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WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump has asked U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, a person familiar with the matter said Monday.

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The nod came despite simmering concerns on Capitol Hill about Trump appointing members of the House, where the final count is still uncertain and there are concerns about removing any GOP members from the chamber because that would force a new election to fill the empty seat. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter before Trump made a formal announcement.

The move would put Waltz at the forefront of a litany of national security crises, ranging from the ongoing effort to provide weapons to Ukraine and growing concerns about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to persistent attacks in the Middle East by representatives of Iran and pressure for a ceasefire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah.

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

Waltz is an ardent supporter of Trump who backed efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He is considered aggressive toward China and called on the United States to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its role in the origin of COVID-19. 19 and its continued mistreatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority population.

He has been a harsh critic of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and has called on the United States to hold those responsible for the deaths of the 13 U.S. service members at Abbey Gate and for “thousands of Americans and allies behind enemy lines.” ”. “

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He has also repeated Trump’s frequent complaints about a so-called “woke” military that the former president has derided as soft and too focused on diversity and equity programs.

In a statement last year, Waltz said that as head of the readiness subcommittee: “I am ready to get to work to better equip our military and shift our focus away from the priorities of awakening and winning wars again. Our national security depends on it.”

Waltz, a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, was a Green Beret. He served in the active duty Army for four years before moving to the Florida Guard. While in the Guard he served multiple combat tours in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa and received four Bronze Stars, including two for valor.

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He also worked at the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs.

“President-elect Trump will soon begin making decisions about who will serve in his second administration,” said Karoline Leavitt, Trump transition spokeswoman. “Those decisions will be announced when they are made.”

Richard Goldberg, who served on the National Security Council during Trump’s first term, called Waltz an impressive choice whose background as a member of the elite US service and his experience on Capitol Hill will be an asset to Trump.

“With the fires raging around the world right now, Waltz is well positioned to help the president put out those fires,” said Goldberg, who is now a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.

Waltz’s selection was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

– AP writers Jill Colvin in New York and Zeke Miller and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed.

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