Fox News presenter Pete Hegseth is to head the US Department of Defence, while Marco Rubio is under discussion as the next Secretary of State and Mike Waltz as the new National Security Adviser.
From: Kyiv Post by Eurotopics
After his election as US president, Donald Trump’s first picks for key foreign policy positions have become known. Military veteran and Fox News presenter Pete Hegseth is to head the US Department of Defence, while Marco Rubio is under discussion as the next Secretary of State and Mike Waltz as the new National Security Adviser. Both are considered hardliners vis-à-vis China and have criticised the current policy on Ukraine. Europe’s press weighs in.
Washington opting for aggressive approach
For 444.hu (Hungary), the makeup of the team points in a very specific direction:
“Donald Trump’s personnel decisions, which were leaked on Tuesday morning, are a relatively clear indication of Washington’s priorities for the coming years: making everything subordinate to an aggressive approach towards China, concluding a quick ceasefire in Ukraine and providing absolute support for Israel. This may be good news for Jerusalem and also for Moscow, but it also shows that the goal is not US isolationism in the traditional sense, but at most a selective isolationism. Overall, the aim could be a policy of force with an expected further increase in US military spending.”
Moves that must not be underestimated
The Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany) sees a pattern in Trump’s first personnel decisions:
“This is not a purely isolationist group at work, but a team of interventionist hawks. Marco Rubio is considered the inventor of the policy of encircling China. Michael Waltz, who is expected to become the next national security adviser, will forbid any signals of weakness from the US, also vis-à-vis Russia. Nevertheless, it is too early for Europe to draw any reliable conclusions from these personnel decisions – except that Trump may once again have been underestimated.”
Voice of Ukraine 