November 12, 2024, 3:38 PM
November 12, 2024, 3:38 PM
The president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, chose this Tuesday the Republican Congressman Mike Waltz as his National Security Advisor, a key decision-making position to navigate geopolitical conflicts such as the war between Russia and Ukraine and the Gaza war.
Trump indicated in a statement that the legislator is “an expert in the threats posed by China, Russia, Iran and global terrorism“.
Waltz, 50, a representative from Florida, is the second House Republican elected to high-level positions in Trump’s next Cabinet, which will begin his second term on January 20, 2025. He joins Elise Stefanik , chosen as the country’s ambassador to the UN.
The businessman and former American Green Beret, the name by which members of the Army Special Forces are known, has been one of Trump’s most visible representatives during his election campaign.
Waltz will have to address such thorny issues on the foreign policy agenda as relations with China, in the shadow of an economic war.
He was a member of the Armed Services, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees of the House of Representatives and has previous government experience as an advisor to former Defense Secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates.
He is one of the Republican legislators who wrote a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee last August to support the nomination of Venezuelan opponent María Corina Machado for the Nobel Peace Prize.
This is Trump’s sixth signing for his government team.
“Mike has been a strong supporter of my foreign policy agenda of America first and will be a tremendous defender of our pursuit of peace through strength!” concluded the president-elect in his statement.
The American media had announced his election this Monday and networks such as CNN stated that in recent days Waltz had been seen in Palm Beach (Florida), where the Mar-a-Lago residence, owned by Trump, is located.
