Vance: Waltz UN ambassador nomination a ‘promotion’ – Washington Examiner
In a recent statement, Vice President JD Vance defended the nomination of former national security adviser Mike Waltz as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, describing it as a “promotion.” Vance insisted that this move was disconnected from any controversy involving Waltz, notably a situation referred to as “Signalgate,” which involved the addition of a media figure to an administration group chat about military operations. Vance asserted that President Trump appointed Waltz to instigate significant reforms within the National Security Council and believes Waltz is better suited for the ambassador role now that those reforms are underway. Moreover,he remarked that Waltz still has the trust of both himself and Trump. Vance also downplayed any supposed staffing upheaval among other officials, reaffirming that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remains secure in his position. Additionally, in the interview, Vance addressed current economic challenges under President Biden, attributing them to inherited debts and deficits. Lastly, he discussed ongoing legal appeals regarding immigration enforcement, emphasizing the president’s authority in this area.
Vance: Waltz UN ambassador nomination a ‘promotion’
Vice President JD Vance contended that former national security adviser Mike Waltz being nominated to become the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was a “promotion” and was unrelated to Waltz’s instigation of so-called Signalgate.
“He wasn’t let go,” Vance told Fox News on Thursday. “You can make a good argument that it’s a promotion.”
TRUMP MOVES EMBATTLED MIKE WALTZ FROM NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER TO UN
Vance argued that President Donald Trump brought Waltz, a former Florida Republican congressman, into his second administration “to do some serious reforms to the National Security Council.”
“He has done that,” he said. “I like Mike. I think he’s a great guy. He’s got the trust of both me and the president, but we also thought that he’d make a better U.N. ambassador as we get beyond this stage of the reforms that we made to the National Security Council.”
Vance denied Trump’s decision was related to Waltz adding Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg to an administration group chat on encrypted messaging app Signal discussing a military operation on Houthis in Yemen.
“If the president wanted to fire him over the Signal thing, which, by the way, was a total nothing burger of a story, he would have just done it, but he actually decided it’s better for Mike to be in this new role,” he said.
Vance similarly denied that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has had his own Signal controversies, would also face a staffing shuffle.
“Pete Hegseth is safe,” he said. “I’ve already seen some folks saying that this is a war between the hawks and the anti-hawks, conservatives versus MAGA or the realists. That’s not what this is about at all.”
FOX News’s Bret Baier interviewed Vance for an episode of Special Report taped during a vice presidential tour of Nucor Steel Berkeley, a steel manufacturing facility in Huger, South Carolina amid Trump’s tariff trade war.
Trump’s approval has plummeted in recent weeks as the president’s tariff policy puts downward pressure on the stock market and economic confidence, with this week’s report on first quarter growth finding the economy contracted at a 0.3% annualized pace, the first quarter of negative growth since 2022.
“This is Joe Biden’s economy,” Vance said. “We inherited $2 trillion of debt, the highest peacetime deficits in American history, a $1.2 trillion trade deficit, which fundamentally means we’re not making enough of our own stuff. The president came in and he said, ‘This is not always going to be easy.’”
Vance was also asked about a federal judge ruling Thursday that the Trump administration cannot rely on the wartime Alien Enemies Act to detain or remove a group of Venezuelan migrants in Texas from the United States.
“District court judges can make their rulings,” he said. “We’re aggressively appealing this stuff. We do think that the higher appeals courts, and in particular the Supreme Court, is going to recognize immigration enforcement is a core function of the president of the United States. If you tell the president he’s not allowed to deport illegal criminals, then you’re telling the president he’s not allowed to be the president.”
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