President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will nominate outgoing national security adviser Mike Waltz to be the U.S. 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. I know he will do the same in his new role,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Trump later added that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would act as “interim” national security adviser.
“I’m deeply honored to continue my service to President Trump and our great nation,” Waltz said on X.
The news comes after a texting scandal, which saw Waltz added a journalist to a highly classified group chat. Screenshots of the Signal chat shared by The Atlantic showed that a user named “Michael Waltz” added Jeffrey Goldberg, to the chat.
Waltz took responsibility for the incident.
“I take full responsibility. I built the — I built the group,” Waltz said. “My job is to make sure everything’s coordinated.”
The former congressman from Florida will now be nominated by Trump for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Trump had initially nominated Rep. Elise Stefanik, (R-N.Y.) for the U.N. ambassador post, but he withdrew her nomination, citing the Republicans thin majority in the House.
Waltz did not appear at a Rose Garden ceremony Thursday morning.
“If the president wanted to fire him over the Signal thing, which, by the way, was a total nothing-burger of a story, he would have just done it, but he actually decided it’s better for Mike to be in this new role,” Vice President J.D. Vance said on Fox News Thursday.
A Reuters photo showed Waltz appearing to be using Signal during Trump’s cabinet meeting just 24 hours earlier.
