President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is nominating national security adviser Mike Waltz as United Nations ambassador while Secretary of State Marco Rubio would take over Waltz’s duties in an interim role.

He announced the major shake-up of his national security team shortly after news broke that Waltz and his deputy are leaving the administration. Waltz has been under scrutiny for weeks after reporting from The Atlantic that he had mistakenly added the magazine’s editor-in-chief to a Signal chat being used to discuss military plans.

“I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations. From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation’s Interests first,” Trump wrote on social media.

“In the interim, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as National Security Advisor, while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department. Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN.”

There is precedent for the secretary of state to serve simultaneously as national security adviser. Henry Kissinger held both positions from 1973 to 1975.

It’s not clear how long Rubio will hold both roles.

But he’ll be doing double duty at a moment when the Trump administration is facing no shortage of foreign policy challenges — the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program and an uncertain world economy in the midst of Trump’s global tariff war.

Waltz came under searing criticism in March after revelations that he added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to a private text chain on an encrypted messaging app that was used to discuss planning for a sensitive military operation against Houthi militants in Yemen.

Trump’s decision to move Waltz to the U.N. comes weeks after he pulled his pick for the job, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, from consideration over fears about Republicans’ tight voting margins in the U.S. House.

“I’m deeply honored to continue my service to President Trump and our great nation,” Waltz said Thursday.

His shift from national security adviser to U.N. ambassador nominee means he will now have to face a Senate confirmation hearing.

The process, which proved to be difficult for a number of Trump’s Cabinet picks, will give lawmakers, especially Democrats, the first chance to grill Waltz on his decision to share information about an imminent U.S. airstrike on Signal.

Sen. Chris Coons, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, signaled that Waltz will face difficult questions.

“I look forward to a thorough confirmation hearing,” Coons said on social media.

Trump is believed to be weighing several senior aides to eventually take on the national security adviser role, including special envoys Steve Witkoff and Richard Grenell, National Security Council senior director for counterterrorism Sebastian Gorka and senior State Department official Michael Anton, according to several people familiar with the ongoing deliberations.

Witkoff, a fellow New York City real estate maverick who has known Trump for years, has played a key role in negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas conflict and has been the administration’s chief interlocutor in the Iran nuclear talks launched last month.

Witkoff has expressed no interest in taking the job, which requires hands-on management of numerous agencies, but could, if asked by Trump, assume temporary control of the NSC, according to one U.S. official familiar with the matter.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said Witkoff would prefer to stay in his current special envoy role, which is relatively independent and not tied to any particular bureaucracy.

Grenell, in addition to his role as Trump’s envoy for special missions, is serving as the interim president at the Kennedy Center. He served as ambassador to Germany during Trump’s first administration, was special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations, and did a stint as acting director of national intelligence. He’s also weighing running in next year’s California governor’s race.

Waltz had previously taken “full responsibility” for building the Signal message chain and administration officials described the episode as a “mistake” but one that caused Americans no harm. Waltz maintained that he was not sure how Goldberg ended up in the messaging chain, and insisted he did not know the journalist.

Trump and the White House — which insisted that no classified information was shared on the text chain — publicly stood by Waltz throughout the episode. But the embattled national security adviser was under siege from personalities such as Laura Loomer, who has encouraged Trump to purge aides who she believes are insufficiently loyal to the “Make America Great Again” agenda.

As reports began to circulate that Waltz could be leaving the administration, Loomer appeared to take credit in a post on the social media site X, writing: “SCALP.”

“Hopefully, the rest of the people who were set to be fired but were given promotions at the NSC under Waltz also depart,” Loomer wrote in another post.

Questions have also swirled around Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his role in the Signal chat.

While Waltz set it up, Hegseth posted times for aircraft launches and bomb drops into the unsecured app and shared the same information with dozens of people in a second chat, including his wife and brother.

The Associated Press reported that Hegseth also bypassed Pentagon security protocols to set up an unsecured line for a personal computer in his office — beside terminals where he was receiving classified information. That raises the possibility that sensitive information could have been put at risk of potential hacking or surveillance.

The Pentagon inspector general is investigating Hegseth’s use of Signal, and he has faced criticism from Democrats and even some Republicans. It has added to the turmoil at the Pentagon at a time when Hegseth has dismissed or transferred multiple close advisers. Nonetheless, Trump has maintained public confidence in Hegseth.

Associated Press writer Tara Copp and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

The White House described it as the first step in a “movement to peace” it hopes will eventually include a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea and a full and lasting end to the fighting.

The White House added negotiations would “begin immediately” in the Middle East on those steps. Shortly after the call between Trump and Putin, air raid alerts sounded in Kyiv, followed by explosions in the city. Local officials urged people to seek shelter.

It was not immediately clear whether Ukraine is on board with the limited ceasefire plan.

Ukrainian officials had proposed a ceasefire covering the Black Sea and long-range missile strikes and the release of prisoners at their meeting with the U.S delegation in Saudi Arabia earlier this month.

“We agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure, with an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a Complete Ceasefire and, ultimately, an END to this very horrible War between Russia and Ukraine,” Trump posted on social media following his call.

