U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Nov. 12 he had chosen Michael Waltz as his national security advisor.
Waltz is a Congressman from Florida and a retired Army Green Beret.
His views on Ukraine have evolved.
In 2022 he called on U.S. President Joe Biden's administration to provide more weapons to Kyiv and argued that the majority of the Republican caucus supported U.S. assistance to Ukraine amid concerns that they could block aid.
“I think the vast majority of the conference realizes that we either pay now or pay later, that Russian President Vladimir Putin fully intends, if he takes Ukraine, to move on to NATO-allied countries like the Baltics, and Poland and Finland,” he said.
However, in October 2024 Waltz said that there must be a reassessment of the United States’ aims in Ukraine.
“Is (involvement in Ukraine) in America’s interest, are we going to put in the time, the treasure, the resources that we need in the Pacific right now badly?” Waltz asked.
Waltz is one of the leading U.S. critics of China, with Trump and his allies focusing more on opposing China than reining in the Kremlin.