Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News
JD Vance has spoken out after the former US national security adviser was removed from his position.
Mike Waltz, 51, is the first major White House figure to be removed from the second Trump administration, after serving just 102 days as national security adviser.
The firing comes after the infamous security breach in March, in which Waltz mistakenly added Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal chat with other administration members.
Following this, Waltz took responsibility for the incident, telling Fox News: "I take full responsibility. I built the group."
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Yesterday, Trump announced on his social media platform, Truth Social, that Waltz had been removed from his position as National Security Advisor and would be Trump's nomination for the role of United Nations ambassador, the BBC reports.
"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," he wrote. "I know he will do the same in his new role."
Waltz also addressed the president's response by sharing it to his X account, writing: "I'm deeply honoured to continue my service to President Trump and our great nation."
Speaking to Fox News host Bret Baier on Thursday (1 May), the Vice President explained why Waltz would be better suited as a UN ambassador.
He said: "We brought Mike on to do some serious reforms of the National Security Council. He has done that. 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 UN ambassador as we get beyond this stage of the reforms that we’ve made to the National Security Council."
The 40-year-old also noted that Waltz could even look at the new job as a 'promotion'. As for reports suggesting that Waltz had been 'fired', Vance said he didn't think this was the case.
He 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 was amongst the top US officials included in Waltz's Signal group chat, and he told Baier that he was discussing messaging techniques.
"If you go back to when those messages were leaked, what we were doing is having a private strategic conversation about how to message this to the American people." he continued.
"It’s always important to explain what you’re actually doing, how to ensure that some of the frankly, our allied countries that are under spending on their own defence, are actually carrying some of the burden."
He added: "That was a concern that I raised about this particular operation, but I wasn’t overruled."
As for who will be the next National Security Advisor, the current Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, with serve as the interim national security adviser until someone new is chosen for the role.
