President Donald Trump still does not have his ambassador to the United Nations in place eight months into his term.
And given the Senate’s schedule, it is unlikely that Mike Waltz — who Trump first announced would be his nominee for the high-profile post more than four months ago — will be confirmed in time for the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly this month, arguably the most important gathering for the ambassador.
If Waltz, a former Florida congressman who was removed as Trump’s national security adviser after the “Signalgate” controversy, is not confirmed in time for the summit, it would significantly limit his role at the high-level gathering, although he could still participate in a more diminished capacity. The delay has been frustrating for Waltz, who has recently expressed concern to others about how long the confirmation process is taking, according to a person familiar with this thinking.
After he was removed as national security adviser in May, Waltz was being paid an annual salary of $195,000 as an “advisor” as of July 1, according to the latest publicly available documents from the White House. The White House did not say whether Waltz was still on the payroll.
One of the perks of the job is living in a multimillion-dollar penthouse in Manhattan. Waltz cannot move into the U.N. ambassador’s residence until he is confirmed.
After Waltz initially was narrowly voted out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in July, the panel was forced to revote on his nomination Wednesday, along with several others, because of a procedural error flagged by Democrats. The committee voted 11-10 to send Waltz's nomination to the full Senate. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire was the only Democrat to vote in favor of Waltz, while Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only Republican to vote against him.
With the Senate poised to take a weeklong recess for Rosh Hashanah next week and a government funding deadline looming, Waltz most likely would not receive a full confirmation vote until later this month at the earliest. The General Assembly already officially kicked off last week, while high-level meetings and general debate are scheduled to take place Sept. 23-29.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is taking his cues from the White House in terms of which nominations to sequence. Trump has not appeared to prioritize Waltz’s confirmation, although he has complained generally about the Senate’s not confirming his nominees quickly enough.
A White House official said in a statement, “President Trump has been clear that he wants all of his nominees confirmed as quickly as possible.”
The setback for Waltz is just the latest drama surrounding the ambassadorship to the U.N., a body Trump has been openly skeptical of.
Initially, Trump nominated Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., a longtime ally. But the Senate held off on confirming her amid concerns from the White House that her vote was needed in the narrowly divided House for the party’s massive tax and spending bill. Trump pulled her nomination at the end of March.
Trump then sought to shift Waltz into the U.N. role from national security adviser after he faced backlash for inadvertently having added a reporter to a Signal group chat with other Trump officials in which plans to attack Yemen were shared.
Waltz still maintains widepsread Republican support on Capitol Hill. But the Defense Department's inspector general is still undergoing an internal review of the Signal chat episode, and depending on the findings, it could put Waltz’s nomination in jeopardy, especially if he needs some Democratic support to get over the finish line. It’s unclear, however, when the review will be completed.
All year, Democrats have been trying to drag out the confirmation process for Trump’s nominees using procedural maneuvers, creating a backlog. That prompted Republicans to change the rules of the Senate on a party-line basis last week, which will allow them to speed up confirmation of Trump’s nominees for key executive branch positions.
But even before the procedural error with Waltz’s nomination was raised, his name was not included in an initial batch of nominees that Republicans were planning to try to move en bloc through a fast-track process on the floor under the new rules.
Waltz is the highest-ranking Trump nominee awaiting confirmation. During his first term, Trump elevated his first U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, to Cabinet level, but he moved the job back to non-Cabinet level after she left. The role of U.N. ambassador has come and gone from the Cabinet over the years at the discretion of different presidents.
