Donald Trump, who won the 2024 US presidential election, plans to appoint Republican Mike Waltz as his national security adviser.
This was reported by Reuters, citing sources familiar with the matter. Later, Donald Trump himself confirmed this information on his social network Truth.
What is known about Mike Waltz's activities
Waltz is a Trump supporter, he also served in the National Guard, criticized Chinese activity in the Asia-Pacific region and stated the need for the United States to be prepared for a potential conflict in the region.
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The National Security Advisor is an influential position that does not require Senate confirmation. Waltz will be responsible for briefing Trump on key national security issues and coordinating with various agencies.
Note that in the current administration of US President Joe Biden, Jake Sullivan is the national security adviser.
While criticizing the Biden administration for its disastrous troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Waltz has publicly praised Trump's foreign policy views.
Waltz has a long history in Washington policy circles.
He served as director of defense policy under Defense Secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates and was elected to Congress in 2018. He is the chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee, which oversees military logistics, and serves on the House Select Committee on Intelligence.
Waltz serves on the Republican China Task Force and argues that the U.S. military is not as prepared as it needs to be for a conflict in the Indo-Pacific.
Mike Waltz's Political Views and Position on Ukraine
In a book published earlier this year, Hard Truths: Think and Lead Like a Green Beret, Waltz laid out a five-part strategy for preventing war with China, including accelerating the armament of Taiwan, reassuring allies in the Pacific, and modernizing aircraft and ships.
On Ukraine, Waltz said his views have evolved. Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he called on the Biden administration to provide Ukraine with more weapons to help it push back Russian forces.
Last month, however, Waltz said there should be a reassessment of U.S. goals in Ukraine.
“Is it in America's interest to spend the time, the money, the resources that we desperately need in the Pacific right now?” he asked.
At the same time, Waltz praised Trump for pushing NATO allies to spend more on defense, but unlike the president-elect, he stopped short of suggesting the United States leave the North Atlantic bloc.
Waltz demonstrated his loyalty to Trump earlier this year when he appeared at a May 16 court hearing on charges of paying a porn star to keep quiet about his relationship with Trump, one of the few lawmakers to do so.
He has been an outspoken Trump supporter in recent years, sharing the president-elect's intolerance of illegal immigration and skepticism about America's support for Ukraine.
Last year, he wrote an op-ed for Fox News arguing that “the era of blank checks for Ukraine from Congress is over”. He supported Trump, calling on Europe to do more to ensure the collective defense of the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
– Stopping Russia before it drags NATO, and therefore the United States, into war is the right thing to do. But the burden cannot continue to rest solely on the shoulders of the American people, especially while Western Europe gets the pass, Waltz wrote.
He told NPR this month that Trump's promise to hold talks between Ukraine and Russia is “well-founded,” and said that if Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn't cooperate, the U.S. has “leverage,” such as lifting the ban on long-range weapons that we've also provided to Ukraine.
