AAF: President Trump’s National Security Picks

For more information, please contact AAF Policy Director John Shelton at jshelton@advancingamericanfreedom.com

AAF: President Trump’s National Security Picks

It’s a bad day to be an enemy of the United States of America. President Trump and his transition team have knocked it out of the park with their initial selections. Rubio, Hegseth, Ratcliffe, Waltz, and Homan are common-sense, national security conservatives who the American people can trust to put America first on the world stage, take on China, and secure the Southern Border. Marco Rubio: Secretary of State

• Rubio has been one of the leading conservative voices in the Senate on foreign policy for more than a decade, calling out China while also emphasizing the need to stand with our allies across the globe and defend international religious freedom. • Rubio on China, “China now pursues economic imperialism, entrapping the developing world through the exploitative loans of the Belt and Road Initiative. And they are now an imminent aggressor to our allies and partners in Taiwan, Japan, India, and elsewhere.” Pete Hegseth: Secretary of Defense

• Hegseth, a Princeton and Harvard graduate, served as an Army National Guard officer in hot zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, and was repeatedly decorated for his honorable service to the country. • Woke ideology has infested the military, sending recruitment into freefall. Hegseth wrote an entire book on the subject (The War on Warriors) and is well-positioned to revitalize our military. John Ratcliffe: CIA Director

• Ratcliffe was a rock-ribbed conservative member in the House of Representatives and served as “America’s top spy” as the Director of National Intelligence in the first Trump Administration. • Ratcliffe on China, “Beijing intends to dominate the U.S. and the rest of the planet economically, militarily and technologically. Many of China’s major public initiatives and prominent companies offer only a layer of camouflage to the activities of the Chinese Communist Party.” Michael Waltz: National Security Adviser

• A Green Beret and still active in the Army National Guard, Waltz sits on the China Select Committee and is one of the leading voices in Congress on beating China. • Waltz has voted on 6 occasions in favor of providing material support to Ukraine. • Waltz on supporting Ukraine, “Stopping Russia before it draws NATO and therefore the U.S. into war is the right thing to do. But the burden cannot continue to be solely on the shoulders of the American people, especially while Western Europe gets a pass. There must be policy space between Biden’s current strategy of "as long as it takes" and those demanding "not another dollar." Tom Homan: Border Czar

• Homan has vowed to run the largest deportation program the U.S. has ever seen. • During the first Trump Administration, Homan served as the Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from January 2017 to June 2018. • He is so good at securing the border, even President Barack Obama has honored him for it.

o WAPO: Meet the man the White House honored for deporting illegal immigrants. BOTTOM LINE: Conservatives, across the spectrum, are impressed with President Trump’s initial national security appointments. Despite isolationist naysayers saber rattling, President Trump’s picks will keep America safe and restore order in the wake of chaos sewn by the Biden-Harris Administration. We look forward to working with them.