The Kremlin said Putin welcomed Trump’s calls for the maritime ceasefire and “agreed to begin negotiations to further work out specific details of such an agreement.”

Putin also told Trump that Russia and Ukraine are set to exchange 175 prisoners of war each on Wednesday, and Russia will also hand over to Ukraine 23 badly wounded soldiers, the Kremlin said.

Putin also called on Trump to end foreign military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine as the U.S. looks to bring an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the Kremlin.

The move comes as the White House pushes for Russia to sign off on its 30-day ceasefire proposal aimed at ending the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials last week agreed to the 30-day ceasefire proposal during talks in Saudi Arabia led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, however, remains skeptical that Putin is ready for peace as Russian forces continue to pound Ukraine.

The engagement is just the latest turn in dramatically shifting U.S.-Russia relations as Trump made quickly ending the conflict a top priority — even at the expense of straining ties with longtime American allies who want Putin to pay a price for the invasion.

In preparation for the Trump-Putin call, White House special envoy Steve Witkoff met last week with Putin in Moscow to discuss the proposal. Rubio had persuaded senior Ukrainian officials during talks in Saudi Arabia to agree to the ceasefire framework.

Putin last week said he agreed in principle with the U.S. proposal, but emphasized that Russia would seek guarantees that Ukraine would not use a break in hostilities to rearm and continue mobilization. The Russian president has also demanded that Ukraine renounce joining the NATO military alliance, sharply cut its army, and protect Russian language and culture to keep the country in Moscow’s orbit.

The U.S. president said this week that Washington and Moscow have already begun discussing “dividing up certain assets” between Ukraine and Russia as part of a deal to end the conflict.

Trump, who during his campaign pledged to end the war quickly, has at moments boasted of his relationship with Putin and blamed Ukraine for Russia’s unprovoked invasion, all while accusing Zelenskyy of unnecessarily prolonging the biggest land war in Europe since World War II.

Trump had said before the call that control of land and power plants would be part of the conversation, which came on the anniversary of Russia annexing Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula 11 years ago. That bold land grab by Russia set the stage for Russia to invade its neighbor in 2022.

Witkoff suggested that U.S. and Russian officials have discussed the fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest — in southern Ukraine.

The plant has been caught in the crossfire since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in 2022 and seized the facility shortly after. The U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly expressed alarm about it, fueling fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe.

The plant is a significant asset, producing nearly one-fourth of Ukraine’s electricity in the year before the war.

After a disastrous Feb. 28 White House meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump temporarily cut off some military intelligence-sharing and aid to Ukraine. It was restored after the Ukrainians last week signed off on the Trump administration’s 30-day ceasefire proposal.

Zelenskyy in his nightly video address on Monday made clear he remains doubtful that Putin is ready for peace.

“Now, almost a week later, it’s clear to everyone in the world — even to those who refused to acknowledge the truth for the past three years — that it is Putin who continues to drag out this war,” Zelenskyy said.

In his dealings with Zelenskyy and Putin, Trump has frequently focused on who has the leverage. Putin has “the cards” and Zelenskyy does not, Trump has said repeatedly.

Trump, who has long shown admiration for Putin, has also made clear he’d like to see the U.S.-Russia relationship return to a more normal footing.

The president during his recent contentious meeting with Zelenskyy grumbled that “Putin went through a hell of a lot with me,” a reference to the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in which he beat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Trump on Monday again underscored his view that Ukraine is not in a strong negotiating position. He said Russian forces have “surrounded” Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk region — amplifying an assertion made by Russian officials that’s been disputed by Zelenskyy.

Ukraine’s army stunned Russia in August last year by attacking across the border and taking control of an estimated 500 square miles of land. But Ukraine’s forces are now in retreat and it has all but lost a valuable bargaining chip, as momentum builds for a ceasefire with Russia.

Zelenskyy has acknowledged that the Ukrainians are on their back foot while disputing Russian claims that his troops are encircled in Kursk.

Trump suggested that he’s taken unspecified action that has kept Russia from slaughtering Ukrainian troops in Kursk.

“They’re surrounded by Russian soldiers, and I believe if it wasn’t for me they wouldn’t be here any longer,” Trump said.

The White House said the leaders also discussed the situation in the Middle East and agreed “Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel.”

U.S. officials have previously said that Iran has provided Russia with short-range ballistic missiles and attack drones for the war in Ukraine. The U.S. has also said that Iran has assisted the Kremlin with building a drone-manufacturing factory.

Isachenkov reported from Moscow.

President Donald Trump announced the arrest during his Tuesday night address to Congress, with the White House and the Justice Department subsequently identifying the suspect as Mohammad Sharifullah. Officials accuse him of being a member of the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate, known as ISIS-Khorasan, or ISIS-K, and say he admitted his role in that attack and others during an interview with FBI agents on Sunday after being taken into custody.

Senior Pakistani intelligence officers on Wednesday confirmed the arrest and said Sharifullah, also known as Jafar, was captured in the country’s restive southwest Balochistan province near the border with Afghanistan after multiple operations had failed to seize him.

