Delays Make It All But Impossible Mike Waltz Will Be U.S. UN Ambassador for Next Week’s World Leaders Meeting

Mike Waltz is all but certain not to make his debut as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations at next week’s high-level General Assembly meeting after procedural delays and partisan holds pushed his nomination back into committee.

Waltz’s nomination was sent back to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week after Senate Democrats blocked more than two dozen of Trump’s executive branch nominees. The committee is scheduled to vote on his nomination Wednesday before any potential full Senate consideration, but lawmakers and aides say it is extremely unlikely the full chamber would confirm him before world leaders convene Monday.

Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticized the Democratic delay, saying in a statement that the blockade has hurt America’s standing on the world stage and asserting that Republicans are working to move nominations forward. Republican leaders signaled they will try to advance Waltz and more than 25 other nominees en bloc, a maneuver aimed at easing confirmation of a large group after last-minute negotiations with Democrats fell apart.

Waltz, a Florida Republican and former Army Green Beret who served briefly as Trump’s national security adviser, was ousted from that post in May following reports that he mistakenly added a journalist to a private Signal chat used to discuss sensitive military plans. Waltz has disputed that he was removed, saying he was selected for the U.N. post and that the administration’s cybersecurity standards were met. The Pentagon inspector general is investigating the matter.

By the time the White House forwarded Waltz’s paperwork to the Senate, the U.S. ambassador post at the U.N. had been vacant for nearly six months. The position is the last in Trump’s Cabinet to be filled after months of delays, including the withdrawal of an earlier nominee, Rep. Elise Stefanik, amid concerns about the Republican majority in the House.

Waltz’s nomination previously moved out of committee with bipartisan support, making the timing of the new delay unclear to some lawmakers. A Democratic congressional aide said the White House displayed “no urgency” to secure a confirmation before next week’s major U.N. gathering. A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the president wants his nominees confirmed as quickly as possible but declined to comment on Waltz’s nomination specifically.

If confirmed, Waltz would represent the United States at a pivotal moment for the United Nations, which recently marked its 80th anniversary and is coping with reduced U.S. funding this year that has affected humanitarian agencies and foreshadowed potential cuts to the U.N. annual budget. At his Senate confirmation hearing in July, Waltz said U.N. revenue “has quadrupled in the last 20 years,” and argued that U.S. contributions must clearly align with U.S. national interests.

Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., have increasingly used procedural changes to accelerate confirmations, a shift that Democrats and some procedural traditionalists say has weakened the filibuster and increased partisanship in nominations. Republicans are expected to move the returned package of nominees back through the Foreign Relations Committee and could bring them to the Senate floor in a push to finish confirmations in the coming weeks.

Even if Waltz is confirmed shortly after the committee reconvenes, it is unlikely he would be in place in time to participate in the first days of the General Assembly, where he would represent the U.S. alongside President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also holds duties as the administration’s national security adviser. The delay leaves the United States without a Senate-confirmed U.N. ambassador as the annual gathering of world leaders begins, a gap some foreign policy observers say could complicate U.S. diplomacy at the session.

The timing of any final confirmation remains uncertain. Republicans say they are confident Waltz will be confirmed in the coming weeks, while Democrats point to the ongoing investigations and the broader nomination standoff as reasons the post will not be filled before the international meeting begins.