INTERNACIONAL
Hegseth, Signal questions dog Waltz as potentially perilous UN ambassador confirmation hearings loom
The same day that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz exited his job at the White House, President Donald Trump announced a new job offer for the former Florida congressman: United Nations ambassador.
But there are some hurdles Waltz must clear first before the New York job is his — including undergoing a Senate confirmation process amid scrutiny after the Atlantic magazine exposed a Signal group chat that his team had set up to discuss strikes against the Houthis in March.
And receiving full support from the slim Republican majority in the Senate isn’t guaranteed, and not all Republicans got on board backing Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Vice President JD Vance ultimately cast the tie-breaking vote securing Hegseth’s nomination.
Democrats appear hungry to use Waltz’s nomination as a forum to air grievances against other foreign policy leaders in the Trump administration — particularly Hegseth.
NEXT US NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR? HERE’S WHOM TRUMP MIGHT PICK TO REPLACE WALTZ
U.S. national security advisor Mike Waltz and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stand, as U.S. President Donald Trump meets French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House on Feb. 24, 2025. (Reuters/Brian Snyder)
Still, Waltz’s nomination to represent the U.S. at the U.N. will likely attract support from establishment Republicans in the Senate who weren’t on board with Hegseth in the Pentagon, given that the ideological divide between these Republicans and Waltz is much smaller than it was in Hegseth’s case, according to one Florida GOP source.
«He’s been able to thread the needle really, really well between traditional conservative foreign policy voices and the more populist America First policy voices,» the Florida GOP source said of Waltz.
HEAT ON WALTZ
Waltz, who previously represented Florida’s 6th congressional district, is a retired Army National Guard colonel and former Green Beret who served four deployments to Afghanistan and earned four Bronze Stars — the fourth-highest military combat award, issued for heroic service against an armed enemy.
While Waltz and Hegseth both were embroiled in the Signal chat discussing strike plans against the Houthis, Hegseth has attracted more of the heat, at least publicly, stemming from the incident. Democrats have called for Hegseth’s resignation as a result of the chat, but staffers at the White House — including Waltz — have openly backed Hegseth and shut down reports that the administration is seeking his replacement.
But Waltz could get his turn attracting the ire of lawmakers as Democrats find an opportunity to openly grill him in front of the Senate, amid displeasure with Trump’s foreign policy and national security agenda.
«The second hundred days of national security under President Trump will apparently be just as chaotic as the first hundred,» Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said in a statement to Fox News Digital about Waltz’s departure from the White House.
«President Trump’s consistent hirings, firings and upheaval sap morale from our warfighters and intelligence officers, degrade our military readiness, and leave us less prepared to respond to threats from our adversaries,» Coons said. «American citizens at home and around the world are less safe because of President Trump’s non-existent national security strategy.»
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., also took aim at Waltz — although she labeled Hegseth the worst offender affiliated with «Signalgate.»
MIKE WALTZ, OTHER NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL STAFFERS OUT IN LATEST TRUMP PURGE FOLLOWING SIGNAL CHAT LEAK
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., also took aim at former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz — although she labeled Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth the worst offender affiliated with «Signalgate.» (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
«Took them long enough. Mike Waltz knowingly made an unclassified chain to discuss classified matters,» Duckworth said in a Thursday X post ahead of Waltz’s U.N. ambassador nomination. «But of all the idiots in that chat, Hegseth is the biggest security risk of all—he leaked the info that put our troops in greater danger. Fire and investigate them all.»
In addition to the Signal chat, Waltz’s exit from the White House was tied to several other issues. For example, Axios reports that Waltz treated White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles like «staff,» and his disrespect rubbed her the wrong way.
«He treated her like staff and didn’t realize he’s the staff, she’s the embodiment of the president,» a White House official told Axios. «Susie is a deeply loyal person and the disrespect was made all the worse because it was disloyal.»
Waltz reportedly discussed different roles he could take on following his stint at the White House with Wiles, according to CBS News. Waltz was reportedly offered jobs, including the ambassador to Saudi Arabia, but ultimately settled on U.N. ambassador.
A spokesperson for the National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
NEXT STEPS
With Waltz out as national security advisor, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will temporarily step into that role.
While Trump originally nominated Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to represent the U.S. at the U.N., he rescinded her nomination in March, citing that the House could not afford to lose another Republican seat.
Stefanik’s nomination lagged in the Senate in comparison to other U.N. ambassador nominees, including Trump’s first U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. The Senate confirmed Haley in January, just after Trump’s first inauguration.
