Out as NSA, Waltz is new envoy to UN

Washington: US President Donald Trump on Thursday named Mike Waltz, the National Security Advisor, as the new US Ambassador to the United Nations.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will hold dual charge as the interim NSA.

This was the first top level change in President Trump’s second term.

“I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations,” President Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

“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. I know he will do the same in his new role.”

The position of Ambassador to the UN had fallen vacant after the US administration withdrew the nomination of Elise Stefanik, a member of the House of Representatives, because her presence in the Chamber was needed in view of the Republican Party’s precarious, razor-thin majority.

“In the interim,” the President said, “Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as National Security Advisor, while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department.”

There was no word on other changes, but news reports have suggested some of Waltz’s hires at the National Security Council are also leaving, such as his Deputy Alex Wong.

Waltz had been on exit watch for weeks over the sharing of military attack plans on the Houthis of Yemen on a group of Trump administration officials on Signal, a messaging app, which he had set up.

The group included Vice-President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others.

The group also included Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic. He wrote about messages shared in the group, specially specific weapons to be used and the timing by Defence Secretary Hegseth.

“Trump and senior administration officials, including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, had been frustrated with Waltz even before the Signal debacle,” The Wall Street Journal reported on Waltz’s departure.

“Waltz hired aides that his critics said didn’t appeal to Trump’s MAGA base and struggled to relay the President’s national security priorities on television — once seen as the former Florida Congressman’s strength, according to administration officials. He also was sometimes ideologically out of step with Trump, pushing more traditionally hawkish views on Ukraine and Iran, and clashed with other White House officials,” the Journal said, further citing people close to President Donald Trump.

President Trump had publicly defended both Waltz and Hegseth, who has faced even more scrutiny because of another Signal group he has set up that included his wife, brother and lawyer.

Waltz’s departure, although so early in President Trump’s second term, will still be far longer than Mike Flynn, the first of four National Security Advisors in the President’s first term. He had left after only 24 days in office.

Waltz is a former member of the House of Representatives, who served as the Republican Co-Chair of the India Caucus alongside Democrat Ro Khanna and his appointment to the top National Security Council job had been widely celebrated by India watchers.

IANS