Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
“President Donald Trump ousted his national security adviser Mike Waltz [last] Thursday and named Secretary of State Marco Rubio as his interim replacement in the first major shakeup of Trump's inner circle since he took office in January. Trump, in a social media post, said he would nominate Waltz to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.” Reuters
Here’s our previous coverage of the Signal chat set up by Waltz. The Flip Side
The left is critical of Trump’s foreign policy in general.
“Who says history doesn’t repeat itself? The first law of Trump, forgotten by those around him at their peril, is that few survive for long in his orbit. During Trump’s previous stint in the White House, the first senior appointee of his he fired was also his national-security adviser, Mike Flynn, who lasted a mere twenty-four days; three more national-security advisers would follow, adding up to the most turnover in that job for any President in a single term…
“The mere fact that there is a job opening in Turtle Bay speaks to how perilous it is to count on Trump’s loyalty. The post was supposed to go to Elise Stefanik, a New York congresswoman who gave up her position as a rising member of the House G.O.P. leadership, packed up her office, and started hunting for schools for her son in the city, only to have the appointment yanked back, ostensibly because of the narrow margin in the Republican-controlled House.”
Susan B. Glasser, New Yorker
“Waltz personified the ‘global hawks’ — the advisers with the unfashionable temerity to insist these are Bad Things: Threatening to invade your neighbors; Calling Vladimir Putin a genius for attempting the same; Trying a bit of extortion on the world stage; Berating guests at the White House; Abandoning Europe and the Middle East; Throwing Taiwan to the Wolf Warriors; Making Charles Lindbergh great again. Well, what’s done is done, and the last global hawk standing is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who now has four jobs and zero backbone.”
Tobin Harshaw, Bloomberg
“Did the Trump White House really think this through? The U.N. Ambassador is someone that the Senate must confirm by a vote. That means that Democratic senators will get to ask questions of Waltz, including those that touch on his competency and ability to handle confidential matters. SignalGate is going to wind up being back in the news as Waltz is pressed on the details of how exactly Goldberg wound up in his contacts and why he was using a Signal group chat in the first place?…
“Trump’s foreign policy is in shambles. He is trying, unsuccessfully so far, to get a ceasefire in place between Russia and Ukraine. He wants a new nuclear agreement with Iran, even while his Defense Secretary is openly threatening an attack on that country. And he desperately wants to restart tariff talks with China after launching a preemptive, punitive trade war. If Trump can’t keep his own national security team in order, we shouldn’t expect our allies or our adversaries to give much weight to that team’s efforts.”
Jay Kuo, Status Kuo
The right is divided.
The right is divided.
“The internal resistance to Mr. Trump’s foreign policy comes not from Mr. Waltz or ‘neocon warmongers’ but from the come-home-America faction that includes Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. The Signal chat revealed that Vice President JD Vance opposed and tried to delay the President’s decision to use force in defense of U.S. ships under attack by Iran’s Houthi proxy…
“Mr. Waltz has been vilified for demanding that Iran dismantle its nuclear program or risk military means to do so. But does the online MAGA brigade realize that’s the same policy that Messrs. Trump, Hegseth and Rubio have elaborated many times? Yes, they do. They want Messrs. Hegseth’s and Rubio’s scalps as well, but really they want to overturn Mr. Trump’s policy toward Iran, and they oppose a tougher line against Russia. They see the Waltz firing as an opportunity to influence the President to embrace the Obama-Biden approach [of appeasement].”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“Although the restrainers look to be in the ascendancy, President Trump should realize that his goals of eliminating Iran’s nuclear program and forging a peace deal in Ukraine (at least one worth having) won’t be achieved without the sort of tough measures that Waltz was vilified for advocating. The more Trump bends to the dovish faction of MAGA, the more likely his foreign policy is to end in failure.”
The Editors, National Review
Others argue, “Neocons consistently work against President Trump’s stated desire to be a peacemaker whenever and wherever they can. Mike Waltz, who had [the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey] Goldberg in his phone contacts and knew him despite his denials… is certainly one such neocon…
“So is Goldberg, who wrote mere months before the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 that ‘the relationship between Saddam’s regime and al-Qaeda is far closer than previously thought,’ a bald-faced lie neocons were willing to tell back then to goad Americans into supporting arguably the worst foreign policy mistake in U.S. history…
“A new Middle East war is exactly what the neoconservatives want—have long wanted—and are angling to have Trump start. Trump should not only not give it to them. He should get rid of them. In his first term, Trump eventually learned that his national security advisor, John Bolton, represented the antithesis of his ‘America First’ foreign policy goals. Only three months into his second term, Waltz, along with his deputy Alex Wong, are out, hopefully after a similar realization within the administration.”
Jack Hunter, American Conservative
