Trump asks Rep. Waltz of Florida to be national security adviser

WASHINGTON (TNND) — President-elect Donald Trump is focused on making key Cabinet appointments in the week after his 2024 election victory.

After announcing a series of appointments, Trump has asked Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida to serve as his national security adviser, a person familiar with the matter said Monday. Sources told ABC News that Waltz, a retired Army National Guard officer and combat veteran, was at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday.

Waltz, a three-term Republican congressman, was the first Green Beret elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and won re-election last week. He served as chairman of the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee and as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

He has openly criticized the Biden-Harris administration over its foreign policy record, including the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in the run-up to the election.

“I am ready to get to work to better equip our military and shift our focus from troubled priorities to refocusing on winning wars. Our national security depends on it,” Waltz said in a statement last year as head of the preparedness subcommittee.

The request came despite concerns about Trump picking members of the House of Representatives for his Cabinet, where the final tally of the 2024 election over who has control is still uncertain.

Trump added Tom Homan to his cabinet as border czar on Monday. Homan was Trump’s former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The president-elect appointed Lee Zeldin as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Zeldin is a former New York congressman.

He also chose longtime adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner, as deputy chief policy officer. New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik also accepted Trump’s offer to become the country’s next US ambassador to the United Nations.

Trump’s first choice was Susie Wiles, his campaign manager. Wiles will be his White House chief of staff.

____________

The Associated Press contributed to this report.