Congress

Waltz vows to take take Trump’s chainsaw to the United Nations

Published

1 year ago

July 15, 2025

Former national security adviser Mike Waltz pledged Tuesday to push for reform at the United Nations, portraying the body as bloated, ineffectual and overly politicized during his confirmation hearing to serve as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to international organization.

Echoing the administration’s approach to slashing the federal government, Waltz said that the administration was conducting a number of reviews of the United Nations to examine how it is spending its funds, calling for the body to refocus on its founding principles.

He also criticized the “radical politicization” of the body, citing U.N. reports about racism among U.S. law enforcement and the seizure of land from Native Americans.

“We should have one place in the world where everyone can talk,” said the former Republican representative from Florida. “But after 80 years, it’s drifted from its core mission of peacemaking.”

Waltz also vowed to push back against China at the U.N. amid Beijing’s rising influence at the global body.

The United States is the largest single financial contributor to the U.N., accounting for more than a quarter of its overall budget. Waltz indicated this could be used as leverage in pushing for reform.

“If you look at when reform has actually happened,” he said, “it is when the United States has said, ‘You know what, we need to actually see things before the U.S. taxpayer continues to write checks.’”

The administration is looking to cancel some $1 billion in federal funding to the U.N. as part of its rescission package, which seeks to claw back almost $10 billion in federal funds.

The Senate is set to vote on the measure as early as this week, bringing cuts to a world body already facing a deep financial crisis.

Waltz questioned the number of bodies at the U.N. that focus on climate change and environmental protection, including the U.N. Environment Program and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

At one point during the hearing, he read from a list of U.N. 455 entities that he claimed received U.S. funding and appeared to question their relevance.

Trump has said the U.N. needs to get its “act together” and has called on the body to focus on its “primary purpose” of conflict resolution, a view which was shared by Waltz on Tuesday.

Administration officials have been quick to criticize the organization, founded in the wake of World War II, though they have not outlined a clear vision on how to improve it.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) later quizzed Waltz on how the administration planned to reconcile its efforts to cut its contributions to the international body, while maintaining its influence.

“You’ve just waved here’s this great big list of organizations. Many of them do critical things,” Coons said.

Waltz’s hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee marked his first major public appearance since he stepped down as Trump’s national security advisor in May, having reportedly clashed with several senior officials over whether to pursue military strikes against Iran.

Democrats also used the hearing to tear into Waltz over his role in the Signalgate scandal, in which a journalist from The Atlantic was added to a group chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal where top administration officials discussed plans to launch air strikes on Houthi militants in Yemen. But the Democratic senators balanced that with queries about plans for the U.N. and the administration’s plans to check China’s influence.

Throughout the hearing, Waltz offered a sharp criticism of what he described as antisemitism at the U.N., citing a disproportionate number of resolutions passed against Israel in the General Assembly and reports that a number of staffers from the body’s Palestinian aid agency participated in the Hamas-led attacks on Israel in 2023.

Waltz said that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency should be defunded and dismantled and that its humanitarian work handed over to other bodies.

A former Army Green Beret, Waltz’s initial appointment as national security adviser was greeted with a sigh of relief among allies and lawmakers on Capitol Hill who viewed him as an experienced foreign policy hand.

Democrats questioned Waltz at the hearing on the administration’s decision to dismantle USAID and the Global Engagement Center, a body within the State Department that sought to counter Russian and Chinese disinformation.

The role of the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is the last of Trump’s Cabinet positions to be filled.

The president had initially tapped Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) for the role, but withdrew her nomination in March in a bid to preserve the GOP’s thin majority in the House of Representatives.

Congress

Trump apparently shares Tom Cotton’s phone number in push to make Daylight Saving Time permanent

Published

1 day ago

October 3, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump appeared to share Sen. Tom Cotton’s phone number in a Saturday morning social media post imploring the Arkansas Republican to get behind a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.

“Almost everybody wants “The Sunshine Protection Act” to pass, except for Tom Cotton,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “To the Great People of Arkansas, please let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.”

The president has spent months personally pushing Senate Republicans to end the practice that sees Americans change their clocks twice a year, cementing more sunlight hours in the evening for all twelve months of the calendar. Cotton, whom Trump called “a friend of mine” in the Saturday post, has long argued that making daylight saving time permanent would leave children, farmers and other early risers in the dark for hours on winter mornings.

One of Trump’s key selling points on Saturday: the PGA tour.