While the exact timeline for a potential confirmation vote in the Senate is unclear, the first hurdle that Waltz must clear is a confirmation vote out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Although it is uncertain when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will schedule the nomination hearing for Waltz and the subsequent vote, the committee said his nomination is a «priority.»
«The committee has been working at a historically fast pace and this nomination will be a priority moving forward,» a GOP staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee told Fox News Digital.
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Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., meets with Republican Sen. John Barasso of Wyoming. (Office of Rep. Elise Stefanik)
The 80th session of the U.N. General Assembly is scheduled for September 9, so there are a few months for Waltz’s confirmation to play out, the Florida GOP source said. That means that Waltz could take a few months off, start the confirmation process in June or July and wrap up his confirmation by September at the latest, the source said.
«He’s got plenty of time. So, this isn’t a looming fight that’s going to happen next week,» the Florida GOP source said. «This is going to play out probably in June or July, which by then, people are going to forget about the Signalgate stuff, or at the very, very least, they’re going to forget about Mike Waltz’s role in it.»
But there are a few Republican wildcards in the Senate who have voted against several of Trump’s nominees, most prominently Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who voted against Hegseth, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., voted against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in January. (J. Scott Applewhite/the Associated Press)
A spokesperson for McConnell did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Other Republicans who have opposed Trump nominees include Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, both of whom voted against Hegseth, as well as Sens. Ted Budd of North Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky, both of whom voted against Chavez-DeRemer.
Aside from former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., whom Trump initially nominated to serve as attorney general, Trump’s entire cabinet has been approved. Gaetz withdrew his nomination amid a House Ethics Committee investigation into sexual misconduct and drug-use allegations.
Despite opposition from Democrats, and possibly a few Republicans, it appears unlikely that any fire that Waltz will face will sink his nomination.
«The reality of it is, the president can lose three votes in the Senate, and the vice president can still vote to break a tie,» the Florida GOP source said. «There’s no way he’s probably going to lose three votes.»
Meanwhile, other Republicans have openly stated they endorse Waltz’s nomination, including Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Risch, R-Idaho, who lauded Trump’s decision to nominate Waltz for the role.
Vice President JD Vance sits for an interview with Fox News’ chief political anchor Bret Baier in South Carolina, where he addressed Waltz’s nomination to represent the U.S. at the United Nations. (Fox News/Special Report)
«Great choices. America is safer and stronger under President Trump and his national security team,» Risch said in a Thursday X post. «I thank Mike Waltz for his service as NSA, and look forward to taking up his nomination in our committee.»
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also posted on X on Friday that Waltz would be confirmed «for sure.»
Vance also voiced support for Waltz and billed the nomination as a «promotion,» pushing back on any suggestions that Waltz’s removal amounted to a firing.
«Donald Trump has fired a lot of people,» Vance said in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier Thursday. «He doesn’t give them Senate-confirmed appointments afterward. What he thinks is that Mike Waltz is going to better serve the administration, most importantly, the American people in that role.»
Fox News’ Charles Creitz contributed to this report.
White House,Pete Hegseth,U.S. Defense & Military Politics,Secretary of Defense,Donald Trump
INTERNACIONAL
Quiénes son los líderes europeos que firmaron una carta pidiendo mantener la presión sobre Rusia antes de la cumbre Trump-Putin
Por ahora, posiciones irreconciliables
Donald Trump,Vladimir Putin,Rusia,Ucrania,Guerra Rusia-Ucrania,Últimas Noticias
INTERNACIONAL
Líderes europeos reafirmaron su apoyo a Ucrania y llamaron a mantener la presión sobre Rusia antes de cumbre entre Trump y Putin
Los principales líderes europeos reafirmaron este domingo su apoyo a Ucrania y llamaron a mantener la presión sobre Rusia para alcanzar la paz, días antes de la reunión prevista entre los presidentes Vladimir Putin y Donald Trump el próximo 15 de agosto en Alaska.
La cumbre, anunciada por Trump el viernes, forma parte de sus esfuerzos por buscar una salida al conflicto iniciado con la invasión rusa en febrero de 2022. El encuentro se celebrará sin la presencia del presidente ucraniano, Volodimir Zelensky, quien ha reclamado participar en las negociaciones.
