Trump picks congressman and veteran Michael Waltz as his White House national security advisor

Donald Trump chose congressman and veteran Michael Waltz as his White House national security adviser. This was reported by The Wall Street Journal late Monday, as other appointments also were made public. Waltz's position does not require Senate confirmation, but the job usually has a lot of influence in the administration. For example, Jake Sullivan, the Biden administration's current national security adviser, is one of the administration's most senior figures.

At fifty years old, Waltz served in the Army for 26 years, was a Green Beret and was deployed on missions in places like Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa. He even received four Bronze Stars for his combat actions, including two for valor on the battlefield. The Green Beret title highlights soldiers who are capable of conducting special operations in hostile environments.

The Republican also has experience in the executive branch, having served as director of defense policy at the Pentagon under Defense Secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates.

He came to Congress in January 2019, representing Florida's sixth congressional district in the House of Representatives, replacing then-governor-elect, Ron DeSantis. "It wasn't enough to talk about it on television. We have to apply these experiences," he said at the time.

On Capitol Hill he served on the Foreign Affairs, Armed Services, Oversight and Accountability and the standing Intelligence committees. As for Donald Trump, he voted in sync with his position by 85%.

"Trump is right about NATO burden sharing"

In a recent op-ed Waltz wrote about Trump's approach to the military alliance, the congressman criticized many of the organization's members, especially Germany and Italy, for not meeting the 2% defense spending, something he noted was different four years ago.

He also celebrated the former president's work during his first administration with respect to NATO, especially the fact that European countries have increased their budgets.

"For nearly half a century, U.S. leaders have pleaded with our allies to step up their share of the burden. But until Trump began the public drum beat for defense cost-sharing, European politicians were quite comfortable with American taxpayers subsidizing their defense so they can pay for their social welfare programs. As a result, the alliance is falling short in addressing the threats of today’s great power competition," he wrote.

"President Joe Biden’s U.S. ambassador to NATO, Julianne Smith, recently took to X in a not-so-subtle attempt to push back on Trump’s recent comments on alliance burden-sharing in an attempt to show members were paying up. But her post instead highlighted two other things (...) According to her figures, growth in defense spending by allied NATO countries nearly doubled at the start of the Trump administration, from an increase of 3.0% per year in 2016 to 5.9% in 2017, and then decreased from 4.6% in 2020 to 2.8 % in 2021 after Biden took office. It’s no wonder European leaders were excited about Joe Biden’s election," he added.

One of Nicolás Maduro's harshest critics in Congress

Waltz is especially critical of Venezuela's dictator, Nicolás Maduro. For example, he expressed the following after the elections in the South American country: "I just finished a bipartisan call with Maria Corina Machado - the leader of the opposition in Venezuela. Her courage in the face of threats from Nicolas Maduro and his thugs is inspiring."

"The U.S. and democracies across the world must unite in recognizing the REAL election results in Venezuela and call on Maduro to leave power," he added.