(Image source from: News24online.com)
In the most significant appointment for India yet, President-elect Donald Trump's administration on Monday announced the appointment of Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, co-chair of the India Caucus, as its new national security adviser. Waltz, 50, is a former U.S. Army colonel who served in the elite Green Berets unit. He has been a member of the United States House of Representatives since 2019. He is a serious critic of President Joe Biden's foreign policy and currently serves on the House Armed Services Committee, the House Foreign Relations Committee, and the House Intelligence Committee. He called on Europe to increase its support for Ukraine and called on the United States to support Ukraine more forcefully, in line with the president-elect's key foreign policy goals. He has sharply criticized the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Walz praised Trump for encouraging NATO allies to increase defense spending, but unlike the president-elect, he did not mention that he would withdraw the U.S. from the alliance.
“Look, we can be allies and friends and have difficult conversations,” Waltz said last month. Waltz, who is also a member of the Republican Party's China Task Force, argued that the US military is unprepared in the event of a conflict in the Indo-Pacific region. Waltz has openly expressed his desire to serve in government and is being considered as a candidate to lead the Pentagon. The role of National Security Advisor does not require Senate approval. Walls is also co-chair of the House Indian Caucus, the largest national caucus in the U.S. Congress. President Trump is quickly naming key people to his new administration, including Susan Wiles, the first female chief of staff.
Trump's other appointees include senior adviser Stephen Miller, who is known as a critic of the H-1B visa program that Trump tried to destroy in his first term. The president-elect has quickly assembled a list of senior aides since his election victory last week. He has already nominated Tom Homan to be “border czar,” Elise Stefanik to be ambassador to the United Nations and Lee Zeldin to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