Trump adelantó que el eventual acuerdo “incluirá algún intercambio de territorios para el beneficio de ambos”, en referencia a Ucrania y Rusia, sin dar más detalles. Zelensky rechazó esa posibilidad: “No pueden tomarse decisiones en nuestra contra, no pueden tomarse decisiones sin Ucrania. Sería una decisión contra la paz. No conseguirán nada. Los ucranianos no entregarán su tierra al ocupante”, afirmó el sábado en redes sociales.
En conversaciones separadas con Zelensky, el presidente francés, Emmanuel Macron, y el jefe del Gobierno español, Pedro Sánchez, expresaron su respaldo a Kiev. Macron señaló en X que “el futuro de Ucrania no puede decidirse sin los ucranianos”, mientras que Sánchez abogó por “una paz justa y duradera que respete la independencia y la soberanía” del país.
Además, los mandatarios europeos firmaron una declaración conjunta en la que sostienen que “solo un enfoque que combina una diplomacia activa, el apoyo a Ucrania y la presión sobre la Federación Rusa” podrá poner fin a la guerra. “Aplaudimos el trabajo del presidente Trump por detener la masacre en Ucrania” y “estamos listos para apoyar ese trabajo en el plano diplomático, además de mantener nuestro sustancial apoyo militar y financiero a Ucrania”, añade el texto.
Entre los firmantes figuran Macron, la primera ministra italiana, Giorgia Meloni; el canciller alemán, Friedrich Merz; el primer ministro polaco, Donald Tusk; el primer ministro británico, Keir Starmer; el presidente finlandés, Alexander Stubb, y la presidenta de la Comisión Europea, Ursula von der Leyen.
En paralelo, el presidente brasileño, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, conversó el sábado por teléfono con Putin y expresó la disposición de Brasil a contribuir a una solución pacífica. Según la presidencia brasileña, el mandatario ruso agradeció el interés.
Las tres rondas de conversaciones celebradas este año entre Rusia y Ucrania no produjeron avances. Moscú exige la cesión de cuatro regiones parcialmente ocupadas —Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia y Kherson—, además de Crimea, anexionada en 2014, y que Kiev renuncie a suministros de armas occidentales y a su ingreso en la OTAN. Ucrania considera estas condiciones inaceptables y exige la retirada total de las tropas rusas y garantías de seguridad que incluyan más armamento y presencia militar europea.
Sobre el terreno, los combates continúan. En la región de Donetsk, bombardeos rusos mataron el sábado a cuatro personas y dejaron una veintena de heridos; en Kherson, otras dos personas murieron.
La reunión de Alaska será la primera entre presidentes en ejercicio de Estados Unidos y Rusia desde la celebrada en Ginebra en junio de 2021 entre Putin y el ex presidente Joe Biden. Trump y Putin no se encuentran cara a cara desde la cumbre del G20 en Japón en 2019, aunque han mantenido contactos telefónicos desde enero.
Los líderes europeos subrayaron que “el camino a la paz en Ucrania no puede decidirse sin Ucrania” y reiteraron su compromiso con garantías de seguridad “creíbles y robustas” para Kiev. Además, calificaron la invasión rusa como una “flagrante violación” de la Carta de la ONU, el Tratado de Helsinki de 1975, el Memorándum de Budapest de 1994 y otros compromisos internacionales suscritos por Moscú.
“Seguiremos trabajando con el presidente Trump y los Estados Unidos y con el presidente Zelensky y el pueblo ucraniano por una paz en Ucrania que proteja nuestros intereses vitales de seguridad”, concluye la declaración.
(Con información de EFE y AFP)
Corporate Events,Europe,Military Conflicts,ZAPORIZHZHIA
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Boston’s sanctuary sheriff was arrested Friday on federal charges after allegedly leveraging his elected position to extort $50,000 from a cannabis executive who was seeking state approval to open a dispensary—a scheme FBI Director Kash Patel called a betrayal of public trust.
Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins, 67, who oversees more than 1,000 employees in the Boston-area, was handcuffed Friday morning in the Southern District of Florida after a federal grand jury indicted him on two counts of extortion under color of official right, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
«When someone entrusted with enforcing the law is accused of breaking it for personal gain, it undermines the public’s trust in every honest officer who wears the badge,» Patel told Fox News Digital. «The FBI will pursue corruption at every level, because no one is above the law. The people of Suffolk County, and the country, deserve leaders who serve them, not themselves.»
Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins was arrested on Friday in connection to an illegal licensing scheme. (Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)
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Tompkins was appointed sheriff of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department (SCSD) in 2013, elected in a 2014 special election, and later re-elected to serve successive six-year terms.
He made headlines in 2019 after booting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents out of the county jail, signing an eviction notice that required hundreds of illegal immigrant detainees to be moved out within 60 days, according to a report from the Boston Herald.
FLORIDA EX-SHERIFF ARRESTED FOR ALLEGEDLY RUNNING ILLEGAL GAMBLING HOUSE THAT GENERATED MILLIONS
According to court documents, a cannabis company applied in 2019 for a retail dispensary license in Boston through the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (CCC). To meet the state’s Positive Impact Plan (PIP) requirement, the company partnered with the sheriff’s department, which agreed to screen and refer graduates from its re-entry program for work at the dispensary’s retail store.
The company’s partnership with SCSD was formalized in a letter signed by Tompkins in 2019 and submitted with its dispensary license application in 2020. The cannabis commission approved the license in 2021 and renewed it in 2022 and 2023, with the company citing the partnership to meet the PIP requirement in each application.
Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins is accused of pressuring an executive into selling him stocks and then demanding a refund. (John Wilcox/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)
To raise capital for an initial public offering (IPO) and expand as a publicly traded company, executives sought multimillion-dollar investments from institutions and other high-net-worth investors—not the general public, according to court documents.
By mid-2020, the company was preparing for its IPO by producing audited financial statements, hiring attorneys and obtaining additional financing.
Prosecutors allege Tompkins pressured the cannabis executive for stock, reminding the executive he had helped the company in its licensing efforts. The executive feared Tompkins might exploit his position as sheriff to undermine the partnership with the department, putting both the license and the company’s planned IPO in jeopardy.
PATEL’S IMMIGRATION PUSH AT FBI YIELDS 10,000 ARRESTS SINCE JANUARY
In October 2020, the company asked Tompkins for an updated partnership letter to submit with its license renewal application, according to court documents. Within a month of signing the letter, and after alleged pressure on the executive, Tompkins obtained a pre-IPO stake in the company.
Prosecutors claim that in November 2020, Tompkins wired $50,000 from his retirement account to an account controlled by the executive, purchasing nearly 29,000 shares at $1.73 each. Following a reverse stock split, he held about 14,400 shares valued at $3.46 each.
Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins is facing up to 20 years in prison for each count of extortion. (Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)
Once the company launched its IPO in 2021, the stock value jumped to $9.60 per share, increasing the value of Tompkins’ $50,000 purchase of 14,417 shares to $138,403.
By May 2022, the value of Tompkins’ stock had dropped thousands of dollars below his $50,000 investment, but he allegedly demanded a full refund. The executive agreed, issuing five checks between May 2022 and July 2023.
Prosecutors claim some checks were marked as «loan repayment» and «[company] expense» at Tompkins’s direction to disguise the nature of some of the payments.
Copies of checks showed payments allegedly made to the Suffolk County sheriff.
US ATTORNEY FOR MASSACHUSETTS SAYS INTERFERENCE WITH ICE OPERATIONS IS ‘DISTURBING,’ THREATENS ARRESTS
U.S. Attorney Leah Foley wrote in a statement that elected officials, particularly those in law enforcement, are expected to be ethical, honest and law-abiding, «not self-serving.»
«His alleged actions are an affront to the voters and taxpayers who elected him to his position, and the many dedicated and honest public servants at the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department. The people of Suffolk County deserve better,» Foley wrote. «Public corruption remains a top priority for my administration, and we will continue to investigate and prosecute anyone who uses their position of trust and power for their own gain.»
FBI Boston special agent in charge Ted Docks added the act was «clear-cut corruption.»
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«From his very first day as Suffolk County Sheriff, Steven Tompkins sought to portray himself as a man of the people–a principled public servant and reformer, devoted to the cause of justice. That’s why it’s beyond disappointing that he’s now accused of gaming a system instituted in the interests of public safety and fair play,» Docks wrote in a statement. «We believe what the Sheriff saw as an easy way to make a quick buck on the sly is clear-cut corruption under federal law. The citizens of Suffolk County deserve better, not a man who is accused of trading on his position to bankroll his own political and financial future. Public servants must be held to the highest of ethical standards, and those falling short will be rooted out.»
Tompkins, who faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison for each count, will appear in Boston federal court at a later date.
boston,police and law enforcement,corruption,crime,kash patel
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