Dem
47
GOP
53
A couple of months ago, give or take a few days, readers weighed in on which high-ranking Trump administration official would be the first to get broomed. Far and away the most popular guess, both in the responses we received, and the ones we actually ran, was Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Boy howdy, was that wrong.
The "winner" of this particular race, such as it is, turns out to be... NSA Mike Waltz, who is taking the fall for the Signal fiasco. In order to make it look like it has nothing to do with the Signal fiasco (even though it definitely does), Donald Trump waited a few weeks, and he's also kicking Waltz to New York City, where he'll serve as U.N. Ambassador once he's approved by Congress.
Waltz is not especially qualified to be U.N. Ambassador, but he was not especially qualified to be NSA, either. For that matter, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), the original U.N. nominee, was not especially qualified for the job. On some grim level, this does not matter all that much, since Trumpian foreign policy is a one-man show, and changes on a daily basis.
The new NSA, at least for now, is... Rubio. That means that Rubio's portfolio now includes four jobs. In addition to being SoS and NSA, he is also director of USAID and Archivist of the United States. Put another way, he has become the Jared Kushner of Trump v2.0. That is pretty far removed from "yup, he'll be the first to go." Of course, Kushner had the insurance policy that he was also a relative, so Rubio certainly could be cashiered once he falls from grace. After all, look how powerful Elon Musk was 2 months ago compared to how powerful he is now. You just never know when you've got a president that is this mercurial. (Z)