The officers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said Sharifullah had joined the militant group in 2016 and was involved in numerous attacks across Afghanistan.

Sharifullah is charged in federal court in Virginia with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, resulting in death. He will face a judge on Wednesday and be assigned a lawyer to speak on his behalf. Additional charges are possible as the case moves through the court system.

Trump, in his address to Congress, said he was “pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity. And he is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice.”

The Abbey Gate bombing, in the waning days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover of the country amid the withdrawal by U.S. forces from the country, occurred in August 2021 when a suicide bomber attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport. Besides 13 U.S. service members, about 170 Afghans were also killed in the attack, which triggered widespread congressional criticism and undermined public confidence in President Joe Biden’s administration.

According to an FBI affidavit filed as part of the case, Sharifullah admitted under questioning to having joined ISIS-K in 2016 and to having participated in the Abbey Gate bombing by scouting a route to the airport for the bomber and communicating to other members of the militant group that the path was clear. The bomber was later identified as Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an Islamic State group militant who had been in an Afghan prison but was released by the Taliban as the group took control of the country that summer.

During his FBI interrogation, Sharifullah also said he had shared firearms and weapons instructions before a March 2024 attack in Moscow that was also carried out by ISIS-K, authorities said.

Sharifullah was arrested in 2019 by the U.S.-backed Afghan government at the time but escaped from prison on Aug. 15, 2021, as the Taliban took Kabul.

The Pakistani officials said Sharifullah had planned the bombing from behind bars with other senior militant figures. They said he remained on the run in the border areas of Balochistan until his arrest through a joint intelligence-sharing operation between Pakistan and the U.S.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Trump for “acknowledging and appreciating” the country’s role in counter terrorism efforts in Afghanistan.

“We will continue to partner closely with the United States in securing regional peace and stability,” Sharif said on the social platform X.

From Kabul, the Taliban chief spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid declined to comment beyond saying that the arrest “on Pakistani soil” of an Afghan national and member of the Islamic State group shows that IS group figures “have taken refuge and established havens” inside Pakistan.

“This issue has nothing to do with Afghanistan,” Mujahid said. The regional Islamic State affiliate is a rival group to the Afghan Taliban.

Trump had repeatedly condemned Biden’s role in the Afghanistan withdrawal on the campaign trail and blamed Biden for the Abbey Gate attack.

A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity Tuesday night to discuss a case that had yet to be unsealed, said Sharifullah’s arrest came after fresh U.S. intelligence community coordination, increased intelligence sharing and pressure on regional partners to bring those responsible for the attack to account since Trump’s swearing-in in January.

A White House official said Trump is focused on reaching a peace deal to end the more than three-year war sparked by Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, and wants Zelenskyy “committed” to that goal. The official added that the U.S. was “pausing and reviewing” its aid to “ensure that it is contributing to a solution.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the assistance.

The moment comes some five years after Trump held up congressionally authorized assistance to Ukraine in 2019 as he sought to pressure Zelenskyy to launch investigations into Joe Biden, then a Democratic presidential candidate. The moment led to Trump’s first impeachment.

Trump in the leadup to his 2024 election win vowed to quickly end the war in Ukraine. He’s expressed increasing frustration with Zelenskyy over the war, while simultaneously expressing confidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin can be trusted to keep the peace if a truce in the conflict is reached.

Trump earlier on Monday slammed Zelenskyy for suggesting that the end of Russia’s war against Ukraine likely “is still very, very far away.”

The comments come as prominent Trump allies escalate pressure on Zelenskyy to dramatically change his approach to the U.S. president, who has made quickly ending the war a top priority, or step aside.

The long complicated relationship between the leaders has reached a nadir following the disastrous White House meeting in which Trump and Vice President JD Vance excoriated Zelenskyy for not being sufficiently thankful for U.S. support for Ukraine since Putin ordered the February 2022 invasion.

“This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform about the comments Zelenskyy made late Sunday while speaking to reporters in London.

Trump at an event at the White House later on Monday referred to Zelenskyy’s reported comments, and asserted the Ukrainian leader “better not be right about that.”

“If somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, I think that person won’t be around very long,” Trump added. “That person will not be listened to very long.”

Trump took issue with Zelenskyy suggesting it would take time to come to an agreement to end the war. The Ukrainian leader also tried to offer a positive take on the U.S.-Ukraine relationship in the aftermath of last week’s White House meeting.

Asked by a reporter about the outlines of a new European initiative to end Russia’s war, Zelenskyy said: “We are talking about the first steps today, and, therefore, until they are on paper, I would not like to talk about them in great detail.”

“An agreement to end the war is still very, very far away, and no one has started all these steps yet,” he added.

But Trump was only further irritated by Zelenskyy’s suggesting it will take time for the conflict to come to a close.

“It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S. — Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia,” Trump added in his post. “What are they thinking?”

Zelenskyy took to social media soon after Trump’s latest criticism. He did not directly refer to Trump’s comments, but underscored that it “is very important that we try to make our diplomacy really substantive to end this war the soonest possible.”

“We need real peace and Ukrainians want it most because the war ruins our cities and towns,” Zelenskyy added. “We lose our people. We need to stop the war and to guarantee security.”

