US President-elect Donald Trump has asked India caucus head Mike Waltz, a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press on Monday (local time).
The national security adviser which does not require Senate confirmation, is powerful. Waltz will be tasked with briefing Trump on important national security matters including the ongoing efforts to provide weapons to Ukraine, increasing concerns about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea, persistent attacks by Iran-backed proxies in the Middle East, and the push for a cease-fire between Israel, Hamas, and Hezbollah.
A Trump loyalist: Mike Waltz
Waltz, a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida, was the first Green Beret elected to the US 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, a Trump loyalist who also served in the National Guard as a colonel, has criticised Chinese activity in the Asia-Pacific and has voiced the need for the United States to be ready for a potential conflict in the region.
Waltz is an ardent Trump advocate who backed efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He is considered hawkish on China and called for a US 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.
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 defence chiefs.
Mike Waltz on India-US relations
Mike Waltz is the co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans. India Caucus is the largest country-specific bipartisan coalition of lawmakers in the House of Representatives that is committed to strengthening the relationship between the two largest democratic countries of the world.
As a co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, Waltz played a pivotal role in facilitating Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech at Capitol Hill during his 2023 visit to the US. :ast year, Waltz said that India is the world’s largest democracy and an important strategic partner for the United States. "That’s why I’m honoured to serve as the Co-Chair of the House India Caucus this Congress to ensure we continue this partnership, strengthen political, economic, and security ties between our two countries, and protect democracies in Asia and worldwide," he said.
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. He slammed the Biden administration for a disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Waltz has publicly praised Trump’s foreign policy views.
What it might mean for the military?
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 criticised military officials for it.
He has criticised the military for being political under President Joe Biden’s administration.
In 2023, Waltz introduced an act in Congress that would have required an audit of "unnecessary and political DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs” in the military and “restore a merit-based culture to our ranks." Waltz was critical of the US Military Academy at West Point for teaching critical race theory, which maintains that legacies of slavery and segregation have created an uneven playing field for Black Americans.
Trump is expected to have a far darker view of his military leaders in his second term, after facing Pentagon resistance over everything from his skepticism toward NATO to his readiness to deploy troops to quell protests on US streets.
(With agencies input)
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