US President-elect Donald Trump picked Mike Waltz, a retired Army National Guard officer and the head of India caucus, as his National Security Adviser, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press on Monday (local time).
Waltz is a three-term Republican congressman from east-central Florida and a staunch supporter of Trump. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser for two terms. He is considered hawkish on China, calling for a US boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the outbreak of COVID-19 and the mistreatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang.
The position of a national security adviser, which does not require Senate confirmation, carries significant weight. Waltz will be put at the forefront of a series of national security crises, from providing weapons to Ukraine to dealing with the growing alliance between North Korea and Russia.
Mike Waltz’s Stance On India-US Relations
Mike Waltz is the co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, 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.
In his position, Waltz had advocated for stronger US defence and security cooperation with India. “I’m honored 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 last year.
Waltz is also on the Republicans’ China Task Force and has argued the US 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 and has publicly praised Trump’s foreign policy views.
What This Means For US Military?
Waltz has said his views on Ukraine 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. However, during an event last month, Waltz said the United States’ aims in Ukraine had to be reassessed.
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 also lamented the Pentagon’s failure to fire generals and civilian bureaucrats who fail to perform.
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.” He was also critical of the US Military Academy at West Point for teaching critical race theory.
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 the streets.