Senate confirms Michael Waltz as U.N. Ambassador

WASHINGTON – The Senate on Friday confirmed Michael Waltz, the former national security adviser, to serve as the top U.S. diplomat to the United Nations.

All but two Democrats opposed Waltz’s nomination, arguing that he had shown himself to be unfit to hold a top foreign policy post when it was revealed earlier this year that he had discussed war plans with top officials in a Signal chat to which he had inadvertently invited a journalist – and then was unwilling to admit the mistake.

He was confirmed on a 47-43 vote, with Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the ranking member on the Foreign Relations Committee, and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania joining Republicans in support.

President Donald Trump nominated Waltz for the job of ambassador to the United Nations after removing him as national security adviser in May amid the fallout over the news about the Signal chat, in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other top officials discussed the details of a military operation in Yemen.

He ascends to the ambassador role just before world leaders gather in New York next week for the U.N. General Assembly.

Waltz, a former member of the House who defined himself as a Republican hawk on defense and national security, has taken the position, shared by the president, that the United States shoulders an outsize financial burden at the United Nations.

The Trump administration has proposed significant cuts to U.S. contributions to the United Nations.

Pledging to “make the U.N. great again,” Waltz said at his confirmation hearing that he supported the cuts, and promised to help scale back the “mission creep” that Republicans commonly claim affects the international body.

“The U.N. has ballooned to over 80 agencies with overlapping missions that waste resources and, if confirmed, I’ll push for transparency,” he said.

He also promised to work to counter China’s growing influence at the U.N. and to curb what he claimed was the body’s “pervasive antisemitism” against Israel.

Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on Friday praised Waltz as a “proven foreign policy leader.”

But Democrats questioned whether Waltz was fit for the job.

“Why is someone who endangered our troops by recklessly mishandling classified information being rewarded with a promotion?” Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., wrote in a post on social media on Friday.

Shaheen was willing to look beyond the episode and support Waltz, arguing that he could serve as a counterweight to other Trump administration officials because he did not present himself as “someone who wants to retreat from the world.”

His confirmation as U.N. envoy comes later than his predecessors’. Trump originally nominated Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., for the job, but later pulled her nomination, asking her to stay in the House to help preserve their party’s narrow majority.

The Senate confirmed Trump’s first U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, just four days after he took office in 2017. Linda Thomas-Greenfield was confirmed in February 2021, during President Joe Biden’s first year in office.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a libertarian who is against American involvement in foreign military conflicts, was the sole Republican to vote against confirming Waltz. Paul had criticized Waltz, a former member of Congress, at his confirmation hearing over his House vote in 2020 to limit the president’s ability to remove troops from Afghanistan.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.