President Donald Trump will pick Mike Waltz’s replacement as national security adviser in the next six months, he told The Daily Signal.
“We have a lot of people that want the job, I can tell you,” Trump said aboard Air Force One. “I mean, a lot of people say it really works in with what [Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s] doing. But, we have a lot of people. I’m going to be naming somebody.”
Trump moved Waltz from national security adviser to his nominee for United Nations ambassador. Rubio assumed the role of national security adviser until Trump can name a permanent replacement.
NBC News reported that there was a very real possibility that Trump keeps Rubio in the national security adviser role for the long term. The president said he will be naming a replacement for Waltz, though he thinks Rubio is well-suited for the role.
“He would do the job permanently,” Trump said of Rubio, “but I don’t think it’s, you know, it’s an appropriate job.”
Rubio is the first person since Henry Kissinger in 1973 to serve simultaneously as both secretary of state and national security adviser, two powerful roles in presidential administrations.
Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff; special presidential envoy for special missions Richard Grenell; Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Trump’s original pick for U.N. envoy; Senior Director for Counterterrorism Sebastian Gorka; State Department policy planning director Michael Anton, and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller are considered as front-runners for the role.
When asked about the possibility of moving Miller into the NSA role, Trump said Miller is “at the top of the totem pole” and “sort of indirectly already has that job.”
“He has a lot to say about a lot of things,” Trump said. “He’s a very valued person in the administration, Stephen Miller.”