FILE - White House national security adviser Mike Waltz speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, on Feb. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
Secretary-General Ant贸nio Guterres, left, and former president of the General Assembly Philemon Yang, right, look on, as Annalena Baerbock, center, holds up a gavel after being sworn in as the president of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Delays to Mike Waltz’s UN bid make it all but impossible he’s in the role for major world meeting
UNITED NATIONS (AP) 鈥 Mike Waltz almost certainly will not make his debut as President Donald Trump鈥檚 U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during a gathering of world leaders next week after delays and procedural hurdles postponed his confirmation.
FILE - White House national security adviser Mike Waltz speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, on Feb. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) 鈥 Mike Waltz almost certainly will not make his debut as President Donald Trump鈥檚 U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during a gathering of world leaders next week after delays and procedural hurdles postponed his confirmation.
Waltz’s nomination was sent back to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week after Democrats blocked more than two dozen of . His bid will face another committee vote Wednesday before heading to the Senate floor, but it is all but impossible that he would be confirmed by the full chamber before starts on Monday.
鈥淪enate Democrats鈥 extension of their blockade on President Trump鈥檚 nominations is a deterrent to bipartisan committee work and has hurt America鈥檚 standing on the world stage,” Sen. Jim Risch, GOP chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement. “Republicans are getting the Senate back to work, and I鈥檓 confident Mr. Waltz will be in place in the coming weeks.鈥
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Waltz served for mere weeks as before he was ousted in May after mistakenly adding a journalist to a sensitive military plans. He has denied being removed from the post, instead claiming he was and stating that the chat met the administration鈥檚 cybersecurity standards. The is investigating.
By the time the White House sent the Florida Republican鈥檚 paperwork to the Senate for the confirmation process to begin, the U.N. position had been vacant for nearly six months. It is the last one to be filled in following months of delay, including , Rep. Elise Stefanik, over concerns about the Republicans’ House majority.
It is unclear why Waltz wasn’t advanced before Democrats employed the procedural move, given that his nomination moved out of committee last month with bipartisan support.
A Democratic congressional aide said the White House had shown 鈥渘o urgency鈥 in getting Waltz confirmed before next week’s major U.N. gathering. He would have been representing the United States alongside Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who now .
A White House official said Trump 鈥渉as been clear鈥 that he wants all of his nominees confirmed as quickly as possible. The official 鈥 who, like the aide, spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly 鈥 did not comment on Waltz鈥檚 nomination specifically.
Republicans on Wednesday are likely to vote to confirm Waltz and more than 25 other Trump nominees who had been sent back to committee en bloc, to make it easier to confirm large groups of people picked to fill administration positions after last-minute negotiations with Democrats fell apart.
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The move by Senate , R-S.D., is the latest salvo after a dozen years of gradual changes by both parties to weaken the filibuster and make the nominations process more partisan.
When Waltz is eventually confirmed, he will arrive at the U.N. headquarters in New York at a for the international organization, which just celebrated its 80th anniversary. The world body is this year to slash foreign assistance funding, which has hugely and foreshadowed additional U.S. funding cuts to the U.N. annual budget.
At his confirmation hearing in July, Waltz said U.N. revenue 鈥渉as quadrupled in the last 20 years,” but it hasn鈥檛 been commensurate with increased peace.
鈥淭he U.S. must ensure that every foreign aid dollar and every contribution to an international organization, particularly the U.N., draws a straight and direct line to a compelling U.S. national interest,鈥 he testified to senators.
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Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.
