President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he was nominating Mike Waltz, his national security advisor, as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, while removing him from his current position.

“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 said in a post to his Truth Social platform. “I know he will do the same in his new role.”

In the interim, Trump added, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will take over as national security advisor while continuing his diplomatic posting.

Trump had initially picked Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) for the U.N. ambassadorship, but withdrew her nomination in late March over concerns about protecting Republicans’ slim majority in the House.

In a brief statement on social media, Waltz said he was “deeply honored to continue my service to President Trump and our great nation.”

The surprise announcement came amid multiple news reports that Waltz was expected to be ousted from his current role, in the first major shakeup of the administration. His deputy advisor, Alex Wong, a fellow traditional conservative, is also expected to leave the National Security Council soon, sources confirmed to Jewish Insider on Thursday, though the timing of his departure could not be confirmed.

Waltz, a former congressman from Florida and a Green Beret, has been on precarious footing since he accidentally added a journalist to a non-secure messaging app in which top administration officials discussed sensitive plans for an imminent military operation in Yemen.

In the immediate wake of the debacle, Trump’s advisors had suggested that he fire Waltz, but the president chose instead to back his national security advisor at the time, reluctant to replicate the sort of disorder that consumed his first term.

The decision to move Waltz to the U.N., a position based in New York City that requires Senate confirmation, suggests that he remains in relatively good standing with Trump, even if he will no longer hold a key role in the West Wing, where he had been increasingly marginalized.

Waltz never fully recovered from the messaging scandal, which further exposed him to attacks from a growing faction of isolationists who insist his traditional foreign policy views — particularly on confronting adversaries including Iran and Russia — have not reflected the president’s instincts.

Waltz had also faced pushback from MAGA loyalists who took issue with his decision to hire ideologically aligned staffers to the NSC.

The abrupt removal of Waltz and Wong follows a broader purge in which several NSC senior staffers were pushed out after an Oval Office meeting last month in which Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist, had urged Trump to clean house, citing a lack of loyalty among mid-level officials. Her targets had included Wong, but he had been spared until now.

In a brief interview with JI on Thursday, Loomer declined to confirm if she was involved in the new round of departures. “I think it’s further evidence,” she said broadly, “that there is a vetting crisis at the White House — and perhaps now it’s finally going to be addressed.”

It remains unclear who Trump will pick as his next national security advisor, should he relieve Rubio of his interim role. Among others, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy who is leading negotiations with Iran and Russia, has been floated as a possible candidate, though he is reportedly not interested in the job. 

During his first term, Trump circulated through four national security advisors. His first, Michael Flynn, held the role for just under a month before resigning over his contacts with Russian officials.