Washington— US President Donald Trump dismissed his National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, a supporter of the continuous killing of Palestinians in Gaza, on Thursday and named Secretary of State Marco Rubio as interim replacement. At the last minute, Waltz was nominated as the US ambassador to the United Nations.
Trump’s move was expected since Waltz’s fiasco in March involving sending details of US airstrike plans on the Houthis in Yemen via Signal chat along with top Trump national security aids and included The Atlantic’s editor.
Waltz has been described as “a stalwart supporter of Israel.” An extremist in his approval of Israeli disregard of the international and humanitarian law and unwilling to support the President Trump’s nuclear talks with Iran, Waltz supported the Israeli genocide in Gaza and expressed strong backing for Israel’s breaking of the ceasefire agreement on 18 March.
On March 26, Waltz assumed full responsibility for the scandal telling Fox News “I take full responsibility. I built the group; my job is to make sure everything’s coordinated.”
When he was picked by President-elect Trump to serve as national security adviser Rep. Mike Waltz said the incoming administration will support future Israeli attacks on Gaza even as Trump hailed the tenuous new cease-fire and hostage-release agreement as a signal “to the entire world that my administration would seek peace.”
“Israel has every right to defend its people from Hamas terrorists. The ceasefire would have been extended if Hamas released all remaining hostages. Instead, they chose war,” Waltz wrote on X on 23 March.
Hamas slammed Waltz and said his claim that it chose war “is a distortion of the facts” and reflects “full partnership in the aggression against the Palestinian people and complicity in the Israeli crimes in Gaza.”
It said it proposed clear initiatives for a ceasefire and a comprehensive swap deal but those were rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because “he intentionally failed them to achieve his own political interests as revealed by his security chiefs themselves.”
The offensive was preceded by a blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza, imposed by Israel on 2 March, which included restrictions on food, medicines, and fuel. On 9 March, it also halted electricity supplies, affecting, among other services, desalination plants.
On 18 March, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that his army’s actions were ‘only the beginning.
According to CBS, the NSC that Waltz will leave behind has been thinned by dismissals in recent weeks.
The bloodletting began a month ago, when Laura Loomer, a right-wing conspiracy theorist, handed Trump a list of individuals in the NSC she deemed to be disloyal during a meeting at the White House. Following that meeting, four senior directors were released, the CBS added.
Some NSC staffers were upset that Waltz did not defend his staff more forcefully, those people said. But since then more than 20 additional NSC staffers of various profiles have been let go, the network added.
“The Signal controversy was not the only mark against Waltz in Trump’s eyes, sources said. A person familiar with the Cabinet’s internal dynamics said Waltz was too hawkish for the war-averse Trump and was seen as not effectively coordinating foreign policy among a variety of agencies, a key role for the national security adviser,” according to CBS.
Reacting to the President’s decision, Waltz said on X, “I’m deeply honored to continue my service to President Trump and our great nation.”
Waltz, a retired Army Green Beret and former Republican lawmaker from Florida. Michael Makovsky, the president of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America called Waltz “an excellent appointment.”