Trump Nominates Waltz for Ambassador 05/02 06:26
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is nominating national security
adviser Mike Waltz as United Nations ambassador while Secretary of State Marco
Rubio would take over Waltz's duties on an interim role.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is
nominating national security adviser Mike Waltz as United Nations ambassador
while Secretary of State Marco Rubio would take over Waltz's duties on an
interim role.
He announced the major shake-up of his national security team shortly after
news broke that Waltz and his deputy are leaving the administration. Waltz has
been under scrutiny for weeks after reporting from The Atlantic that he had
mistakenly added the magazine's editor-in-chief to a Signal chat being used to
discuss military plans.
"I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the
next United States Ambassador to the United Nations. From his time in uniform
on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike
Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation's Interests first," Trump wrote on
social media.
"In the interim, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as National
Security Advisor, while continuing his strong leadership at the State
Department. Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to Make America, and
the World, SAFE AGAIN."
There is precedent for the secretary of state to serve simultaneously as
national security adviser. Henry Kissinger held both positions from 1973 to
1975.
It's not clear how long Rubio will hold both jobs.
But he'll be doing double duty at a moment when the Trump administration is
facing no shortage of foreign policy challenges -- the wars in Ukraine and
Gaza, Iran's rapidly advancing nuclear program and an uncertain world economy
in the midst of Trump's global tariff war.
Waltz came under searing criticism in March after revelations that he added
journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to a private text chain on an encrypted messaging
app that was used to discuss planning for a sensitive military operation
against Houthi militants in Yemen.
Vice President JD Vance pushed back on characterizations that Waltz was
ousted.
"The media wants to frame this as a firing. Donald Trump has fired a lot of
people," Vance said in an interview with Bret Baier of Fox News Channel. "He
doesn't give them Senate-confirmed appointments afterwards."
Trump scrapped first UN pick
Trump's decision to move Waltz to the U.N. comes weeks after he pulled his
pick for the job, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, from consideration over
fears about Republicans' tight voting margins in the U.S. House.
"I'm deeply honored to continue my service to President Trump and our great
nation," Waltz said Thursday.
His shift from national security adviser to U.N. ambassador nominee means he
will now have to face a Senate confirmation hearing.
The process, which proved to be difficult for a number of Trump's Cabinet
picks, will give lawmakers, especially Democrats, the first chance to grill
Waltz on his decision to share information about an imminent U.S. airstrike on
Signal.
Sen. Chris Coons, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, signaled that Waltz will face difficult questions.
"I look forward to a thorough confirmation hearing," Coons said on social
media.
Several aides under consideration for Waltz's job
Trump is believed to be weighing several senior aides to eventually take on
the national security adviser role, including special envoys Steve Witkoff and
Richard Grenell, National Security Council senior director for counterterrorism
Sebastian Gorka and senior State Department official Michael Anton, according
to several people familiar with the ongoing deliberations.
Witkoff, a fellow New York City real estate maverick who has known Trump for
years, has played a key role in negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine war and
the Israel-Hamas conflict and has been the administration's chief interlocutor
in the Iran nuclear talks launched last month.
Witkoff has expressed no interest in taking the job, which requires hands-on
management of numerous agencies, but could, if asked by Trump, assume temporary
control of the NSC, according to one U.S. official familiar with the matter.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of
the matter, said Witkoff would prefer to stay in his current special envoy
role, which is relatively independent and not tied to any particular
bureaucracy.
Grenell, in addition to being Trump's envoy for special missions, is serving
as the interim president at the Kennedy Center. He served as ambassador to
Germany during Trump's first administration, was special presidential envoy for
Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations, and did a stint as acting director of
national intelligence. He's also weighing running in next year's California
governor's race.
Waltz had previously taken "full responsibility" for building the Signal
message chain and administration officials described the episode as a "mistake"
but one that caused Americans no harm. Waltz maintained that he was not sure
how Goldberg ended up in the messaging chain, and insisted he did not know the
journalist.
Trump and the White House -- which insisted that no classified information
was shared on the text chain -- publicly stood by Waltz throughout the episode.
But the embattled national security adviser was under siege from personalities
such as Laura Loomer, who has encouraged Trump to purge aides who she believes
are insufficiently loyal to the "Make America Great Again" agenda.
As reports began to circulate that Waltz could be leaving the
administration, Loomer appeared to take credit in a post on the social media
site X, writing: "SCALP."
"Hopefully, the rest of the people who were set to be fired but were given
promotions at the NSC under Waltz also depart," Loomer wrote in another post.
Waltz gets 'soft landing' with UN nomination
Retired Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, an analyst at the Foundation for
Defense of Democracies in Washington, said with the U.N. nomination Trump
presented Waltz with a "soft landing" as he removed him from the powerful
national security advisory post just over 100 days into the administration.
The Signal episode hurt Waltz. But even more damaging were the attacks by
Loomer and his hawkish views on Iran and Russia, which are more in line with
Republican orthodoxy, Montgomery said.
"He hurt himself by having to constantly defend his staff that were under
inappropriate attack," Montgomery said. "I think Waltz tried as hard as he
could to adjust his traditional thinking about foreign policy to the
president's more opportunistic system, but the president is just a hard person
to adjust to."
Hegseth continues to face scrutiny
Questions have also swirled around Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his
role in the Signal chat.
While Waltz set it up, Hegseth posted times for aircraft launches and bomb
drops into the unsecured app and shared the same information with dozens of
people in a second chat, including his wife and brother.
The Associated Press reported that Hegseth also bypassed Pentagon security
protocols to set up an unsecured line for a personal computer in his office ---
beside terminals where he was receiving classified information. That raises the
possibility that sensitive information could have been put at risk of potential
hacking or surveillance.
The Pentagon inspector general is investigating Hegseth's use of Signal, and
he has faced criticism from Democrats and even some Republicans. It has added
to the turmoil at the Pentagon at a time when Hegseth has dismissed or
transferred multiple close advisers. Nonetheless, Trump has maintained public
confidence in Hegseth.
