Mike Waltz Next National Security Advisor
The Congressman and Green Beret colonel will head Trump's national security team.
AP (“Trump asks Rep. Mike Waltz, China hawk, to be his national security adviser“):
President-elect Donald Trump has asked U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, a person familiar with the matter said Monday.
The nod came despite simmering concerns on Capitol Hill about Trump tapping members of the House, where the final tally is still uncertain and there are worries about pulling any GOP members from the chamber because that would force a new election to fill the empty seat. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter before Trump made a formal announcement.
The move would put Waltz at the forefront of a litany of national security crises — ranging from the ongoing effort to provide weapons to Ukraine and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to the persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran proxies and the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah.
Waltz, a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida, was the first Green Beret elected to the U.S. House, and easily won reelection last week. He has been chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on readiness and a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Waltz is an ardent Trump advocate who backed efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He is considered hawkish on China, and called for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its ongoing mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population.
He has been a sharp critic of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and has called on the U.S. to hold accountable those who bear responsibility for the deaths of the 13 U.S. service members at Abbey Gate and for “thousands of Americans and allies behind enemy lines.”
He has also repeated Trump’s frequent complaints about a so-called “woke” military that the former president has derided as soft and too focused on diversity and equity programs.
In a statement last year, Waltz said that as head of the readiness subcommittee: “I am ready to get to work to better equip our military and turn our focus away from woke priorities and back to winning wars. Our national security depends on it.”
A graduate of Virginia Military Institute, Waltz was a Green Beret. He served in the active-duty Army for four years before moving to the Florida Guard. While in the Guard he did multiple combat tours in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa and was awarded four Bronze Stars, including two with valor.
He also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs.
Reuters (“Trump selects Mike Waltz as national security adviser, sources say“) adds:
The national security adviser is a powerful role, which does not require Senate confirmation. Waltz will be responsible for briefing Trump on key national security issues and coordinating with different agencies.
While slamming the Biden administration for a disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Waltz has publicly praised Trump’s foreign policy views.
“Disruptors are often not nice … frankly our national security establishment and certainly a lot of people that are dug into bad old habits in the Pentagon need that disruption,” Waltz said during an event earlier this year.
“Donald Trump is that disruptor,” he said.
Waltz has a long history in Washington’s political circles.
He was a defense policy director for defense secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates and was elected to Congress in 2018. He is the chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee overseeing military logistics and also on the select committee on intelligence.
Waltz is also on the Republicans’ China Task Force and has argued the U.S. military is not as prepared as it needs to be if there is conflict in the Indo-Pacific region.
In a book published earlier this year titled “Hard Truths: Think and Lead Like a Green Beret,” Waltz laid out a five-part strategy to preventing war with China, including arming Taiwan faster, re-assuring allies in the Pacific, and modernizing planes and ships.
On Ukraine, Waltz has said his views have evolved. After Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he called for the Biden administration to provide more weapons to Kyiv to help them push back Russian forces.
But during an event last month, Waltz said there had to be a reassessment of the United States’ aims in Ukraine.
“Is it in America’s interest, are we going to put in the time, the treasure, the resources that we need in the Pacific right now badly?” Waltz asked.
Waltz has praised Trump for pushing NATO allies to spend more on defense, but unlike the president-elect has not suggested the United States pull out of the alliance.
“Look we can be allies and friends and have tough conversations,” Waltz said last month.
[…]
Waltz, who was in the running to be defense secretary, could rankle some in the uniformed ranks. As a congressman from Florida, he has been at the forefront of a conservative movement opposed to teaching certain theories about racism and has criticized military officials for it.
He has also lamented the Pentagon’s failure to fire generals and civilian bureaucrats who fail to perform.
“We need to get a culture of accountability into that place. No one ever seems to get fired, with these massive cost over-runs, massive waste,” Waltz told Fox News last week. “We don’t need managers there. We need reformers.”
Waltz is too MAGA and too much of a bomb thrower for my tastes. The best National Security Advisors are background figures who coordinate the President’s team rather than outspoken public advocates. But he’s well qualified for the job in terms of experience and his temperament is a good fit with Trump’s.
As the WSJ (“Trump Expected to Nominate Rubio for Secretary of State, and Picks Waltz as National Security Adviser“) notes,
Trump, in his first term in office, went through four national security advisers, the first of whom served only 22 days. The others, including Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster and John Bolton, were eventually pushed out by Trump over their disagreements over certain policy issues. Robert O’Brien, Trump’s last national security adviser, served through the Covid-19 pandemic and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol and was among the names Trump has considered for a cabinet job in his coming term.
It’s possible that Waltz will bring some stability.
This is your area and not mine, but is he? He strikes me as minimally qualified at best.
James: “It’s possible that Waltz will bring some stability.”
It’s more likely to bring instability. Sounds to me like he wants the Secretary of Defense job as well. He did read the job description, right?
Anyone who thinks the military needs to “turn [its] focus away from woke priorities and back to winning wars” is not someone who is qualified for this job. I’m pretty sure the military has not been focused on work priorities, assuming Waltz can even tell us what that means. He’s just insulted the armed forces.
@Not the IT Dept.:
Pardon the spelling mistake: “woke priorities”, not “work priorities”, of course.
@Steven L. Taylor: Not an expert by any means, but I’m a supporter of moves by Trump that replace experienced Republicans in the house and Senate with novices or Democrats.* He seems better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, which makes him a good choice relative to what we can expect from Trump. Finally, “minimally qualified” is about the best we can expect based on Trump’s history of “having all the best people.”
I’ll give this choice firm, meh… not terrible.
ETA: * Something I never thought I’d hear myself say. Especially the Democrats part.
What are the specific woke policies and racism teaching that Mr. Waltz opposes? Do promotions and choice assignments come faster for individuals of certain racial types? A quick google shows that about 70% of Americans are white and so are active duty male soldiers. Truman issued an order for the integration of US forces about one year after the Dodgers gave Jackie Robinson a contract. The current Joint Chiefs of Staff have one woman and one African American. I’m far from the military and curious about the problem that Mr.Waltz wants to fix.
Trump is a “disruptor”? Maybe in the way that term was used in Glass Onion. Did Waltz understand that movie?
In 2020 Waltz violated his oath to the military, to the Constitution and to the country. He will now assist Trump in treasonously bowing to Vladimir Putin and betraying our allies. In a just world he’d be in prison. He is a man without honor.
@Steven L. Taylor: He’s only been in Congress a few years, having replaced Ron DeSantis. But he chairs the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, served in several appointed roles in the Bush Defense Department, and has risen to colonel in the Reserve Component. He’s not exactly Henry Kissinger or Condi Rice but he’s arguably more qualified than H.R. McMaster, let alone Mike Flynn, from Trump’s first go-around.
@James Joyner:
He’s qualified in the same sense that Robert E. Lee would have been qualified to be President Grant’s Secretary of the Army. Knowledgeable, but also a man who tried to steal an election in violation of the US Constitution and his own solemn oaths. So, not really fit to serve in any capacity.
@Michael Reynolds:
You don’t think Beria was qualified to run the KGB?
@James Joyner:
Faint praise, shall we say!