The governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, and the Republican congressman Mike Waltz, were chosen by the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, to be the secretary and the national security advisor respectively, according to media reports.
The president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, would have chosen the governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, and the Republican legislator of Florida, Mike Waltz, as his secretary and his national security advisor, respectively, according to reports citing to sources close to the former president.
The choice of Noem, who was once considered a potential running mate for Trump, was reported by CNN.
The governor is serving her second four-year term after a landslide victory in 2022, and although she rose to fame for refusing to impose a statewide mask mandate during the COVID-19 pandemic, she has had a politically turbulent few months.
Last April, Noem faced widespread backlash when she wrote in a memoir that she had shot and killed an “untrainable” dog she “hated” on her family farm, at a time when she was seen as a viable candidate for vice president. . Both the Trump campaign and Noem's office did not respond to requests for comment outside of normal business hours.
The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for everything from border protection and immigration to disaster response and the United States Secret Service.
Meanwhile, Congressman Mike Waltz would have been chosen by the president-elect to be his National Security Advisor, Reuters reported. This is a position of great influence, which does not require Senate confirmation, as cabinet secretaries do.
Waltz, a retired US Army Green Beret who has been a leading critic of China, will be in charge of briefing Trump on key national security issues and coordinating with various agencies.
He has criticized the Biden administration for the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and publicly praised Trump's views on foreign policy. He also has a long history in Washington political circles.
He served as defense policy director for Defense Secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates and was elected to Congress in 2018. He is the chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee that oversees military logistics and also on the House Armed Services select committee. intelligence.
Waltz also serves on the Republicans' China Task Force and has argued that the U.S. military is not as prepared as it needs to be in the event of a conflict in the Indo-Pacific region.
On Ukraine, Waltz has said his views have evolved. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he called on the Biden administration to provide more weapons to kyiv to help them repel the Russian military.
But during an event last month, Waltz said there had to be a reassessment of U.S. goals in Ukraine. “Is it in the interest of the United States, are we going to dedicate the time, the treasure, the resources that we urgently need in the Pacific right now?” the legislator asked.
Waltz has praised Trump for pressuring NATO allies to spend more on defense, but unlike the president-elect he has not suggested that the United States withdraw from the alliance.
“Look, we can be allies and friends and have difficult conversations,” Waltz said last month.
Waltz demonstrated his loyalty to the president-elect earlier this year when he appeared at Trump's May 16 hearing in Manhattan, one of the few lawmakers to do so.
On Monday, Trump named Tom Homan his administration's “border czar.” Multiple sources told Reuters and the New York Times that Trump was expected to pick U.S. Senator Marco Rubio as secretary of state.
(With information from Reuters)