Trump’s national security adviser said Zelenskyy’s posture during Friday’s Oval Office talks “put up in the air” whether he’s someone the U.S. administration will be able to deal with going forward.

“Is he ready, personally, politically, to move his country towards an end to the fighting?” Mike Waltz said on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” earlier Monday. “And can he and will he make the compromises necessary?”

Waltz added another layer of doubt about U.S. support as other high-profile Trump allies have suggested that the relationship between Trump and Zelenskyy is becoming untenable.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday that Zelenskyy “needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude or someone else needs to lead the country” for Ukraine to continue pursuing a peace deal negotiated by the United States.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally who has been a vociferous supporter of Ukraine, said soon after the Oval Office meeting that Zelenskyy “either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with, or he needs to change.”

Angela Stent, a former national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council, said Putin is likely in no rush to end the war amid the fissures between Trump and Zelenskyy and Europe and the U.S. about the way ahead.

“He is not interested in ending the war,” said Stent, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “He thinks Russia is winning. … And he thinks that as time goes on, the West will be more fractured.”

Trump administration and Ukrainian officials had been expected to sign off on a deal during Zelenskyy’s visit last week that would have given the U.S. access to Ukraine’s critical minerals in part to pay back more than $180 billion in aid the U.S. has sent Kyiv since the start of the war. The White House has also billed such a pact as a way to tighten U.S.-Ukrainian relations in the long term.

The signing was scrapped after the leaders’ Oval Office talks went off the rails and White House officials asked Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian delegation to leave.

Trump on Monday, however, suggested he hasn’t given up on the economic pact, calling it “a great deal.” He added that he expected to speak to the deal during his Tuesday address before a joint session of Congress.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican who co-chairs the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, spoke with Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, on Monday about getting the mineral rights deal back on track.

Fitzpatrick after the lengthy call predicted the “deal will be signed in short order.”

AP journalist Tracy Brown contributed reporting.

Trump said in a social media post that he and Putin held a lengthy phone call and committed to “work together, very closely” to bring the conflict to an end and would meet in person, including perhaps in each other’s countries.

Trump subsequently announced that he’d also spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but only after his talk with Putin. After the calls, White House officials declined to clarify whether Ukraine would be a party to the U.S. negotiations.

That sent a potentially dramatic signal that Washington and Moscow might work to hammer out a deal to end fighting in Ukraine by going around that country’s government. Doing so would break with the Biden administration, which steadfastly insisted Kyiv would be a full participant in any decisions made.

In another blow to Ukraine’s aspirations, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at NATO headquarters in Brussels that NATO membership was unrealistic for Ukraine, it should abandon hopes of winning all its territory back from Russia and any security guarantees for Kyiv would have to be borne by European countries.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the Biden administration had joined other NATO members in vowing that membership in the Western military alliance was “inevitable.”

Zelenskyy sought to put a brave face on what many in Ukraine will see as a major disappointment. In a social media post, he said he had “a meaningful conversation” with Trump that included discussion of “opportunities to achieve peace” and Kyiv’s “readiness to work together at the team level.”

“I am grateful to President Trump,” he said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the conversation between Trump and Putin covered a good deal of ground, including the Middle East and Iran, but that Ukraine was the main focus.

Peskov said Trump called for a quick cessation of hostilities and a peaceful settlement, and that “President Putin, in his turn, emphasized the need to remove the root causes of the conflict and agreed with Trump that a long-term settlement could be achieved through peace talks.”

“The Russian president supported one of the main theses of the U.S. president that the time has come for our two countries to work together,” Peskov told reporters. “The Russian president invited the U.S. president to visit Moscow and expressed readiness to host U.S. officials in Russia for issues of mutual interest, naturally including Ukraine, the Ukrainian settlement.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said of Trump’s conversations with both Putin and Zelenskyy: “They were very good calls. They were very positive.”

But when she was asked specifically about the administration’s views on Ukraine’s NATO membership, she said only that she had not spoken to Trump about it.

“I believe this nation views Putin and Russia as a great competitor in the region. At times, an adversary,” Leavitt said. She also noted of Trump: “At times, he enjoys having good diplomatic relationships with leaders around the world.”

Still, working more closely with Putin on Ukraine directly defies Biden, who, together with his top national security aides, repeatedly insisted, “Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”

Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s special Russia-Ukraine envoy, retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, will all be in Germany this week for the annual Munich Security Conference, which Zelenskyy also will attend. Leavitt said discussions will continue then.

Wednesday’s Trump-Putin call and the resulting policy sea change followed a prisoner swap that resulted in Russia releasing Pennsylvania schoolteacher Marc Fogel after more than three years of detention in return for convicted Russian criminal Alexander Vinnik.

The White House has described the prisoner swap as evidence of a diplomatic thaw that could advance negotiations to end the fighting in Ukraine.

In a social media post detailing his call with Putin, Trump wrote, “We each talked about the strengths of our respective Nations, and the great benefit that we will someday have in working together.”

“But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine,” Trump wrote.

