Waltz in as Trump’s national security advisor

EDITOR’S NOTE at 7:53pm ET: President-elect Donald Trump has said he’ll nominate Fox News host Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense. Read more here.

WASHINGTON — In the week since the US presidential election, a second Trump administration appears to be taking shape — with one key national security slot seemingly wide open.

Over the last couple days reports emerged that President-elect Donald Trump is eyeing Rep. Mike Waltz, a Florida Congressman, as his White House national security advisor, reports Trump confirmed Tuesday afternoon. Trump also reportedly plans to nominate Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as his Secretary of State and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary.

Waltz served in the Army as a Green Beret and, according to his bio, saw tours in Afghanistan and elsewhere. He also worked in the Pentagon during the Bush administration, before founding a defense services firm called Metris Solutions, which won some contracts for training Afghan special forces. Metris was acquired by PAE in 2020.

Waltz won his current seat in the House in 2018, and has held positions on the House Armed Services Committee, as well as the foreign affairs and intel committees. In public statements, he has styled himself China hawk, a trait he shares with Rubio — a sign that under a Trump administration, there will likely be no backing off of the idea that China is the “pacing threat” for the US military.

The Florida congressman is one of two men behind the bipartisan “Ships For America Act,” an effort to bolster the country’s maritime industrial base, both the commercial shipping side as well as military shipbuilding. That means Navy shipbuilders may end up doing well in the first Trump budget, which could come as early as this spring. 

During a September event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Waltz issued support for the creation of a maritime czar — a single individual inside the executive branch whose authorities span across maritime issues related to both the Defense and Transportation Departments. As national security advisor, that idea may come to fruition.

Additionally, Waltz was one of two cosponsors of a 2023 effort to authorize the use of military force against Mexican drug cartels. In a campaign policy platform, Trump pledged to “use all resources needed to stop the Invasion — including moving thousands of Troops currently stationed overseas to our own Southern Border.” Trump also reportedly had discussed sending special forces operators into Mexico to target cartel leaders.

In a note to investors, analyst Byron Callan of Capital Alpha Partners said Waltz’s appointment may have “mixed implications” for defense spending.

“His views on China could be positive, but those on cartels, Ukraine aid, and DoD ‘waste’ may entail nuances for defense contractors to wade through in 2025 and beyond,” Callan wrote, noting an April HASC hearing where Waltz pushed on waste, fraud and abuse issues.

Meanwhile, the race for secretary of defense appears wide open. Three leading names in defense circles have all been struck from the list: Waltz, taking the NSC job; former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was ruled out by Trump; and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who took himself out of the running and is now expected to be named chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

New SASC Chair Looks To Step Up Spending

On the Senate side, it is expected that Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., will take over the Senate Armed Services Committee chair. Wicker is the architect of a plan to dramatically increase the defense budget to five percent GDP, with a $55 billion increase in FY25 alone. While that plan appeared dead on arrival under a Democratic administration, it may receive more support from a Trump White House.

Wicker’s plan would raise all munitions production to maximum rates unless stocks are already above the required level, and call for the creation of alternate production lines to surge short-term capacity. It would also reform the Defense Production Act with updated authorities — which are not specified — and execute a $5.2 billion backlog of DPA projects on microelectronics, castings and forgings, and biomanufacturing.

In the area of missile defense, the Defense Department should field the Guam defense system as soon as possible, reverse its decision to cancel the SM-3 Block 1B interceptor, and surge existing production lines for interceptors “while exploring optionality in other systems like NASAMS, FrankenSAM, and others,” a summary of the plan states.

The plan recommends a list of service-specific priorities, calling on the Navy to improve the health of the shipbuilding industrial base so it can deliver a 355-ship fleet — with Wicker’s proposal even laying out a path to get to to 357 ships by 2035. It includes reforms to get submarine builders to three Virginia-class attack subs per year and the creation of a “large scale industrial base program” for surface combatants, which would cost $20 billion over five years. The Navy should also accelerate its buy of unmanned underwater vessels and surface drones, and use multi-year procurement to buy amphibious ships.

Wicker’s plan states that the Air Force should buy at least 340 more fighter aircraft over the next five years and “at least double” B-21 bomber procurement, currently set for 100 planes. It also directs the Air Force to begin a rapid acquisition program for the E-2D Hawkeye instead of buying the E-7 Wedgetail.

The Army should “adopt lessons war in Ukraine,” and field new air defense and counter-UAS units, the plan says. It should also accelerate the development of long-range munitions and command-and-control technologies for operations in the Western Pacific.

Meanwhile, the Marine Corps needs to make “major” investments in technologies to enable sophisticated contested logistics and accelerate its Force Design 2030 plans.

Valerie Insinna contributed to this report.