National Security Adviser Mike Waltz was the first Cabinet casualty of President Donald Trump's chaotic first 100 days in office. But if we've learned anything from conservative politics' cadre of traitors, criminals and sixth-place finishers in positions of influence and power, it's that no one goes away forever.
Waltz's new job came at something near the speed of monarchy. Trump simultaneously announced that Waltz would serve as ambassador to the United Nations and that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would take on Waltz's advisory role.
"I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations," Trump wrote 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."
Rubio is the first person to hold both roles simultaneously since Henry Kissinger molded Nixon's foreign policy into his own ghoulish image.
Waltz's ouster was somewhat expected after he shouldered the blame for adding The Atlantic's editor-in-chief to a sensitive group chat about attack plans in Yemen. Goldberg embarrassed senior members of the Trump administration, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance, with a story on his inclusion in the digital confab. That scandal has garnered headlines for weeks as Hegseth has pushed back against the characterization of the embarrassing leak in the media.
The cornered head of the Pentagon has responded to the scrutiny of Signalgate with a series of purges, firing senior advisers and top aides over fear of leaks.
