During final Fox appearance before ouster, Mike Waltz congratulated colleague on ‘last day’

Moments before it was first reported that he’d been ousted as national security adviser, Mike Waltz — standing in front of the White House — appeared on Fox & Friends to discuss the administration’s rare minerals deal with Ukraine and other foreign policy issues.

At the same time, it seemed fairly apparent that Waltz had no idea during the interview that he would soon be pushed out of his job, especially as he took time to congratulate another Trump Cabinet member for serving his last day as a member of the Army Reserve.

“And you saw yesterday, congratulations to EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, who just served his last day in the military,” Waltz told Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade at the end of their conversation on Thursday morning.

Zeldin, who transitioned from active duty to the Army Reserve in 2007, eventually achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel as a reservist before retiring this week. Both Waltz and Zeldin sat in on the president’s Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, which featured Zeldin announcing his last day in the service while Waltz heaped praise on the president.

“Mr. President, in the last four years, the world experienced a total lack of zero leadership under Biden, and then we’ve had 100 days of your leadership,” Waltz gushed during Wednesday’s meeting. “With respect, with strength, starting with there’ll be all hell to pay if you don’t let our people go. Dozens, over 40 Americans have come home under your leadership.”

Elsewhere in his last Fox News appearance as a member of the Trump administration, Waltz celebrated the recent mineral deal between the United States and Ukraine, touting it as a key step in achieving peace in the war launched by Russia against Ukraine.

“This deal is good for the American taxpayer in that it is recouping the billions of dollars we’ve put into supporting Ukraine,” he told Kilmeade. “Good for Ukraine and helping it grow, and helping it grow the pie in terms of its development and reconstruction, and good for its security.”

He went on to discuss his role in bringing Russia to the negotiating table while praising the president for trying to “bring both sides together,” while also commending Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff for applying pressure on Russia. Notably, it has now been reported that Witkoff may be in line to succeed Waltz.

“I’m so excited about this,” Waltz told Fox about the military exceeding its recruiting goals. “This is leadership at its finest, led by our commander-in-chief, who loves the troops, and they love him.”

At the end of Waltz’s fateful Fox & Friends chat and following his tip of the hat to Zeldin, Kilmeade applauded the then-national security advisor for his military career.

“You actually signed up for the National Guard after serving in the Green Berets. So, you never stopped. I just think it’s pretty impressive,” the Fox host declared before lauding the administration for giving Silicon Valley more direct access to the Pentagon.

“We’ve got to move faster, and we’ve got to cut through the red tape. They deserve the best,” Waltz reacted. Moments later, according to political journalist Mark Halperin’s reporting, he’d find himself fired by the president.

The departure of Waltz and his deputy Alex Wong comes weeks after the former Republican congressman faced intense scrutiny for putting together a Signal chat that mistakenly included The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg. The chat saw Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth – who has also come under increased fire for his use of unsecured group Signal exchanges – sharing highly sensitive attack plans on Houthi rebel bases in Yemen.

Amid the initial uproar over the Singalgate scandal, Waltz admitted to the White House that Goldberg’s reporting was authentic but never offered to resign, despite administration officials debating whether he should step down. Publicly, at least, the president backed him and described Waltz as a “very good man.”

Additionally, Waltz claimed at the time that he had taken “full responsibility” for the “embarrassing” security gaffe, adding that he’d “learned his lesson” and would not be fired. However, according to CNN, Waltz “never fully recovered” from the scandal, and it was merely a matter of time before he was done in the role.

Sources also told CBS News that “the president thinks sufficient time has passed since the Signal incident that Waltz and Wong's departures can be framed as part of a reorganization,” adding that he didn’t want to fire the pair initially as it “could be seen as bending to outside pressure.”

Meanwhile, the departures of Waltz and Wong come weeks after a half-dozen National Security Council staffers were fired. Those terminations came a day after Trump met with MAGA extremist Laura Loomer, who showed the president her opposition research that she claimed revealed those staffers were insufficiently loyal to Trump and held neoconservative views.

Following the firings of Wong and Waltz, Loomer took to social media to boast about her perceived role in their removal. “SCALP,” she blared on X (formerly Twitter), sharing a previous post of hers about Wong’s previous work for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. She also said she showed the president a video last month of Waltz attacking Trump when he first ran for president in 2015.