped. On a trip to Greenland in March, Vice President Vance counseled him about "working more collaboratively," a senior White House official told Axios at the time.The former congressman and Green Beret also treated Wiles with a dismissive attitude, two officials said."He treated her like staff and didn't realize he's the staff, she's the embodiment of the president," one of them said. "Susie is a deeply loyal person and the disrespect was made all the worse because it was disloyal."Then came Loomer, the pro-Trump conspiracy theorist and social media influencer who has crusaded against what she claims are "disloyal" people and "neocons" who never should have been hired in Trump 2.0.In a meeting with Trump a month ago, Loomer urged him to fire some of the staffers Waltz had appointed, and shared an old video of Waltz criticizing Trump years ago.Friction point: Waltz didn't fire everyone Loomer targeted — including his chief of staff Alex Wong, who is also now on his way out — but he acted like and was a diminished figure in the administration, the sources told Axios."He's like a beaten dog that keeps doing the same trick so he doesn't get beaten again. It's a little sad," the senior White House official said in mid-April."When you stack everything on Waltz, he just couldn't survive. Laura Loomer gets a confirmed kill," an administration adviser familiar with the discussions said.The intrigue: In recent days, Wiles began collecting names to replace Waltz but kept the process and discussions strictly under wraps.For now, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will fill in on an interim basis while keeping his current job.Trump envoy Steve Witkoff has already been floated in some reports as a permanent pick but isn't interested in the job, a source familiar told Axios.Between the lines: Waltz, Wong and many of the National Security Council staffers who already departed were on the more hawkish wing within the administration, and were perceived as neocons within the MAGA camp.On Iran, Vance and Witkoff favor diplomacy, whereas Waltz was much more open to the idea of military strikes.For now, it seems the "restraint" wing has won that argument and is generally in the ascendancy within Trump's national security team. State of play: Waltz did turn up to work on Thursday, even giving Fox News an interview from the White House grounds around 8am. But at 8:35am, the first report that he was about to be pushed out came from Mark Halperin. A flood of similar reports followed.Later that morning, Trump held a public event in the Rose Garden —just steps from Waltz's office — in which most of his top team was present, but Waltz was nowhere to be seen. Trump did not mention him in his remarks.Trump later announced Waltz's new role on Truth Social, saying Waltz had "worked hard to put our Nation's Interests first."This story was updated following Trump's announcement that he was nominating Waltz for the UN role.

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