Vice President JD Vance rejected claims that national security adviser Mike Waltz was ousted from his post due to a March controversy involving leaked national security information.
“He wasn’t let go,” Vance told Fox News’s Brett Baier in an interview that aired on May 1. “He is being made ambassador to the United Nations, which, of course, is a Senate-confirmed position. I think you can make a good argument that it’s a promotion.”
“I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States 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 in a post on Truth Social.
The president said in the same post that until a new adviser could be chosen, Secretary of State Marco Rubio would serve as national security adviser while continuing to run the State Department.
“Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump said.
Some media outlets framed the move as a quiet termination of Waltz stemming from his role in a March controversy in which Jonah Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic, was added to a Signal chat where military activity in Yemen was discussed. The White House has repeatedly stated that no classified information was shared in the chat.
“Look, I think the media wants to frame this as a firing,” Vance said. “Donald Trump has fired a lot of people. He doesn’t give them Senate-confirmed appointments afterwards. What he thinks is that Mike Waltz is going to better serve the administration, most importantly, the American people, in that role.”
Vance said that the change in Waltz’s role came because Waltz had fulfilled Trump’s hopes for the nominee: making reforms at the National Security Council and countering the influence of those who aren’t loyal to Trump.
“The president, in his first term, had some serious issues with the National Security Council,” Vance said.
Vance said that Trump’s primary directive to Waltz in the role was “go in here [and] fire ... a lot of people who aren’t loyal to my agenda, who we think aren’t even loyal to the American people, bring in the right collection of people to actually make the National Security Council function.
“Mike has done that, and now it’s time for Mike to do something else, because he’s done the job that I think he was asked to do,” Vance said.
Vance also dismissed rumors that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth would also be asked to step down.
“Pete Hegseth is safe,” Vance said in response to a question from Baier on whether other changes were coming in the national security sphere.
“I think the thing that is most under-appreciated about Pete Hegseth ... is we came in with the military with a serious morale problem, recruitment and retention goals, and most of the major services were way off. Pete has brought a certain esprit de corps. I think the leadership style has inspired a lot of people to join the military. We’re now exceeding our recruitment goals. So yes, we’ve got total faith in Pete.”
