Free Republic

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz reached an agreement with the international body this week that will see the United Nations slash its global peacekeeping force by about 25 percent and reduce peacekeeping funding by 15 percent, according to those briefed on the matter. The United Nations' concessions are part of a broader push by the Trump administration to reduce the organization's ballooning budgets funded in large part with U.S. taxpayer dollars. Waltz secured the agreement during a Tuesday meeting with U.N. secretary general António Guterres, according to U.N. officials briefed on the matter. The deal stipulates that...

Despite repeated messages of support by Trump, Waltz has lost sway with the president and the backing of senior aides within the White House, officials said, just as the administration struggles to broker peace deals and faces the threat of further war in the Middle East. For Trump, Waltz’s biggest sin wasn’t starting a Signal chat to coordinate strikes on the Houthis in Yemen, or even posting Israel-provided intelligence onto an unclassified network, it was having the Atlantic magazine’s editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg’s number in his phone and inadvertently adding him to the conversation. Trump’s anger spilled over into...

President Donald Trump on Tuesday defended National Security Adviser Mike Waltz in the wake of secret war plans leak reports.President Donald Trump on Tuesday defended National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, a day after it was revealed that he added the editor-in-chief of Atlantic magazine to a chat group where top US national security officials discussed plans about attacking the Houthis in Yemen earlier this month. Donald Trump pointed out that it was the “only glitch in two months” following his presidency, “and it turned out not to be a serious one.”(AFP) Donald Trump pointed out that it was the “only...