The Trump administration’s sudden decision to pull Elise Stefanik’s nomination for United Nations ambassador is prompting a round of finger pointing between the White House and Republican leadership, six sources familiar with the White House’s deliberations told NOTUS under the condition of anonymity so they could speak freely.
It’s also causing friction within the Republican conference, as lawmakers try to figure out what’s next for the New York lawmaker.
Speaker Mike Johnson has always had to contend with a slim GOP majority, but Stefanik’s pending departure and closer-than-comfortable polling margins in the election for a Florida seat vacated by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz had started to make the White House nervous. With President Donald Trump’s agenda on the line and negotiations on a reconciliation package ramping up, leaving open another seat wasn’t a risk Republicans were willing to take.
Sources familiar with the situation also blamed Waltz — one saying that Trump was “extremely, extremely upset with Mike Waltz and upset about Signal-gate, as well as the bad polling in the Florida district.”
“It was a culmination of the two specials and the timeline,” the source told NOTUS.
Stefanik was also eager to get out of the House and into her role as ambassador to the United Nations. But the deadline kept changing.
The deadline was originally set for early January, then pushed back to after the House passed its budget, one of the sources familiar with the nomination said. It then changed to after the House passed a government funding measure, and then again to early April, before ultimately getting pulled this week.
A source familiar with the White House’s deliberations said that, before the inauguration, the administration had urged Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to delay Stefanik’s confirmation hearing.
But there’s another person people blame: Johnson.
The source said the speaker regularly emphasized his close margins to Trump and his chief of staff, Susie Wiles.
“Mike Johnson was concerned about the margin throughout the process, going back to November,” the source told NOTUS.
Some members and aides on the Hill also believe Johnson is at fault, adding that Stefanik is furious with the speaker.
“Elise Stefanik worked her ass off for that job and Mike Johnson derailed it. There’s going to be hell to pay,” one senior GOP aide told NOTUS.
Johnson allies rebutted this claim, with one House Republican leadership aide telling NOTUS that “it’s just a known fact that Mike Johnson has never, or would never try to prevent this nomination from going through.”
The leadership aide said Johnson knows that “the backlash of a move like that within his own conference would be epic.”
Johnson posted on X praise for Stefanik, calling her a “devoted patriot.”
“Today’s selfless decision shows America what those of us who work with her already know. She is deeply devoted to her country and fully committed to see President Trump’s agenda succeed in Congress,” he wrote on Thursday.
When asked if Johnson pushed Trump to keep Stefanik in the House even after her nomination was announced, a White House official said, “This seat would have been vacant for most of the year. We don’t have time to waste. We need to get President Trump’s agenda enacted as soon as possible.”
Despite the finger-pointing, the official message from the White House was that Stefanik was just being a MAGA soldier, doing Trump “a big favor” by pulling her nomination.
“She is phenomenal,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday afternoon. “She’s very popular in her district and I didn’t want to take a chance.”
Asked if the tight margins in Waltz’s former district influenced his decision, Trump said, “The one thing is they’re spending like $12 million and our candidate doesn’t have that kind of money, spending much less than that … so the airwaves are blanketed. And you never know what happens in a case like that.”
Trump said he spoke with Johnson, who planned to give Stefanik an important leadership position in the conference. Stefanik was formerly the conference chair but stepped down after her nomination was announced.
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Reese Gorman , Jasmine Wright and Daniella Diaz are reporters at NOTUS.