Washington
CNN
—
In a sweltering Rose Garden on Thursday, as President Donald Trump intoned at length about restoring faith to the White House, he took a moment to single out a man sitting right up front.
“When I have a problem, I call up Marco,” Trump told his crowd, gesturing toward Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “He gets it solved.”
Unbeknownst to the sweat-beaded dignitaries assembled for the president’s event, Trump of late had been discussing a new problem with his top diplomat: national security adviser Mike Waltz, whom he no longer trusted and who’d lost the confidence of much of the West Wing.
The conundrum had been festering for weeks after Waltz inadvertently included a journalist on a Signal group chat to discuss a military strike in Yemen. Now it was no longer sustainable, people familiar with the matter said. Already this week, he’d determined Waltz should not travel with him to Michigan, where the president announced new investment in an Air National Guard base. Waltz flew with him to Joint Base Andrews on his helicopter, but remained behind on the tarmac as Air Force One took off for Detroit.
For weeks, Trump had wavered, wary of appearing to succumb to public pressure and repeating the same cycle of firing national security advisers that lent his first term a mien of chaos. Nor did he want to provide his enemies a perceived victory by caving to their demands. But after 100 days in office, without any major staff departures, Trump seemed ready to pull the plug.
It turned out Rubio, who always “gets it solved,” was himself the solution.
Announcing on social media that Waltz would be departing his corner West Wing office to be nominated as ambassador to the United Nations, Trump declared Rubio would be moving in, taking up the critical post on an interim basis in addition to his current job and several other acting roles.
“Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump wrote. As he departed the White House later Thursday afternoon, he didn’t stop to discuss his decision further.
The shakeup in Trump’s national security team sends Waltz to a confirmation process he never asked for, with the prize a job he never particularly wanted. The five-bedroom, $15 million Manhattan penthouse assigned to the UN ambassador may be cushy, but located 230 miles from the West Wing, it might as well be on another planet in an administration where proximity to the president can amount to everything.
For Rubio, it was the latest sign of his ascent as one of Trump’s most trusted hands, the latest chapter in their decadelong evolution from bitter rivals to loyal confidant. Advisers to both Trump and Rubio insisted Rubio was fully capable of handling both jobs for now. The last man to try was Henry Kissinger, the Nixon and Ford envoy who managed a host of issues – most notably, the Vietnam War – from both the White House and the State Department.
Most secretaries of state spend their weeks in the air darting to foreign capitals. But Rubio has long preferred not to be away from Washington for longer than a few days at a time, choosing instead to be near the president. Like many other Cabinet members, he is at the White House almost every day, even as special envoy Steve Witkoff travels around the world looking to strike deals.
It remains an open question whether Rubio’s new role will be temporary or if he will serve both positions for an extended period as Kissinger did in the Nixon and Ford administrations, when he spent six years as national security adviser and four as secretary.
The president moved swiftly on Thursday with new assignments for Waltz and Rubio to avoid the narrative of staff disfunction and chaos that often dominated his first term in office. But the decision leaves Rubio wearing multiple hats, including acting USAID administrator and acting archivist of the United States.
The White House announcement caught the State Department off guard Thursday afternoon, with spokeswoman Tammy Bruce appearing stunned as she learned the news during a televised briefing.
“It is clear that I just heard this from you,” Bruce told CNN’s Kylie Atwood at State Department headquarters in Foggy Bottom. “That is an exciting moment here. As I know Secretary Rubio, this is a man who I think you all know has worn several hats since Day 1.”
Well aware his influence had been waning in the West Wing, Waltz also seemed to be taken by surprise by the timing. He appeared on Fox News on Thursday morning, talking about Russia, Ukraine, Iran and the rest of his portfolio, bolstering Trump’s actions.
“Enough is enough,” Waltz said during his morning appearance, “the president’s been loud and clear.”
Afterward, he walked directly into the West Wing, ignoring reporters waiting to question him on foreign policy. Later that morning, Trump informed him of his imminent departure, a White House official told CNN.
Trump’s decision to find a new post for Waltz inside the administration made for a different type of dismissal than the three national security advisers he fired during his first term. Two of them, John Bolton and HR McMaster, wrote books that were critical of Trump; keeping Waltz on the payroll could avoid alienating him further.
A former Green Beret and Republican House member from Florida, Waltz hardly came to his position as a lightweight. His departure, along with his deputy Alex Wong, comes at a moment of rising urgency with ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine, the ongoing turmoil in Gaza and myriad other challenges, including other threats facing the United States that are highly classified.
In many areas, foreign policy has become a frustration of Trump, as his efforts to broker an end to the war in Ukraine falter and as top officials struggle to open trade talks with China.
Even an issue Trump has touted frequently – US attacks on Houthis in Yemen – has drawn scrutiny for its failure to decimate the Iran-backed rebel group. This week, a US aircraft carrier was forced to make a hard turn to avoid incoming Houthi fire, causing a fighter jet to fall overboard.
Waltz was a proponent of the Houthi mission over the initial objections of other officials, including Vice President JD Vance, according to the Signal group chat that was among the factors contributing to Waltz’s ouster.
Waltz’s fate contrasts sharply with that of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who shared sensitive information in the chat about the attack plans on the Houthis. Later, it was revealed Hegseth shared similar information on a second chat that included his wife and brother.
The president had grown to view Waltz and Hegseth through an entirely different lens, people familiar with the matter say, despite both of their central roles in the Signal episode that became one of the first major scandals of the new Trump administration.
While Trump did not think Hegseth exercised good judgment in sharing the Yemen war plan in at least two group chats, people familiar with the matter say, he believed his defense secretary should not be dismissed after spending so much political capital to confirm him.
Hegseth was at Trump’s side on that Air Force One ride to Michigan on Tuesday, the following day in the Cabinet Room and again on Thursday in the Rose Garden, where Trump issued another ringing endorsement: “Pete Hegseth, who’s doing a fantastic job.”
Hegseth also has more far support outside the administration through the Trump-inspired MAGA movement than Waltz, who was viewed with deep suspicion among many. Waltz could also be dismissed without worrying about another confirmation fight, because the national security adviser is not a Senate-confirmed position.
The president was never able to move beyond the question of how Waltz invited Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic into the group chat in the first place, people familiar with the matter said. Even though Trump sat down with Goldberg for an interview last week, he remains highly suspicious of and furious at his previous Atlantic reporting on the first Trump administration.
Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, also did not lend her support to Waltz, people familiar with the matter say, despite their shared Florida roots. Wiles has ordered Hegseth and the Pentagon to step up their performance, offering an admonition there is “no room for more mistakes or embarrassments.”
On Thursday, as Trump spoke under harsh midday sun in the Rose Garden, Wiles stood in the shade of the West Colonnade, watching the scene behind reflective aviator glasses.
For much of the event, Rubio and Hegseth both sat in the sun, listening as Trump weaved from topic to topic over the course of an hour. As the prayer session concluded, Rubio grabbed his phone and darted into the shade, engrossed in the screen.
Waltz was nowhere to be seen.
