Trump Taps Rep. Mike Waltz For NatSec, Lee Zeldin As Head Of EPA

President-elect Donald Trump has picked Florida Rep. Mike Waltz to be his White House national security adviser, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the discussion.

Waltz, a Green Beret veteran who served in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Africa, won’t require Senate confirmation, and will step right in the middle of Trump’s vow to end the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

In September of 2023, Waltz said in a Fox News op-ed, “The era of Ukraine’s blank check from Congress is over,” suggesting that future aid packages should have accountability and ensure strategic use of resources.

Waltz also pushed for US allies to pay their fair share.

We need this administration to bring our allies to meet their pledge to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense now, today. Unfortunately, Biden’s diplomacy seems to be lagging. The largest European states consistently fail to meet that benchmark, pledged at the 2014 NATO summit in Wales shortly after Russia’s last Ukraine invasion.  

Germany, the largest economy in Europe and the most pivotal balancer to Russia, pulled back at the last minute from enshrining the two percent annual commitment into law. That needs to change – the administration cannot expect American taxpayers to pay for European security indefinitely.

He also recommended that the US match “the dollar value of any aid it gives to Ukraine with securing the southern border.”

Earlier this month, Waltz suggested that the Biden administration’s anti-carbon stance is “fueling the Russian war machine.”

“And the reality is, they are constraining our oil and gas and forcing the world to buy from the likes of Venezuela, from Iran, and from Russia.”

Meanwhile, former Rep. Lee Zeldin has been picked to head up the EPA. As Zachary Stieber of the Epoch Times notes; Zeldin (R-N.Y.) will join the second administration of President-elect Donald Trump as head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Trump announced on Nov. 11.

“Lee, with a very strong legal background, has been a true fighter for America First policies,” Trump told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement. “He will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet. He will set new standards on environmental review and maintenance that will allow the United States to grow in a healthy and well-structured way.”

“It is an honor to join President Trump’s Cabinet as EPA Administrator,” Zeldin wrote on the social media platform X.

“We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI. We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.”

Multiple individuals served as the EPA’s administrator during Trump’s first term, including Scott Pruitt and Andrew Wheeler. The current administrator is Michael Regan, who was appointed by President Joe Biden and has been in office since March 21, 2021.

Zeldin’s appointment will need to be approved by the U.S. Senate, which will be controlled by Republicans starting in January 2025, before he becomes administrator.

Zeldin, 44, represented New York’s 1st Congressional District, which includes most of Long Island, in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2015 to 2023. Zeldin opted against running for another term and instead ran for governor of New York. He won the GOP primary but lost to Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, by about 378,000 votes out of 5.9 million cast, including a majority of the vote outside New York City.

Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), who now represents the district, said on X: “Lee Zeldin’s vision for the EPA focuses on economic growth while protecting our environment. His plan to restore energy dominance, create jobs, and protect clean air & water makes him an ideal choice to lead the EPA.”

More recently, Zeldin has chaired the China Policy Initiative and Pathway to 2025 at the America First Policy Institute.

Prior to his time in Congress, Zeldin was in the U.S. Army and deployed to Iraq. He then served in the state Senate before becoming a congressman.

Zeldin’s votes on climate proposals include, in addition to all other House Republicans, voting against the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which included funding for improving the supply of water in western states.

Zeldin has a 14 percent score from the League of Conservation Voters, an advocacy group, due to his voting record. The group in the past criticized Trump’s first administration over its positions on the environment and climate, and poured $115 million into the effort to elect Vice President Kamala Harris.

Continue reading at the Epoch Times