Trump said he and Putin also “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately.” He appointed Rubio, CIA director John Ratcliffe, national security adviser Michael Waltz and his special Mideast envoy Steven Witkoff to lead those talks.

Leavitt didn’t comment on whether Ukraine came up during the prisoner swap.

Fogel, who was deemed wrongfully detained by Russia, was arrested in August 2021 for possession of marijuana and was serving a 14-year prison sentence. He had been left out of previous prisoner swaps with Russia that were negotiated by the Biden administration.

Vinnik — the other person involved, according to two U.S. officials — was arrested in 2017 in Greece at the request of the U.S. on cryptocurrency fraud charges and was later extradited to the United States, where he pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit money laundering.

He is in custody in California awaiting transport to Russia, the officials said. The Kremlin confirmed that a Russian citizen was freed in the United States in exchange for Fogel but refused to identify him until he arrives in Russia.

Trump welcomed Fogel at the White House on Tuesday evening after his return to the U.S. on Witkoff’s personal plane. On Wednesday, Trump declined to say if he spoke with Putin about Fogel and didn’t say what the United States had provided in exchange for Fogel’s release.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump suggested that Fogel’s release could help anchor a peace deal on Ukraine, saying: “We were treated very nicely by Russia, actually. I hope that’s the beginning of a relationship where we can end that war.”

AP reporter Eric Tucker contributed from Washington.

The decision by Biden comes after Donald Trump warned of an enemies list filled with those who have crossed him politically or sought to hold him accountable for his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss and his role in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump has selected Cabinet nominees who backed his election lies and who have pledged to punish those involved in efforts to investigate him.

“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” Biden said in a statement. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”

The pardons, announced with just hours left in Biden’s presidency, have been the subject of heated debate for months at the highest levels of the White House. It’s customary for a president to grant clemency at the end of his term, but those acts of mercy are usually offered to Americans who have been convicted of crimes.

Biden, a Democrat, has used the power in the broadest and most untested way possible: to pardon those who have not even been investigated. His decision lays the groundwork for an even more expansive use of pardons by Trump, a Republican, and future presidents.

While the Supreme Court last year ruled that presidents enjoy broad immunity from prosecution for what could be considered official acts, the president’s aides and allies enjoy no such shield. There is concern that future presidents could use the promise of a blanket pardon to encourage allies to take actions they might otherwise resist for fear of running afoul of the law.

It’s unclear whether those pardoned by Biden would need to apply for the clemency or accept the president’s offer. Acceptance could be seen as a tacit admission of guilt or wrongdoing, validating years of attacks by Trump and his supporters, even though those who have been pardoned have not been formally accused of any crimes.

“These are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden said. “Even when individuals have done nothing wrong — and in fact have done the right thing — and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances.”

Milley, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has called Trump a fascist and has detailed Trump’s conduct around the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection. He said he was grateful to Biden for a pardon.

“I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights,” he said in a statement. “I do not want to put my family, my friends, and those with whom I served through the resulting distraction, expense, and anxiety.”

Biden also extended pardons to members and staff of the Jan. 6 committee that investigated the attack, as well as the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the House committee about their experiences that day, overrun by an angry, violent mob of Trump supporters.

The committee spent 18 months investigating Trump and the insurrection. It was led by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Rep. Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican who later pledged to vote for Democrat Kamala Harris and campaigned with her against Trump.

The committee’s final report found that Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol.

“Rather than accept accountability,” Biden said, “those who perpetrated the January 6th attack have taken every opportunity to undermine and intimidate those who participated in the Select Committee in an attempt to rewrite history, erase the stain of January 6th for partisan gain, and seek revenge, including by threatening criminal prosecutions.”

Biden’s statement did not list the dozens of members and staff by name. Some did not know they were to receive pardons until it happened, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

Fauci was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health for nearly 40 years, including during Trump’s term in office, and later served as Biden’s chief medical adviser until his retirement in 2022.

He helped coordinate the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and raised Trump’s ire when he resisted Trump’s untested public health notions. Fauci has since become a target of intense hatred and vitriol from people on the right, who blame him for mask mandates and other policies they believe infringed on their rights, even as hundreds of thousands of people were dying.

“Despite the accomplishments that my colleagues and I achieved over my long career of public service, I have been the subject of politically-motivated threats of investigation and prosecution,” Fauci said in a statement. “There is absolutely no basis for these threats. Let me be perfectly clear: I have committed no crime.”

Biden, an institutionalist, has promised a smooth transition to the next administration, inviting Trump to the White House and saying that the nation will be OK, even as he warned during his farewell address of a growing oligarchy. He has spent years warning that Trump’s ascension to the presidency again would be a threat to democracy. His decision to break with political norms was brought on by those concerns.

Biden has set the presidential record for most individual pardons and commutations issued. He also pardoned his son Hunter.

He is not the first to consider such preemptive pardons. Trump aides considered them for Trump and his supporters involved in his failed efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election that culminated in the violent riot at the Capitol. But Trump’s pardons never materialized before he left office four years ago.

President Gerald Ford granted a “full, free, and absolute pardon” in 1974 to his predecessor, Richard Nixon, over the Watergate scandal.

