Ex-CIA director suggests Mike Waltz was punished for lack of 'sycophancy' to Trump
Representative Michael Waltz (R-FL) (REUTERS/Mike Sega)

Former CIA Director John Brennan thinks that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz was ousted from the post because Trump is looking for a fall guy for Pete Hegseth's failures.

He began by noting how badly foreign policy is going for President Donald Trump in his first 100 days.

"The war in Ukraine is still raging. The situation in Gaza is awful. There are tensions between the U.S. and China. We don't know where the status is of the US-Iranian discussions," Brennan said. "And so these are things that would be the responsibility of a national security advisor, again, to oversee and to make sure they're moving forward."

He added, "And I think Trump is looking for a fall guy here. He's not going to get rid of Steve Witkoff, who is actively engaged in these areas. He's not going to get rid of Marco Rubio. And it's easy to replace a security advisor because it's not Senate-confirmed. It's easy to oust them and then put someone in, including a deputy, right away."

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When it comes to Signalgate, Brennan said he's certain that over the last months, the White House has done its own internal investigation to uncover what happened. So, Waltz may have been named in those.

There's also a chance, Brennan said, that Waltz wasn't gushing enough in his praise of Trump.

"And it might be that some of the discussions that Mike Waltz was involved in — that he was not showing appropriate deference or sycophancy to President Trump. And that's something that I think Trump would be very much upset about," said Brennan.

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