The new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is forcing other countries to "grin and bare their teeth" as he attempts to show his loyalty to the Trump administration amid reported criticism that he's "washed-up."
Mike Waltz — still recovering his reputation from the Signalgate scandal, where he added a journalist from The Atlantic to a Signal chat with several Trump appointees discussing an impending military strike — was confirmed just three days before the high-level diplomatic week at the General Assembly, according to Politico on Friday.
"There’s a lot of personal diplomacy involved in New York, and it’s a face-to-face job more so than in a bilateral relationship — and an ambassador’s cachet is their ability to speak for the president,” a former U.S. official with knowledge of the U.S. mission in New York, told Politico. “When you have a washed-up ambassador who was so visibly shunted, other countries will grin and bare their teeth hoping that Waltz can convey messages on their behalf.”
Over the last several days, the former national security advisor has issued a stern warning to Russia following its breaches of NATO airspace and argued against a Palestinian state in his speeches at the U.N. Security Council sessions.
His main job is to represent President Donald Trump, whose speech to the U.N. earlier this week (and triple sabotage claims) left diplomacy experts cringing.
Waltz's new role was seen as a demotion by some, and it even took months to confirm him, but Trump administration officials reportedly cited that he is a "key player" in Trump's team. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt have all reportedly rallied around him.
“The president still likes Mike Waltz. He wasn’t fired. Security didn’t remove him from the building. He stayed on the executive payroll,” a former Trump administration official told Politico. “Mike Waltz is out of central casting for the administration at the U.N. with his warrior-statesman ethos.”