Waltz, Rubio and the National Security Shakeup

CIPHER BRIEF REPORTING – The announcement was made on the 101st day of the second Trump administration, and while some insiders said they saw it coming, it caught even some administration officials by surprise. President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that Mike Waltz was no longer his National Security Advisor – that job would go to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on at least an interim basis – and that Waltz would be nominated to be the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Such high-level shakeups were common during the first Trump administration – he had four National Security Advisors during those four years, and fired the first of them, Michael Flynn, less than one month into his term. But this was the first major shakeup since Trump’s second inaugural.