Newly surfaced photographs from a recent Donald Trump cabinet meeting have raised eyebrows, revealing top White House officials using a modified, less secure version of the Signal messaging app, per a report by the Guardian.
The images, captured by Reuters, show Mike Waltz, the former national security adviser, using the TM SGNL app, which allows message retention and archiving. This development comes on the heels of a national security scandal last month, where Waltz accidentally included a journalist in a sensitive group chat discussing operational plans to bomb Yemen, which were then carried out the same way as described.
The TM SGNL app, created by TeleMessage, clones popular messaging apps with added archiving capabilities. According to 404 Media, this function may compromise the end-to-end encryption that makes Signal a trusted platform for private communications. It's likely that White House officials are using this modified app to comply with the legal requirement to preserve presidential records.
The photographs show Waltz exchanging messages with high-profile contacts, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Steve Witkoff, the president's special envoy to the Middle East. Some of the messages are visible, with one to Rubio reading "there is time" and a message from “Vance” stating, "I have confirmation from my counterpart it's turned off. He is going to be here in …". There's also an indication that Waltz used Signal to call Gabbard and had an 8am meeting scheduled for “PDB”, probably the president's daily brief.
In response to the controversy, a White House spokesperson defended the use of Signal, telling the Washington Post “As we have said many times, Signal is an approved app for government use and is loaded on government phones.” Meanwhile, Trump removed Waltz from his position as national security adviser on Thursday, replacing him with Rubio on an interim basis, and appointed Waltz as the UN ambassador.