Trump, who takes office at noon, has promised to grant swift clemency to many of those involved in the violent and bloody Jan. 6, 2021, attack, which injured roughly 140 law enforcement officers. “Everybody in this very large arena will be very happy with my decision,” he said at a Sunday rally.

The attribution comes as Iran threatened on Wednesday to “decisively respond” to any U.S. attack on the Islamic Republic after the U.S. said it holds Tehran responsible. The U.S. has signaled it is preparing for retaliatory strikes in the Mideast in the wake of the Sunday drone attack that also wounded at least 40 troops at Tower 22, a secretive base in northeastern Jordan that’s been crucial to the American presence in neighboring Syria.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday the U.S. believes the attack was planned, resourced and facilitated by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group that includes the militant group Kataib Hezbollah. He said Biden “believes that it is important to respond in an appropriate way.”

Kirby said Biden was continuing to weigh retaliation options to the attack but said “the first thing you see won’t be the last thing,” adding it “won’t be a one-off.”

Kirby dismissed a statement by Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah announcing “the suspension of military and security operations against the occupation forces in order to prevent embarrassment to the Iraqi government.” He said that the group can’t be taken at face value, and he added, “they’re not the only group that has been attacking us.”

Biden, meanwhile, is set to attend the somber return of the fallen troops to U.S. soil on Friday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, known as a dignified transfer, the White House announced.

Any additional American strikes could further inflame a region already roiled by Israel’s ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The war began with Hamas attacking Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage. Since then, Israeli strikes have killed more than 26,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly 2 million others from their homes, arousing anger throughout the Muslim world.

Violence has erupted across the Mideast, with Iran striking targets in Iraq, Pakistan and Syria, and the U.S. carrying out airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels over their attacks shipping in the Red Sea. Some observers fear a new round of strikes targeting Iran could tip the region into a wider war.

A U.S. Navy destroyer in the waterway shot down an anti-ship cruise missile launched by the Houthis late Tuesday, the latest attack targeting American forces patrolling the key maritime trade route, officials said. The U.S. later launched a new round of airstrikes targeting the Houthis.

The Iranian warnings first came from Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York. He gave a briefing to Iranian journalists late Tuesday, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

“The Islamic Republic would decisively respond to any attack on the county, its interests and nationals under any pretexts,” IRNA quoted Iravani as saying. He described any possible Iranian retaliation as a “strong response,” without elaborating.

The Iranian mission to the U.N. did not respond to requests for comment or elaboration Wednesday on Iravani’s remarks.

Iravani also denied that Iran and the U.S. had exchanged any messages over the last few days, either through intermediaries or directly. The pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera, which is based in and funded by Qatar, reported earlier that such communication had taken place. Qatar often serves as an intermediary between Washington and Tehran.

“Such messages have not been exchanged,” Iravani said.

But Iran’s government has taken note of the U.S. threats of retaliation for the attack on the base in Jordan.

“Sometime, our enemies raise the threat, and nowadays we hear some threats in between words by American officials,” Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Hossein Salami, who answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said at an event Wednesday. “We tell them that you have experienced us, and we know each other. We do not leave any threat without an answer.”

“We are not after war, but we have no fear of war,” he added, according to IRNA.

Kirby, for his part, said the U.S. doesn’t “seek a war with Iran. We’re not looking for a broader conflict.”

On Saturday, a general in charge of Iran’s air defenses described them as being at their “highest defensive readiness.” That raises concerns for commercial aviation traveling through and over Iran as well. After a U.S. drone strike killed a top general in 2020, Iranian air defenses mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing all 176 people on board.

On Wednesday, a U.S. military jet struck a surface-to-air missile that was about to launch from Houthi-controlled Yemen, a U.S. official said. The missile was deemed an immediate threat and destroyed. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details ahead of a public announcement.

Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea over Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza. But they have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperiling shipping in a key route for global trade between Asia, the Mideast and Europe.

The Houthis hit a commercial vessel with a missile on Friday, sparking a fire that burned for hours.

The U.S. and the United Kingdom have launched multiple rounds of airstrikes targeting the Houthis as allied warships patrol the waterways affected by the attacks. The European Union also plans to launch a naval mission in the Red Sea within three weeks to help defend cargo ships against the Houthi attacks, the bloc’s top diplomat said Wednesday.

According to a U.S. official, the number of troops injured by the one-way attack drone rose to at least 34.

“Eight personnel that received injuries required evacuation from Jordan to higher level care, but they are in stable condition,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement Sunday evening. “All other service members are being fully evaluated for follow-on care.”

Another official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not made public, said a large drone struck the base, which two other American officials identified as an installation in Jordan known as Tower 22. It is along the Syrian border and is used largely by troops involved in the advise-and-assist mission for Jordanian forces.

The small installation, which Jordan does not publicly disclose, includes U.S. engineering, aviation, logistics and security troops. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the troops were deployed there “to work for the lasting defeat of ISIS.”

Roughly 350 U.S. soldiers and airmen are based there, according to CENTCOM.

Three officials said the drone struck near the troops’ sleeping quarters, which they said explained the high casualty count.

