Despite their divergent worldviews, outgoing US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan expressed great respect for his successor, Mike Waltz. Earlier this week, President-elect Trump invited former Army Special Forces officer and Republican US Congressman from Florida, Mike Waltz, to serve as the White House National Security Advisor in the new administration.
Sullivan, speaking to reporters, said about Waltz, “He is someone I have interacted with in the past. I respect the service he has provided to this country, risking his life in the military.” “I also respect his service in Congress. While we may not agree on every issue, I look forward to engaging with him in the next 60 days.”
Waltz, who previously served as a defense policy advisor to former Defense Secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates during the Bush administration, was elected to Congress in 2018. He chairs the subcommittee on military logistics of the House Armed Services Committee and is a member of the Intelligence Special Committee.
Waltz is considered one of the most hawkish lawmakers on China in Congress, participating in the drafting of several bills to counter the Chinese regime since entering Congress in 2019. In 2021, he asserted, “We are in a cold war with the CCP.”
Recently, Waltz co-authored an article with former Pentagon strategic expert Matthew Kroenig in The Economist, stating that the biggest beneficiary of recent US foreign policy is not America’s friends, but the Chinese Communist Party.
As a vocal supporter of Trump, Waltz is a former member of the US Army Special Forces “Green Berets” and has served in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as a colonel in the National Guard.
The article points out that America’s failed deterrence policies in Europe and the Middle East have inadvertently benefited Communist China, an issue of great importance that has not received enough attention.
He wrote publicly before the election, calling for the “new president to take immediate action to end the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, ultimately shifting strategic focus towards countering the greater threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party.”