Trump Taps Rep. Mike Waltz for National Security Adviser Post
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 selection comes despite concerns within Congress regarding the potential for Trump to appoint House members to his cabinet. With the final election results still pending, and concerns about the need for a new election to fill any empty seat, some lawmakers worry that pulling any GOP members from the House could be disruptive. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter before a formal announcement from Trump.
Waltz would be at the forefront of handling a number of national security challenges, including the ongoing effort to provide weapons to Ukraine, growing concerns about the alliance between Russia and North Korea, persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iranian 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. He won reelection last week. Waltz is the 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 a strong supporter of Trump and backed efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He is considered a hawk 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 mistreatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority.
He has been a vocal critic of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and has called for accountability for those responsible for the deaths of 13 U.S. service members at Abbey Gate and for “thousands of Americans and allies behind enemy lines.”
He has also echoed Trump’s criticisms of a “woke” military, which the former president has derided as weak and overly 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.
“President-Elect Trump will begin making decisions on who will serve in his second Administration soon,” said Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump transition. “Those decisions will be announced when they are made.”
Richard Goldberg, who served at the National Security Council during Trump’s first term, called Waltz an impressive pick whose background as an elite U.S. service member and experience on Capitol Hill will be of great value to Trump.
“With fires raging across the world right now, Waltz is well positioned to help the President put out those fires,” said Goldberg, who is now a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.
Waltz’s selection was first reported by the .
—AP writers Jill Colvin in New York and Zeke Miller and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed.