White House Shakeup ‘Won’t Impact Ukraine’ Diplomats Say, As Trump Replaces Scandal-Hit Waltz With Rubio

US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a major shakeup in his national security team, tapping Mike Waltz to be his UN Ambassador while Secretary of State Marco Rubio will fill Waltz’s former national security advisor role on an interim basis.

The move came amid reports that Waltz and his deputy at the National Security Council, Alex Wong, would be leaving their posts after they lost the confidence of other administration officials.

“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,” Trump, in a Truth Social post, noted about the 51-year-old former Republican lawmaker from Florida.

He went on to add that in the interim, the country’s top diplomat, Rubio, will serve as National Security Advisor, “while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department.”

It wasn’t immediately clear how long Rubio would serve in his new position. “It is clear that I just heard this [news] from you,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters when asked during her daily press briefing who appeared to hear about the shakeup in real time.

The exit of Waltz marked the conclusion of a fraught tenure as he had for months been under scrutiny following the Signalgate scandal, when he accidentally leaked Yemen war plans to a journalist in a private group chat.

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“Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump noted in conclusion to his announcement.

Congress will vote on Waltz’s confirmation as the US Ambassador to the UN, a position that recently became available after Trump’s previous nominee, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, was withdrawn from consideration.

Several US news sources reported on Thursday that Trump had been furious for some time about Waltz’s security breach but was slow to fire him as he did not want to “hand the liberal media a scalp.”

Trump did not indicate whom he would tap as a permanent replacement for Waltz. As for Rubio, his interim appointment means the top diplomat by now has taken on a total of four positions in the administration. In addition to being secretary of state and interim national security advisor, he is also currently serving as the acting national archivist and acting USAID administrator.

“It does show some confidence in Rubio’s loyalty to the President,” veteran diplomat Richard Kauzlarich, who once served as senior deputy to the Secretary of State and the President’s Special Representative to the Newly Independent States from 1993-94 during the Bill Clinton administration, told Kyiv Post’s Washington correspondent.

He went on to add, from a management perspective, it will be “challenging” for Rubio to lead reform in the State Department and the National Security Council, “which is facing multiple internal and external challenges (e.g., Ukraine, Iran).”

“Who will be the deputy NSA will be important,” he added.

John Herbst, former US ambassador to Kyiv during George W. Bush’s administration, believes that the departure of Waltz as National Security Advisor and his replacement by Rubio as interim NSA “suggests no major change in US national security policy” as he put it, “including regarding Russian aggression in Ukraine.”

Herbst currently serves as senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.

He went on to elaborate, “both [Rubio and Waltz] recognize that China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran have been cooperating closely against core US interests and that a real policy of peace through strength is needed to protect those interests. That includes helping Trump establish a durable peace in Ukraine, which means putting pressure on the party, Russia, that has rejected various Trump proposals for a ceasefire.”

The State Department’s spokesperson Tammy Bruce told Kyiv Post’s Washington correspondent during Thursday briefing that moving forward, the Trump administration will be watching Putin’s ‘actions”, when it comes to Ukraine ceasefire issue.

“Secretary [Rubio] has been clear that we are watching Putin’s actions, right, not his words. And in the process, he’s refined a very specific timeline. Weeks ago, it was weeks; a few days ago it was days, that this would be a pivotal week” Bruce said.