Washington (AP) – Diplomacy may be soft power, but the president Donald Trump’s Management, and recently, soft landing.
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz He was nominated for UN ambassador after he accidentally added a journalist Signal chat Discuss military plans. Trump slammed the IRS Commissioner Billy Long To become his Icelandic ambassador after a long conflict with his administration’s message at his work.
And last weekend, Trump was appointed State Department spokesman Tammy Bruce as deputy representative of the United Nations after struggling to gel with Secretary Marco Rubio’s close team.
The new appointment can be seen as a comfort award for leaving the famous post in the Trump administration after his rocky tenure. But they also reflect the extent to which Trump is trying to keep his loyalty close, even if his previous deployment in the administration was inadequate. Breaking the reality TV show that helped make Trump famous, the Republican president hasn’t told his top appointee, “You’ve been fired!” But instead, it offers them another way to stay in his administration.
“It’s not like an ‘apprentice’,” said John Bolton, another former Trump national security adviser who became a Trump critic.
Trump’s first term featured more firing
During his first White House tenure, Trump was unfamiliar with politics, choosing and watching many staffing based on the recommendations of others Heavy staff leaving. Trump stocks proven boosters for his second administration.
Still, those leaving are often the subject of enthusiastic praise, which could prevent them from staying on Trump’s political trajectory and becoming critics who can criticize him on television.
The ambassador serves the president’s joy, and Trump can nominate who he likes, but ultimately requires confirmation from the Senate. Typically, the best ambassador is the reward of a large donor.
“It is a great honor to represent the United States as an ambassador, and therefore these positions are highly coveted and reserved for the President’s most loyal supporters,” said White House spokesman Anna Kelly. “Mike Waltz, Billy Long and Tammy Bruce are great patriots who have a strong belief in America’s first agenda, and the President fully trusts them to advance their foreign policy goals.”
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz will speak in a TV interview at the White House in Washington on May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
From “glitch” to new jobs
The Waltz era appeared to have been counted after Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed in March what Waltz had Added him to a private text chain With an encrypted messaging app used to discuss the plans for military operations against Houthi extremists in Yemen.
Trump initially expressed his support for the waltz. He disregards this incident as “glitch.” About five weeks later, the president announced that the waltz was leaving, but forever it was not. He portrayed the changing celebrations as the cause of the celebration.
“From the days of uniformed on the battlefield, in Congress and as my national security adviser, Mike Waltz worked hard to put our country’s interests first,” Trump announced the Waltz move on May 1.
Vice President JD Vance pushed back the allegations that Waltz had been expelled.
“The media wants to frame this as a firing. Donald Trump has fired a lot of people,” Vance said in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Brett Baier. “He will not then give the Senate a nomination in favor of it.”
Bolton, who served as the United Nations U.S. ambassador under President George W. Bush before becoming Trump’s national security adviser in 2018, called it a “promotion to go in the opposite direction,” but it wasn’t the way Waltz was going.
“The lesson is sometimes you do something better because you look good,” Bolton said of Trump’s reallocation.
Bruce also chose UN mail.
Ironically, Bruce learned about the Waltz’s expulsion from a reporter’s question while he was holding a press conference.
A former contributor to the Fox News Channel, Bruce was friendly with Trump and a powerful advocate for his foreign policy. For about six months as a spokesman, she reduced the frequency of State Department briefings with reporters from 4-5 days a week to 2 days.
However, Bruce was also frequently beginning to reject questions about the effectiveness, substance or consistency of the regime’s approach to the Middle East, Russian war in Ukraine, and other global hotspots. She told reporters Special envoy Steve Witkoff “We’re heading towards the region now – heading towards the Gaza region,” but then she had to admit that she hadn’t been told exactly where she was going in the Middle East.
Nevertheless, Trump posted on Saturday that Bruce did a “great job” at the State Department and “greatly represent our country at the United Nations.”
Former US ambassador Robert Wood, who served as a State Department spokesman during President George W. Bush’s term and acting spokesman during President Barack Obama’s term, has expressed skepticism that Bruce’s new position has risen. Wood later became the US ambassador to the United Nations Conference on Disarmament through Obama’s other tenure and throughout his first Trump administration.
“It’s hard to imagine Tammy Bruce’s nomination as a representative of the United Nations, which is considered a promotion in the Magazine world, when you think of Tammy Bruce as a promotion,” he said, referring to Trump’s “America’s Great Again” movement.
At a final State Department briefing on Tuesday, Bruce said he announced that Trump wanted her in the new role, but said he was “surprising,” but “it’s particularly moving because he can continue to serve the State Department, which I’m quite attached to.”
R-Mo. Rep. Billy Long will ask questions during a hearing on May 14, 2020 at Capitol Hill, Washington. (Greg Nash/Pool, File via AP)
“An exciting time!”
Then there’s a long-term former Republican Missouri Senator. He was the shortest IRS commissioner confirmed by the Senate since the position was created in 1862. He has contradicted the administrative message several times.
Long said last month that the IRS direct file program would be eliminated. An IRS spokesman later showed that it wasn’t and looked at the requirements of the tax and spending laws Trump defended. The Washington Post also reported that Long’s IRS opposed the White House over sharing taxpayer data with immigration officers to help them find people in the United States illegally.
“Exciting times!” after learning that Trump wanted him in Reykjavik.
White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt refused to say on Tuesday why Long was removed as IRS chief and deployed in Iceland. “The president loves Billy Long and thinks he can serve the administration well in this position,” she said.
“These things usually don’t work.”
Soft landings are not always told by Trump.
Former TV commentator Morgan Ortags, a spokesman for the State Department during Trump’s first term, is a special advisor to the United Nations after serving as deputy envoy for the Middle East under Witkov.
Trump predicts Ortagus may not be appropriate. He announced her on behalf of Witkov in January, saying, “Morgan fought me for three years, and hopefully learned her lessons.”
“These things don’t usually work, but she has strong Republican support. I’m not doing this for me. I’m doing it for them,” Trump added. “Let’s see what happens.”
Ortagus continued in the role less than six months.
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Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to the report.