The U.S. military base at al-Tanf in Syria is just 12 miles north of Tower 22. The Jordanian installation provides a critical logistical hub for U.S. forces in Syria, including those at al-Tanf, which is near where the borders of Iraq, Syria and Jordan intersect.

Biden, who was traveling in South Carolina, asked for a moment of silence during an appearance at a Baptist church’s banquet hall.

“We had a tough day last night in the Middle East. We lost three brave souls in an attack on one of our bases,” he said. After the moment of silence, Biden added, “and we shall respond.”

With an increasing risk of military escalation in the region, U.S. officials were working to conclusively identify the precise group responsible for the attack, but they have assessed that one of several Iranian-backed groups was behind it.

Iran-backed fighters in east Syria began evacuating their posts, fearing U.S. airstrikes, according to Omar Abu Layla, a Europe-based activist who heads the Deir Ezzor 24 media outlet. He told The Associated Press that the areas are the strongholds of Mayadeen and Boukamal.

Biden earlier said in a written statement that the United States “will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner (of) our choosing.” Austin said “we will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our troops, and our interests.”

Jordanian state television quoted Muhannad Mubaidin, a government spokesman, as insisting the attack happened across the border in Syria.

U.S. troops long have used Jordan, a kingdom bordering Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian territory of the West Bank, Saudi Arabia and Syria, as a basing point. Some 3,000 American troops typically are stationed across Jordan, but the number at Tower 22 wasn’t immediately known and isn’t routinely disclosed.

Since the war in Gaza began Oct. 7, Iranian-backed militias have struck American military installations in Iraq more than 60 times and in Syria more than 90 times, with a mix of drones, rockets, mortars and ballistic missiles. The attack Sunday was the first targeting American troops in Jordan during the Israel-Hamas war and the first to result in the loss of American lives. Scores of U.S. personnel have been wounded, including some with traumatic brain injuries, during the attacks.

The militias have said that their strikes are in retaliation for Washington’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza and that they aim to push U.S. forces out of the region.

The U.S. in recent months has struck targets in Iraq, Syria and Yemen to respond to attacks on American forces in the region and to deter Iran-backed Houthi rebels from continuing to threaten commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

“I am confident the Biden Administration will respond in a deliberate and proportional manner,” said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Republicans in Congress said the administration’s approach had failed to deter America’s adversaries in the region.

“We need a major reset of our Middle East policy to protect our national security interests,” said Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., went further, urging the administration “to strike targets of significance inside Iran, not only as reprisal for the killing of our forces, but as deterrence against future aggression. The only thing the Iranian regime understands is force.”

Biden, who was in Columbia, South Carolina, on Sunday, was briefed in the morning by Austin, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and principal deputy national security adviser Jon Finer, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. In the afternoon, he met virtually with Vice President Kamala Harris and his national security team for an update.

The president, in the written statement, called it a “despicable and wholly unjust attack” and said the service members were “risking their own safety for the safety of their fellow Americans, and our allies and partners with whom we stand in the fight against terrorism. It is a fight we will not cease.”

Syria is still in the midst of a civil war and long has been a launch pad for Iranian-backed forces there, including the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. Iraq has multiple Iranian-backed Shiite militias operating there as well.

Jordan, a staunch Western ally and a crucial power in Jerusalem for its oversight of holy sites there, is suspected of launching airstrikes in Syria to disrupt drug smugglers, including one that killed nine people earlier this month.

An umbrella group for Iran-backed factions known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq earlier claimed launching explosive drone attacks targeting three areas in Syria, as well as one inside of “occupied Palestine.” The group has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks against bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since the Israel-Hamas war began.

Three officials with Iran-backed militias in Iraq, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with journalists, said the drone attack against the base in Jordan was launched by one of the Iraqi groups. No faction has yet officially claimed responsibility.

Officials said the U.S. military is not tracking any other attacks on its forces Sunday in the region.

Military Times editor Geoff Ziezulewicz contributed to this report.

The drone attack, which U.S. officials said hit the Tower 22 outpost near Jordan’s border with Syria, is the first such strike that has resulted in U.S. fatalities after months of attacks against American troops in the region by Iran-backed militias.

The extent of injuries to the wounded personnel is unknown at this time. One U.S. official told Reuters, meanwhile, that numerous troops are being evaluated for traumatic brain injury.

In a White House-issued statement on Sunday, President Joe Biden said he was “grieving the loss of these warriors” and blamed the attack on “radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq.”

“These service members embodied the very best of our nation,” Biden said. “Unwavering in their bravery. Unflinching in their duty. Unbending in their commitment to our country — risking their own safety for the safety of their fellow Americans, and our allies and partners with whom we stand in the fight against terrorism. It is a fight we will not cease.”

Biden added that the U.S. “will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner [of] our choosing.”

Tower 22, which had not been targeted in previous strikes by Iran-backed militias, is located approximately 12 miles south of the al-Tanf garrison in southeastern Syria, where U.S. troops have maintained a presence to train partner forces as part of the campaign against the Islamic State.

The small installation, which Jordan does not publicly disclose, includes U.S. engineering, aviation, logistics and security troops. An estimated 3,000 U.S. troops are typically stationed in Jordan.