“The PGA TOUR, as an example, needs more Daylight in the afternoon in order to finish their Tournaments,” he said, attaching a letter from PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp endorsing the bill. ”Likewise, regular Golfers, Tennis Players, Hunters and, perhaps most importantly, Farmers who want more Daylight to play or work.

A Blue Light News call to the cellphone number went to voicemail. A spokesperson for Cotton did not respond to a request for comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The current version of the bill was introduced in the House in January 2025 by Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), with Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) leading the Senate version. The legislation would make daylight saving time permanent across most of the country, ending the twice-yearly clock changes. The legislation has been stalled in the Senate since July.

The president encouraged supporters of the bill, dubbed the “The Sunshine Protection Act,” to call Cotton to “let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.”

During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, he publicly gave out the personal cellphone number of then-rival Sen. Lindsey Graham after the South Carolina Republican criticized him. Trump, who came to count on Graham as a reliable Senate ally after he won the presidency, revisited the moment during Graham’s funeral in July, acknowledging that sharing the number was something he “shouldn’t have done.”

Kelsey Brugger contributed to this report.

Congress

Sanders to rally for Troy Jackson in Maine

Published

2 days ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Bernie Sanders will hit the road for Troy Jackson in Maine starting Oct. 10, the first time the progressive leader will stump for the candidate this cycle.

The Vermont independent plans to hold three rallies with Jackson, according to an itinerary shared first with Blue Light News: first in Bangor on Oct. 10th followed by Lewiston and Biddeford on Oct. 11.

The Maine swing will kick off Sanders’ travel for the final stretch of the midterms, covering ground throughout October for House and Senate candidates, POLITICO reported.

“Bernie and Troy know that working people built this country and deserve a government that fights for them,” Jackson spokesperson Dan Gottlieb told Blue Light News. “Susan Collins has had nearly 30 years to deliver, and working Mainers are still getting squeezed while she serves the billionaires and corporate interests who bankroll her campaigns. Mainers don’t need another six years of excuses.”

Sanders campaigned ahead of major wins for progressives in the primary season, speaking at more than 60 rallies since last year’s Fight the Oligarchy tour and endorsing more than 90 candidates up and down the ballot.

He’s also opening his substantial $23 million campaign war chest, POLITICO reported, and contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars toMinnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s Senate campaign and others including Angie Nixon in Florida and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison,

Sanders will return to Maine after initially backing Graham Platner’s campaign for Senate. Allegations reported by POLITICO ultimately led him to call on the Democratic nominee to drop out of the race.

Sanders had not formally endorsed Jackson since he clinched the nomination from Platner, though he previously backed Jackson’s initial run for governor.

Congress

Hill: Trump’s ‘lack of favorability’ creating challenging politics

Published

2 days ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Financial Services Chair French Hill said he has “no concerns” about winning back his Arkansas seat in the upcoming midterm elections, but the six-term House member acknowledged the political headwinds for his party.

“I consider the atmosphere a very tough political environment right now because of President [Donald] Trump’s lack of favorability at the top, and you know people are concerned about, as I say, what it’s like to live under an inflated economy the last four years,” Hill said in an interview.

Hill is in a solidly red district, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, and said he is up against a “weaker candidate this time than I’ve had in past races.” Polling in the district, however, has shown a tighter race. The two polls done this year placed Democratic challenger Chris Jones ahead of Hill by a few percentage points. Any perceived polling victory for Jones is still well within the margin of error, and one of the polls had a Democratic sponsor.

Stephannie Lane Baker, a spokesperson for Jones, said that “of all the Republicans in Congress, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee doesn’t get to dodge responsibility for this economy. He’s in trouble, and he knows it.”

Additionally, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s PAC, Ready for the Fight, committed more than $1 million in television ads through the next five weeks for Jones’ race in Arkansas’s 2nd District, Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for the PAC confirmed. Overall Democratic spending on advertising for the race was just over $1 million, primarily made up by contributions from the Ready for the Fight PAC, with Republicans spending almost $2.7 million on ad buys, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking service.

Hill said he has addressed affordability concerns “head on” this Congress.

“My work on housing, my work on the Price Stability Act, my work to try to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse, and drop the federal budget deficit as a percentage of GDP,” Hill said. “All these things can contribute to a more affordable environment for people. So I’ve tried to make that a forefront of my campaign this year.”

Hill was a key architect of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan housing affordability bill that became law in July. The Price Stability Act, which is unlikely to become law this year, would narrow the Federal Reserve’s current dual mandate of pursuing maximum employment and price stability to focus exclusively on containing inflation.