United States President Donald Trump has introduced he plans to reassign Mike Waltz, eradicating him from his present function as his nationwide safety adviser and nominating him as a substitute to be ambassador to the United Nations.
The revelation on Thursday comes after a morning of intense hypothesis that Waltz and his second-in-command, Deputy Nationwide Safety Adviser Alex Wong, had been pushed out of their roles.
“I’m happy to announce that I might be nominating Mike Waltz to be the following United States Ambassador to the United Nations,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Fact Social. “Mike Waltz has labored arduous to place our Nation’s Pursuits first. I do know he’ll do the identical in his new function.”
Trump stated that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would as a substitute step into the function of nationwide safety adviser, whereas persevering with in his function because the nation’s prime diplomat.
“Collectively, we’ll proceed to struggle tirelessly to Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN,” Trump stated.
The president’s message appeared to substantiate the primary main staffing shake-up of his second time period. Earlier within the day, nameless sources had advised main US information shops that Waltz had been compelled out, after his relationship with Trump cooled.
Waltz’s repute has suffered from an incident through which he seems to have added a journalist to a non-public chat on the app Sign the place particulars of US army assaults have been shared.
However Trump has publicly stood by Waltz and refused to mete out punishment for the Sign scandal.
Throughout his first time period, Trump additionally made a behavior of biking by means of nationwide safety advisers. Over his 4 years in workplace, he had 4 totally different nationwide safety advisers, beginning with retired Lieutenant Common Michael Flynn, who lasted solely 4 weeks.
Waltz was a former US Congress member, who represented Florida’s sixth district beginning in 2019. Though he was re-elected to his seat in 2024, he stepped down from his congressional function in January to affix the Trump administration.
Beforehand, he had served within the US military as a Inexperienced Beret, a department of the particular forces.
“Mike has been a powerful champion of my America First International Coverage agenda, and might be an incredible champion of our pursuit of Peace by means of Energy,” Trump wrote on November 12, when he first introduced Waltz as his choose for nationwide safety adviser.
However Waltz’s foreign-policy background has been a supply of scrutiny. Whereas Trump has positioned himself as a “peacemaker and unifier” throughout his second time period, promising to finish world battle, critics level out that Waltz has traditionally taken a extra hawkish stance.
He served as a counterterrorism adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney beneath the administration of former President George W Bush, and he opposed the large-scale withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan with out concessions from the Taliban.
That made Waltz and his employees a goal for some amongst Trump’s “Make America Nice Once more” (MAGA) base. At a White Home assembly in April, far-right social media character Laura Loomer reportedly criticised nationwide safety officers, together with Waltz.
After that assembly, Trump fired six Nationwide Safety Council (NSC) officers, though Waltz and Wong weren’t amongst them.
On Thursday, Loomer appeared to have a good time Waltz’s and Wong’s departures on social media. “Hopefully, the remainder of the individuals who have been set to be fired however got promotions on the NSC beneath Waltz additionally depart,” she wrote.
However Waltz’s standing within the White Home was significantly weakened after the revelation that editor Jeffrey Goldberg from The Atlantic journal was added to a non-public chat through which prime officers mentioned a bombing marketing campaign in Yemen.
In his chronicle of the incident, Goldberg stated he acquired an surprising invitation from a Sign account recognized as Waltz’s. At first, Goldberg questioned whether or not the invitation was actual. However after accepting, he discovered himself within the midst of a dialog with people together with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Rubio.
They gave the impression to be discussing upcoming plans to bomb targets related to the Houthis, a Yemen-based armed group. These particulars, shared by Hegseth, included the exact timings and plane used within the bombing marketing campaign.
Waltz has admitted his function within the scandal, and the White Home has since stated the difficulty was “case closed”.
“I take full duty. I constructed the group,” Waltz advised Fox Information in March. Of Goldberg, he added: “We’ve acquired one of the best technical minds trying into how this occurred. However I can inform you for 100%: I don’t know this man.”
To take up his new function as UN ambassador, Waltz will face a Senate affirmation listening to — a course of he didn’t need to endure as a nationwide safety adviser. His involvement within the “Signalgate” scandal is prone to take a central function in his Senate questioning.
The UN ambassador’s place has been open since Trump yanked the nomination of Consultant Elise Stefanik on March 27, on the premise that her seat in Congress was too beneficial — and too weak — to be put up for grabs within the 2026 midterm elections.
Waltz acknowledged his nomination to the ambassadorship in a one-line social media put up on Thursday.
“I’m deeply honored to proceed my service to President Trump and our nice nation,” he wrote.
