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Donald Trump’s choices of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as Secretary of State (reportedly) and Florida Rep. Mike Waltz as White House National Security Advisor, as well as his selection of New York Rep. Elise Stefanik as UN ambassador, signal to the world that a more muscular approach to foreign policy by the United States is in the offing.
Rubio has emerged in recent years as one of the main China hawks in Congress and a critic of the Ukraine War. Waltz has been vocal about the lack of defense spending by some NATO allies and has also been highly critical of China. Stefanik has called for a complete “reassessment” of U.S. spending on the UN and has pushed to block U.S. funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA).
Waltz was destined to get some kind of role on Trump’s national security team. He’s recognized as one of the most knowledgeable congressmen on foreign and defense policy. “Stopping Russia before it draws NATO and therefore the U.S. into war is the right thing to do,” Waltz wrote in an opinion piece at Fox News. “But the burden cannot continue to be solely on the shoulders of the American people, especially while Western Europe gets a pass.”
Waltz has been one of the most influential Republican voices on Capitol Hill in national security over the past few years, serving on the House committees overseeing the armed forces, intelligence and foreign affairs. He also served this summer on the task force investigating the apparent assassination attempts on Trump.
At the outset of the war in Ukraine, Waltz called for the Biden administration to provide a steady supply of weapons and explosives to Ukrainian forces so they could attack Russian supply lines. But he has increasingly adopted Trump’s rhetoric about the NATO military alliance that aids Ukraine, questioning why its member countries aren’t doing more to counter Russia and bolster their defenses.
