Vice President JD Vance asserted Thursday that President Donald Trump made the move with Mike Waltz because he thinks he'll make a better ambassador than national security adviser, the New York Post reported.
Further, Vance said the nomination of Waltz to be ambassador to the United Nations could be considered a promotion.
"We brought Mike on to do some serious reforms of the National Security Council. He has done that," Vance told Fox News. "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've made to the National Security Council."
Vance added, "I think you can make a good argument that it's a promotion."
Longtime political reporter Mark Halperin first reported Thursday morning that Waltz was being removed as NSA over "general unhappiness" within the national security establishment over how the National Security Council was being run, "a general belief that it's not being run efficiently, in an organized way."
Trump installed Secretary of State Marco Rubio as acting national security adviser.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.