Trump’s National Security Adviser Waltz to Be Nominated as UN Ambassador

It came after reports suggested that Waltz would be leaving the administration.

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz arrives to speak at the US Capitol on April 30, 2025. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, was nominated to be President Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, the president announced Thursday.

Trump wrote on Truth Social that Waltz would be nominated as his next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, coming after Reuters and other media outlets, citing anonymous administration officials, reported that Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, will be leaving on Thursday.

“I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations,” Trump said. “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.”

In the meantime, Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be his interim national security adviser in Waltz’s stead. Rubio will also continue “his strong leadership” in the State Department, according to his post.

In response, Waltz wrote on X that he is “deeply honored to continue my service to President Trump and our great nation,” responding to Trump’s announcement.

Waltz came under fire in March after he was involved in a Signal chat that mistakenly included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. Goldberg subsequently claimed that officials in the chat made comments about U.S. airstrikes in Yemen. Goldberg said that he was accidentally added to the group.

“I take full responsibility. I built the group,” Waltz told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in late March, describing the incident as “embarrassing.”

Later in the interview, Waltz appeared unable to say why Goldberg was added to the chat group. “I can tell you for 100 percent I don’t know this guy,” Waltz said in response to Goldberg being added to the chat.

In response to a question about how Goldberg was added into the Signal group, he said that “if you have somebody else’s contact, then somehow it ... gets sucked in. It gets sucked in.”

In an interview with NBC on March 25, Trump said he was confident in his adviser and said Waltz “has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man.”

Weeks later, Trump told media outlets that several National Security Council staffers were leaving the administration following the reports on the Signal chat.

“Always, we’re going to let go of people we don’t like, or people we don’t think can do the job, or people who may have loyalties to somebody else,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on April 3, referring to the reports.

The Trump administration has said that no classified information was shared on the Signal chat, which included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance.

“I think it’s all a witch hunt,” Trump said in late March.

Hegseth and other administration officials have said that no “war plans” were shared, disputing allegations made by Goldberg on the nature of the chat messages.

Hegseth, writing on X, said the Signal message chain included, “No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information.”

Before his tenure in the Trump administration, Waltz served as a Republican Florida congressman for three terms. An adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney, Waltz became the first U.S. Army Special Forces soldier to be elected to Congress.