Key points
- Trump will nominate Mike Waltz as ambassador to UN
- Mike Waltz would be temporarily replaced by Rubio
- Waltz’s removal had nothing to do with Signalgate: JD Vance
ISLAMABAD: US President Donald Trump has removed Mike Waltz from his post as national security advisor, and will nominate him as ambassador to the United Nations.
BBC reported that Donald Trump thanked Waltz for his work and said he would be temporarily replaced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will continue as America’s top diplomat.
AFP cited Trump as saying, “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.”
But the 51-year-old Florida congressman had been living on borrowed time since the so-called “Signalgate” scandal broke in March.
“Signalgate”
The editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine revealed at the time that Waltz had mistakenly added him to a group chat about US strikes on Yemen’s Huthi on the commercial messaging app Signal, AFP reported.
AFP reported that US Vice President JD Vance nonetheless said that Waltz’s removal and shift to the UN could be seen as a “promotion,” and had nothing to do with Signalgate.
In the end, Waltz lasted just over 100 days of Trump’s second term, which has so far been more stable in terms of personnel than his first.
Democrats will now turn up the heat on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who revealed timings that US warplanes would take off to bomb targets in the same Signal chat, AFP reported.
Hegseth was also reported to have shared those details in a separate Signal group chain that included his wife.
