Bombshell photos capture ex-NSA Mike Waltz opening Signal-like app during Cabinet meeting with Trump

WASHINGTON, DC: Former national security adviser Mike Waltz was spotted this week doing something that had already landed him in hot water once before—using a controversial messaging app right in the middle of a Cabinet meeting.

A sharp-eyed Reuters photographer snapped a pic of Waltz’s phone, revealing message threads labeled “JD Vance” and “Gabbard” open on what looked like Signal but wasn’t quite.

This time, the app in question appears to be TeleMessage—a lesser-known "fork" of Signal that offers similar encryption but also allows for archiving messages for compliance purposes.

The phone screen even showed a prompt to “verify your TM SGNL PIN,” which lines up with how TeleMessage describes its verification process on its website.

NBC News looked into it and couldn’t find any other apps using that exact terminology.

Just over a month ago, Waltz made headlines for accidentally including Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg in a group chat discussing military operations. That saga was dubbed “Signalgate.”

Donald Trump boots Mike Waltz, gives him a new gig

Despite the backlash, Mike Waltz isn’t exactly being sidelined. On Thursday, May 1, President Donald Trump announced that he was nominating Mike Waltz to be the next US ambassador to the United Nations. 

This came right after Waltz was relieved of his national security adviser duties—a role he clearly wasn’t going to hold onto much longer after the encrypted chat leaks.

The resurfacing of his encrypted messaging use brings the focus back to how Trump’s team communicates, especially when it comes to classified or sensitive intel. Waltz's photo was first flagged by 404 Media.

Even though apps like Signal are considered top-notch by cybersecurity pros, that doesn’t mean government officials get a free pass to use them whenever they want. Feds are supposed to use secure intranet systems that are locked down from the rest of the internet to protect against breaches, especially if a phone gets lost or stolen.

White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly stood by Signal. “As we have said many times, Signal is an approved app for government use and is loaded on government phones," she said in an email to NBC News. 

What is TeleMessage?

The app is a modified version of Signal, or what’s known in developer-speak as a “fork.” It copies much of Signal’s code but adds a few extra features.

One of the major features is archiving. TeleMessage brands itself as a way for companies and governments to meet record-keeping rules by instantly saving chat logs.

The app was originally launched in 1999 in Israel but was later acquired by Smarsh, a company based in Portland, Oregon. 

That acquisition wrapped up last year. TeleMessage still keeps an office in Israel and has contracts with the US government that go back years, way before Trump’s current administration.

One such contract, reviewed by NBC News, involved $2.1 million in funding from the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA for “TELEMESSAGE MOBILE ELECTRONIC MESSAGE ARCHIVING.” It began in February 2023 and runs through this year.

“We merely help our customers adhere to regulations,” Tom Padgett, Smarsh’s president for enterprise business, told NBC.

He also made it clear the app wasn’t designed to fix the kind of security issues brought to light by Signalgate. “It is purely a method and mechanism to capture that communication and store it," Padgett added.

Cyber experts question app used by Donald Trump administration

NBC News asked cybersecurity experts about TeleMessage, but none of them had ever heard of it before the photo of Mike Waltz’s phone surfaced.

Padgett was tight-lipped when asked whether the app in the Reuters photo was, in fact, TeleMessage. “I can neither confirm nor deny. And I know you understand that,” he said.

And while Smarsh handles the archiving tech, it apparently doesn’t store the actual messages for government officials.

Padgett said there are multiple archiving options, including third-party storage or even sending messages to a Gmail address.

Later, a Smarsh rep clarified in an email, “While Smarsh has a thriving archive business, we are not the archive of record for any government agencies, including state, local, and federal entities.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Signal said the company has no agreement with TeleMessage and had never even heard of the app before the Reuters photo surfaced.

“We cannot guarantee the privacy or security properties of unofficial versions of Signal,” the rep warned.

Trump announced that Waltz’s old job wouldn’t stay vacant for long, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be stepping in as national security adviser temporarily, while keeping his current role.