He is like a former girlfriend who wants to argue about everything you said nine years ago.
The audio clip with Mike Waltz's opinion on Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has been reported in the media. It fell out after the notable meeting in the Oval Office recently, where it was intended that Zelenskyj and Trump would sign a security agreement on rare earth metals. But after a heated exchange of words, Zelenskyj was forced to leave the White House.
Only Trump?
Since then, the development has gone fast. The national security adviser announced the other day that the USA will stop sharing certain intelligence information with Ukraine – to later say that the pause may be lifted. Trump has threatened to revoke Ukrainian refugees' temporary residence permits in the country. Then came the reports of a high-level meeting between the USA and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
The outbursts are in line with the negotiating strategy Donald Trump used as a businessman. Close associates, including Foreign Minister Marco Rubio, claim that the tactic is the only one that can get both Ukraine and Russia – which started the full-scale invasion war in 2022 – to the negotiating table.
In that work, Trump has the support of loyalist Mike Waltz. The former representative from Florida was handpicked for his current job just days after the election victory in November.
Up to Proof
So who is Waltz? Raised in Jacksonville in Trump's home state of Florida, he has a 27-year military career behind him. He has belonged to the special forces Green Berets and served in war zones in Afghanistan, Africa, and the Middle East. When George W Bush was president, Waltz was an adviser in the Pentagon.
As a politician, he has made himself known as a friend of Israel and an outspoken China hawk. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 2018 and distinguished himself immediately as a Trump friend who was invited to the White House.
In social media, Trump has called his security adviser an "expert on threats from China, Russia, and Iran". On Tuesday, it will be up to proof when Waltz, along with Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff, meets a delegation led by Zelenskyj's chief of staff Andrij Jermak in Saudi Arabia to discuss a potential ceasefire. The days before, Zelenskyj himself is expected to arrive in the country, where he will meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to Axios.
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, but the Russian forces met strong resistance and a multi-year war ensued. Russian forces entered the neighboring country as early as 2014, which led to the illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and a simmering conflict in Donbass in the east.
When Russia's President Vladimir Putin launched the large-scale war, he strongly opposed Ukraine's desire to join NATO. He has claimed that the state of Ukraine has no right to exist, with lies about its democratically elected government being a "Nazi regime" that commits genocide against ethnic Russians.
Ukraine's allies, primarily the USA and EU, have provided the Ukrainian defense with significant support and punished Russia with sanctions for the invasion war. In Moscow, the war has over time come to be described in existential terms, as a conflict between Russia and a united Western world.
The President of the USA, Donald Trump, and his administration have shocked the world with statements that NATO membership for Ukraine is not currently on the table and that a return to the country's borders from before 2014 is "unrealistic". They have also initiated a dialogue with Russia about Ukraine, which Kyiv and Europe have so far been excluded from.
