Vice President JD Vance said Mike Waltz has the trust of both himself and President Donald Trump after the now-removed national security advisor was nominated Thursday to become the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
“I think you could make a good argument that it’s a promotion,” Vance said in an exclusive interview on “Special Report” from the Nucor Steel Berkeley plant in South Carolina. “We brought Mike on to do some serious reforms at the National Security Council. He has done that.”
The former Ohio senator said the White House believes Waltz will better serve the administration as UN ambassador, a Senate-confirmed position.
Waltz’s exit comes nearly four months after he resigned from his Florida congressional seat to take the NSA role at the White House. The Army veteran faced growing scrutiny after he created a group chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal in late March, where top national security officials discussed pending attacks against the Houthis in Yemen.
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Waltz inadvertently added The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the “Houthi PC small group” on Signal, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared sensitive information about the timing of U.S. military strikes in Yemen.
Hegseth, a former “Fox & Friends Weekend” co-host, maintains the information he shared was not classified.
Democrats have expressed disbelief that information relating to targets and strikes would not have been classified given its sensitive nature. The Pentagon’s acting inspector general is investigating Hegseth’s use of Signal.
Vance told Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier that Waltz’s ousting was not a result of Signalgate, which he called a “nothingburger.” He argued the former Florida congressman is simply being moved to another administration position because Trump believes Waltz would do a “better job in a different role.”
The vice president was also added to the Signal group chat along with DNI Tulsi Gabbard, CIA director John Ratcliffe and other senior members of the Trump administration.
In the chat, Vance expressed his disagreement with the strikes, arguing that such action could be seen as “inconsistent” with Trump’s foreign policy messaging when it comes to European allies stepping up to the plate for their own defense. He viewed the strikes as “bailing” Europe out.
“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc,” the vice president wrote in Signal.
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Vance told Baier that he believes the Signal chat reflected well on him because it shows his willingness to engage in conversation with other administration officials about how best to implement the president’s agenda.
“I think that’s what a good national security team should do,” he explained.
The U.S. has been striking Houthi targets in Yemen for more than 40 days straight. US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement earlier this week that since the start of Operation Rough Rider, it has struck over 800 targets.
The strikes have killed hundreds of Houthi fighters and numerous leaders, including senior missile and UAV officials, according to CENTCOM.
Vance said the Houthis see the consequences of firing on American ships in international waters and disrupting global trade.
“I think that the president has made it very clear that one of his core national security priorities is that if you load stuff onto a ship and you send it to the United States, we wanna make sure that it shows up without the sailors getting killed, without the ship being destroyed,” he added. “And that is an objective that we’re going to pursue forcefully, if we have to.”