Sunday’s attack is the latest of more than 150 strikes that have been launched on regional bases housing U.S. troops since Oct. 17, shortly after the U.S. sent aircraft carriers, Air Force fighter squadrons and other troops to the Middle East following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Iran-backed militias have struck American military installations using a mix of drones, rockets, mortars and ballistic missiles. Scores of U.S. personnel have been wounded since October, including some who sustained traumatic brain injuries.

The attack Sunday was the first targeting American troops in Jordan amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.

“I am outraged and deeply saddened by the deaths of three of our U.S. service members and woundings of other American troops,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Sunday. “The president and I will not tolerate attacks on American forces, and we will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our troops, and our interests.”

The U.S. in recent months has carried out strikes against targets in Iraq, Syria and Yemen in response to attacks on American forces in the region and as a means of deterring Iran-backed Houthi rebels from continuing to threaten commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Militias claiming responsibility for attacks since October have said the strikes are in retaliation for U.S. support of Israeli in its war in Gaza. Militant groups have also stated the attacks are intended to push U.S. forces out of the region.

The attack Sunday comes as U.S. and Iraqi governments are expected to soon begin discussions about the future role of U.S. troops in Iraq. In a Jan. 10 interview with Reuters, Iraqi prime minister Shia al-Sudani described the presence of 2,500 U.S. troops who deployed to Iraq in support of the mission to defeat ISIS as destabilizing. That rhetoric, however, has yet to yield any formal requests either to the Pentagon or White House, according to U.S. officials.

In accordance with Department of Defense policy, the identities of those killed in Sunday’s attack are being withheld until 24 hours after next-of-kin notifications.

Military Times reporter Meghann Myers contributed to this report.

U.S. forces on Thursday conducted a fifth strike against Iranian-backed Houthi rebel military sites in Yemen as President Joe Biden acknowledged that the American and British bombardment had yet to stop the militants’ attacks on vessels in the Red Sea that have disrupted global shipping.

The latest strikes destroyed two Houthi anti-ship missiles that “were aimed into the southern Red Sea and prepared to launch,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. They were conducted by Navy F/A-18 fighter aircraft, the Pentagon said.

Biden said the U.S. would continue the strikes, even though so far they have not stopped the Houthis from continuing to harass commercial and military vessels.

“When you say working, are they stopping the Houthis, no. Are they going to continue, yes,” Biden said in an exchange with reporters before departing the White House for a domestic policy speech in North Carolina.

Hours after Biden spoke, Houthi Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a prerecorded statement that its forces had carried out another missile attack against the Marshall Islands-flagged, U.S.-owned cargo ship Chem Ranger. Saree said the attack took place in the Gulf of Aden, the waters just south of Yemen.

Earlier Thursday evening, the British military warned of a new attack on shipping some 160 kilometers (100 miles) off the coast of Yemen, also in the Gulf of Aden. The Pentagon was not immediately able to confirm the strikes but has cautioned that it anticipates the Houthis will continue their attacks.

The continued harassment of the ships has driven the U.S. and international partners to take extraordinary steps to defend them through a joint mission named Operation Prosperity Guardian, in which the consortium is trying to create a protective umbrella for the vessels by intercepting any missiles or drones that target them. It has also led the U.S. and British militaries to take measures to knock out missile sites, radars and air defense systems to try to tamp down the Houthis’ ability to attack.

On Wednesday the U.S. military fired another wave of ship- and submarine-launch missile strikes against 14 Houthi-controlled sites. That same day, the administration put the Houthis back on its list of specially designated global terrorists. The sanctions that come with the formal designation are meant to sever violent extremist groups from their sources of financing, while also allowing vital humanitarian aid to continue flowing to impoverished Yemenis.

“These strikes will continue for as long as they need to continue,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday, adding, “I’m not going to telegraph punches one way or another.”

Despite sanctions and military strikes, including a large-scale operation carried out by U.S. and British warships and warplanes that hit more than 60 targets across Yemen, the Houthis keep harassing commercial and military ships. The U.S. has strongly warned Iran to cease providing weapons to the Houthis.

“We never said the Houthis would immediately stop,” the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary, Sabrina Singh, said at a briefing, when asked why the strikes have not seemed to stop the Houthis. Since the joint U.S. and British operation got underway last Friday, hitting 28 locations and struck more than 60 targets in that initial round, the Houthis’ attacks have been “lower scale,” Singh said.

For months, the Houthis have claimed attacks on ships in the Red Sea that they say are either linked to Israel or heading to Israeli ports. They say their attacks aim to end the Israeli air-and-ground offensive in the Gaza Strip that was triggered by the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel. But the links to the ships targeted in the rebel assaults have grown more tenuous as the attacks continue.

The attacks have also raised questions as to whether the conflict between Israel and Hamas has already expanded into a wider regional war.

“We don’t seek war, we don’t think we are at war. We don’t want to see a regional war,” Singh said.

Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Jerusalem, Jack Jeffrey in London, and Lolita C. Baldor and Sagar Meghani in Washington contributed to this report.