Washington Examiner, May 2025
President Donald Trump‘s Cabinet nominees pulled from the House despite Speaker Mike Johnson‘s (R-LA) slim majority have made the most headlines during his second administration. Trump, while putting together his Cabinet, tapped three House members for his administration: now-former Reps. Matt Gaetz as attorney general and Mike Waltz as national security adviser, and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) as U.N. ambassador However, all three Republicans have either had to bow out of consideration or have been subject to criticism while on the job.
Trump announced on Thursday that Waltz, who had been serving in his post at the National Security Council, would be his new U.N. ambassador pick after previously withdrawing Stefanik’s nomination earlier this year. Waltz and his deputy Alex Wong were reportedly poised to be pushed out of Trump’s national security team after Waltz in March mistakenly added a journalist to an administration group chat on the unsecured messaging app Signal, discussing military operations against the Houthis in Yemen. However, Trump’s Thursday announcement showed that Waltz was, in fact, not leaving the administration.
