What would foreign policy look like under a second Donald Trump term?
Our next guest is on the ballot tomorrow. Michael Waltz is a Republican member of Congress, heavily favored to keep his seat along Florida's Atlantic Coast. He's a former Army Green Beret, now serving on the House committees that cover the military intelligence agencies and foreign affairs and also a task force looking into the assassination attempts against former President Trump. And he is part of the discussion as the former president talks about potential choices for his cabinet should he win. A busy fall, and he joins us this morning via Skype. Congressman, welcome.
MICHAEL WALTZ: Great to be with you, Steve.
INSKEEP: How do you rate the former president's final days of campaigning?
WALTZ: Well, I think he's running through the tape. I've never seen anybody with so much energy - multiple rallies a day, multiple interviews a day. You know, a lot of people accuse President Trump of a lot of things, but I don't think you could accuse him not being transparent and engaging.
And we are seeing on the ground - we're seeing voters of all stripes come over from Jewish Americans, Hispanic Americans, Black Americans, you know, union members breaking with their leadership and coming over. And at the end of the day, those economic issues - if somebody had to go to the grocery store this weekend, if they had to gas up their car before going into the polls, the failed economic policies of the Biden-Harris administration, I think, are going to rule the day.
And then you layer on top of that a border that is out of control. I just talked to a homeless veteran who had the statistic that, you know, 174 hotels in New York are full of illegal immigrants, and yet, he's homeless, can barely get a shelter. And then, of course, the world chaos that we're seeing...
INSKEEP: There are people - it's true that there are asylum seekers. We'll get to the chaos in a moment. It's true that there are...
WALTZ: Sure.
INSKEEP: ...Asylum seekers who have ended up being put up in hotels from time to time. But you raise an interesting thing. Big issues for Trump, successful issues for Trump would seem to be the economy and immigration. When I was watching an NFL game over the weekend, I saw Trump ads emphasizing those issues. But when I watched some of Trump's closing campaign events, and I've seen a fair amount, there's a lot less focus. I hear him saying that he should have stayed in office after he lost the election in 2020. I hear him talking of being shot at through the news media, which he says he wouldn't mind, saying that he wants Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to go wild on health and Kennedy himself talking of getting fluoride out of the water. Why do you think that Trump keeps changing the subject?
WALTZ: Well, look, I mean, if we can unpack each of those, put them in the context of the way President Trump speaks - like, for example, he is very frustrated, as are, I think, many voters and many supporters that the media, the Harris campaign, have kind of reverted back to this rhetoric of describing him as a dictator, describing him as Hitler. And clearly, at least two people believed that the ends justify the means. And the shooters in Crooks and the shooters in Routh - that the ends justify the means. And if you kind of take it in context, I mean, would it have been OK if Hitler were assassinated back in the 1930s? And so...
INSKEEP: I don't think that...
WALTZ: I think we have to be very careful.
INSKEEP: Yeah. I don't think John Kelly...
WALTZ: We have to be very careful about the rhetoric.
INSKEEP: ...The former chief of staff, wanted Trump to be assassinated, just to be clear. But definitely, there were assassination attempts.
WALTZ: But it - the description is much broader, Steve, than just John Kelly's alleged rhetoric from - or conversation from four years ago. But the description of him as a dictator in chief and the next one coming - we have to be careful here. There is no room for political violence.
And then when you layer on top of that, the Iranians are actively plotting and planning to kill him - that's active intelligence and active plotting right now as we speak, and we've heard very little in response from Biden or Harris in terms of repercussions should that happen. I'm just saying, please, everybody, tap the brakes a little bit on the rhetoric. Let the voters decide.
INSKEEP: I'll just note that the former president also described Democrats as a demonic party. Would you apply - would you agree that that is a little extreme when you're concerned about rhetoric?
WALTZ: Well, that's not my language, and as an American and certainly as a representative, we are all Americans. And when we're talking about foreign threats, that's all they care about. I do think many of the policies of the Democrat, particularly the progressive left, are not good for this country, and I do think they believe this is not a good country that's systemically racist, misogynist and colonialist. I mean, that's their language. But I think we all have to be careful, and I'll, you know, continue to repeat that.
INSKEEP: Got it. There are some people on the progressive left who have said things like that from time to time. Now, your specialty is foreign policy. I'd like to ask, what do you believe that former President Trump would do differently than the Biden administration has on Ukraine? He has said he would end the war in 24 hours. What does that mean?
WALTZ: Well, he's very focused on ending the war rather than perpetuating it and - you know, and really crafting a strategy to get both sides to the table. I think it's perfectly reasonable that this is going to come to some type of diplomatic resolution.
And first and foremost, you would enforce the actual energy sanctions on Russia. Russia is essentially a gas station with nukes. Putin is selling more oil and gas now than he did prewar through China and Russia. And you couple that with unleashing our energy, lifting our LNG ban, and his economy and his war machine will dry up very quickly. I just spoke with the speaker of the Parliament of Lithuania. She buys 85% of their oil and gas from Texas and Louisiana. She said, what do you want me to do? Go back to buying from Russia? - because we've constrained our energy supplies.
So I think that will get Putin to the table. We have leverage, like taking the handcuffs off of the long-range weapons we provided Ukraine as well. And then, of course, I think we have plenty of leverage with Zelenskyy to get them to the table.
INSKEEP: I have dozens of questions for you, but I'm going to try to focus on just one here because you're saying, truthfully, Russia has changed its energy markets. They're selling more stuff to China. They're selling more oil and gas to India. But what are you going to do about that if you were part of the administration or if President Trump is in office again? How - do you confront China? Do you threaten China with war? How do you stop them from buying Russian oil?
WALTZ: No. Actually, Steve, the House Republicans passed secondary sanctions on Chinese buyers and refiners and shippers. But the Senate has sat on it now for a year. President Trump, again, in his own language, said, hey, China, if you keep buying from them, you can't buy from us. And China is a consumer of energy and made the right choice. So there's a number of things we can do both diplomatically and economically to constrain both Russia and Iran, for that matter's, oil exports.
INSKEEP: Just about 15 seconds - what would you do about North...
WALTZ: Sure.
INSKEEP: ...Korea apparently sending troops to help the Russian side in Ukraine?
WALTZ: Well, again, the answer not only with North Korea but for Iran lies in China and working with them to influence both. But on Iran, the most pressing, we have to go back to maximum pressure. As long as they're flush with cash, they will help Hezbollah and Hamas rebuild.
INSKEEP: Congressman Mike Waltz of Florida, thanks so much.
WALTZ: All right. Thank you.
INSKEEP: He's a former Green Beret and author of "Hard Truths: Think And Lead Like A Green Beret."
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