Donald Trump decides on the hasty departure of Mike Waltz, his national security advisor

Under the Biden presidency, Jake Sullivan was at the crossroads of all strategic decisions. His successor as national security adviser, Mike Waltz, was granted neither the same latitude nor the same duration. Three months after entering the White House, he is about to return his accreditation , along with his deputy Alex Wong. Donald Trump has given him an honorable exit: he will become the next American ambassador to the UN in New York, an institution the billionaire ignores and despises.

He will be replaced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a curious accumulation of functions, unseen since Henry Kissinger (1973-1975). This accumulation is, certainly, a mark of confidence in the former Florida senator, but it also reflects a marginalization of the State Department, a testing of the promoted, appointed only on an interim basis, and the haste that led to the dismissal of Mike Waltz.

This first major departure within the administration, announced by the American media on Thursday, May 1, hardly comes as a surprise. Mike Waltz had been very fragile since the "Signalgate" scandal revealed by The Atlantic magazine . His editor-in-chief had been mistakenly associated with a restricted group on private messaging, where the highest officials of the administration exchanged classified information on the American bombings against the Houthis in Yemen. Mike Waltz's explanations had appeared confused about the addition of the journalist by one of his assistants. But it was the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth , who had communicated the operational details, without being blamed by the president.

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