U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Waltz outlined the Trump administration’s foreign policy priorities Friday at the Conservative Political Action Committee.
“This is the presidency of peace,” Waltz told the enthusiastic crowd as he sat onstage with CPAC host Mercedes Schlapp.
“[President Donald Trump] is going to end the war in Europe. He is going to end the wars in the Middle East,” the national security adviser insisted.
In a wide-ranging discussion, Waltz made several promises to the American people. He said the president was determined to end the Ukraine-Russia war swiftly—and to give the American taxpayers back money on their investment in the Ukrainian war effort.
Waltz also expressed hope that Ukraine would sign some form of a deal that would give the United States up to $500 billion worth of Ukraine’s rare earth mineral stock.
“Look, here’s the bottom line, [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy is going to sign that deal, and you will see that in the very short term, and that is good for Ukraine. What better could you have for Ukraine than to be in an economic partnership with the United States?” he said.
“We have an obligation to you all, the American taxpayer, to recoup the hundreds of billions of dollars that have been invested in this war,” Waltz emphasized.
He also promised to apply pressure to U.S. allies in Europe to live up to their security spending promises made a decade ago. European NATO countries had promised to spend 2% of their gross domestic product on defense in 2014, but in the decade since, it had only averaged 1.6%.
Waltz argued that such low spending on defense is not compatible with being an effective deterrent against hostile powers. “You establish peace through strength, and we have been demanding that the Europeans step up and contribute to their own defense,” Waltz explained.
The national security adviser also noted that the administration was committed to not letting Iran threaten the United States or its allies in the Middle East with nuclear weapons. On Feb. 4, Trump signed an executive order directing the secretary of the Treasury to “impose maximum economic pressure on the Government of Iran, including by sanctioning or imposing enforcement mechanisms on those acting in violation of existing sanctions.”
“We’re going to get back to those policies that work, but key to it all is that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon,” Waltz said.
He also expressed solidarity with the Israelis who had been taken captive by Hamas. Waltz had strong words for the Hamas militants operating in Gaza, comparing them with ISIS and al-Qaida. He said any doubt about the nature of Hamas should have been cleared up by seeing the coffins of Israeli children that they had killed when their remains were repatriated this week.
“You know, who doesn’t want a two-state [solution]? It will never allow a two-state, Hamas. And this is why they can never, they just cannot exist going forward,” Waltz said.
He also hailed Trump’s efforts at ending the border crisis. One of Trump’s first actions upon returning to office was designating the drug cartels as international terrorist organizations.
“We are going to unleash holy hell on the cartels,” the national security adviser declared.
On the topic of China, Waltz expressed determination to not let Beijing unduly influence the Western Hemisphere.
“We’re done with allowing China to infiltrate critical strategic assets like the Panama Canal,” he said. After meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Panama has promised not to renew its “Belt and Road” initiative agreement with China that it signed in 2017.
Given the sheer amount of foreign policy issues, the retired Army colonel said that he has been putting in about 20-hour days, but he emphasized it was the sacrifice of others, particularly in the military, that gets him out of bed in the morning.
Toward the end of his remarks, Waltz waxed philosophical about the state of the world over the past five years. He suggested that perhaps everyone had to see what the globe would be like under a failed Democratic administration before they could appreciate the good Trump has done.
“Maybe God had a different plan that the world had to see and feel what it would look like in the country without him,” he said regarding Trump’s reelection loss in 2020.
“But be worthy, everyone,” Waltz said in his closing remarks. “Be worthy of those that are out there right now willing to die for all of us, and those that did give the greatest sacrifice for all of us.”
This article was originally published at www.dailysignal.com
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