Ambassador Mike Waltz, the 32nd U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former Green Beret, joins Adam Goodman on 13th and Park for a wide-ranging conversation on American diplomacy, the reform of the United Nations, and the foreign policy vision driving the Trump administration. A decorated combat veteran with four Bronze Stars, including two for valor, Waltz brings a soldier's directness and a businessman's focus on outcomes to one of the most consequential diplomatic posts in the world.
Waltz walks through his confrontation with the Cuban foreign minister on the floor of the UN General Assembly, where he publicly called out the Castro family's private planes, private yachts, and luxury lifestyle while ordinary Cubans starve, prompting the Cuban diplomat to pound his translation device so hard he broke it. He frames Cuba's propaganda campaign as a last-ditch effort to blame the United States for communist mismanagement, and places it inside a broader realignment of the Western Hemisphere back toward the United States, from Argentina and Chile to Panama's withdrawal from China's Belt and Road Initiative.
On Iran, Waltz details the maximum pressure campaign squeezing the regime's finances, describes the real and documented assassination plots against senior U.S. officials, and explains why preventing a nuclear Iran is not just a Middle East issue but a global one. He also breaks down the UN's first-ever budget cuts under his watch, the defeat of a proposed billion-dollar-per-month carbon tax on global shipping, and the push to consolidate humanitarian agencies so more aid actually reaches people in need.
The conversation turns personal as Waltz reflects on his time as a Special Forces soldier bridging the gap between battlefield realities and Washington policymaking, the strong women who have shaped his life and career, and what it feels like to sit in the White House Situation Room knowing the weight of every decision. He closes with a reminder rooted in America's 250th anniversary: that the founding idea of rights coming from God to the individual, not from kings or governments, is still the most radical and powerful idea in human history.
Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:23 Welcome to 13th and Park 1:55 Cuba Confrontation at the UN 4:10 Latin America Strategy 5:37 Reforming the United Nations 7:31 Blocking the Global Carbon Tax 8:45 Business Mindset at the UN 10:53 Iran and the Strait of Hormuz 14:01 China and Energy Realignment 16:06 Tim Tebow, Nicki Minaj, and Human Trafficking 18:38 Green Beret to Diplomat 21:47 Family and the Women in His Life 23:36 Inside the Situation Room 26:49 A New American Foreign Policy 29:04 America's Founding Principles 30:02 Closing Remarks
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