Mike Waltz, China Hawk Reported to Become Trump’s National Security Adviser

President-elect Donald Trump has asked Representative Mike Waltz to be his White House national security adviser, according to multiple reports.
Waltz, the first Green Beret veteran to serve in Congress, was deployed in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa.
Waltz would be at the forefront of addressing various national security crises if appointed. These include the ongoing effort to supply weapons to Ukraine, escalating concerns about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea, persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iranian proxies, and the push for a ceasefire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah.
The Republican, who just won his third term, was first elected to Congress in 2018 and succeeded Ron DeSantis, who went on to be elected the governor of Florida. Waltz previously served at the Pentagon as a defense policy director for Secretaries of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates in the George W. Bush administration.
The Florida congressman is a member of the House China Task Force, collaborating with Republican lawmakers to develop policies on China. He has introduced legislation to decrease American dependency on Chinese minerals.
“South America offers a wide array of critical minerals that are needed to power our modern economy. It’s against our strategic interests for China to try and monopolize these exports and install military bases that can be used against us should a conflict arise over Taiwan’s sovereignty,” he said, referring to China’s claim on self-ruling Taiwan.
Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign and Waltz’s office via email for comment Monday night.
Waltz is regarded as one of Congress’s most hawkish members concerning China, asserting in 2021, “We are in a Cold War with the Chinese Communist Party.”
That same year, he became the first member of Congress to advocate for a complete U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. He cited the Chinese Communist Party’s genocide and internment of Uyghur populations, as well as the enslavement, forced labor and internment camps of ethnic minorities in China, as justification for the boycott.
In May, Waltz said that the United States must do more to block fast-growing Chinese influence in the Caribbean and Latin America after Newsweek’s report on China’s extensive involvement on the island of Antigua, located less than 1,500 miles from Miami.
“The alarm bells are ringing over China’s increased presence in our hemisphere,” said Waltz, a member of the Armed Services, Foreign Affairs, and the Select Committee on Intelligence.
Waltz told Newsweek that America’s 19th-century Monroe Doctrine should be renewed as part of more vigorous U.S. engagement in the region. That policy held that any intervention in the political affairs of a state in the Americas by foreign powers was potentially hostile and that the U.S. would protect its sphere of interest.
“We also have a Chinese spy base in Cuba that is 100 miles away from Florida, Chinese ownership of the port on the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal, and debt diplomacy in the Bahamas in the wake of Hurricane Dorian while we still don’t even have an ambassador. This is a clear and present threat to our country given the sophistication of the CCP’s espionage operations,” Waltz said.
“We need a new Monroe Doctrine that specifically looks to block the economic and military influence of China.”
Waltz is the second Republican House member named to Trump’s administration, joining New York Representative Elise Stefanik, who was picked to serve as ambassador to the United Nations. Their departures mean what is shaping up to be a slim GOP House majority will be even tighter until a special election is called to replace the representatives.
Update 11/11/24, 8:32 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.