It took just over 100 days, but President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the first major staffing shake-up of his second term, announcing that he will nominate his national security adviser, Mike Waltz, as U.N. ambassador and have Secretary of State Marco Rubio replace Waltz on an interim basis while continuing as the country’s top diplomat. Waltz, a former combat veteran and member of Congress, had reportedly been on the outs since he accidentally added the editor of The Atlantic to a group chat about military operations against the Houthis in Yemen.
“His departure from the White House may also signal the Trump administration’s growing wariness of Republicans that belong to the party’s neoconservative wing favoring military interventionism,” The Washington Post noted. “In recent weeks, Trump purged National Security Council staff aides who reported to Waltz and whom the president deemed out of step with his priorities.”
The Post also noted that Waltz’s tenure in the job was shorter than anyone else except for Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser in 2017, who lasted less than a month.
The Senate will need to confirm Waltz to his new role.