Interview: Rep. Mike Waltz on his new book and on “making kicking ass great again”
Rep. Mike Waltz discuses his military career, his new book, and how to take on the threats facing America.
Rep. Mike Waltz (R., Fla.) couldn’t predict his role in Congress, but he did “always want to join the military.” In 2018, he became the first Green Beret to serve in Congress, and he’s used his platform to advance a host of pro-military policies and to encourage other veterans to run for office.
Waltz released his third book, Hard Truths, in October, and he spoke with the Washington Reporter about “the most dangerous coalescing of America’s enemies with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea that we've seen since World War One or World War Two, except now they all have nukes” and the importance of “making kicking ass great again.”
There was no “grand strategy here, it was just when I got it done and when the publisher wanted to do it,” Waltz said of the book. “Really what drove me to write it was that I have continuously been asked ‘what is the difference between a Green Beret and a SEAL and a Ranger?’... And then the other question that I would often get asked is ‘how does being a veteran make a difference for you in Congress? How do you apply that to your business, to politics?’” In terms of literary inspiration, Waltz compares his latest book to “Jocko Willink and how he did Extreme Ownership.”
Waltz is locked in a friendly battle royale of sorts with Rep. and recent author Dan Crenshaw (R., Texas), over who can sell more books. “Well, I already pretty much beat Dan in all things, including looks,” he said. “It's a healthy competition with the SEALs, and he's been a great voice for veterans.”
All of Waltz’s proceeds from Hard Truths “will go to both the Green Beret Foundation and the Matthew Pucino Memorial Foundation,” he said. “Matt Pucino was one of my Green Berets who I lost. I talk about his story in the book; he volunteered to go on point, literally, on every single mission….He volunteered to go ahead on a motorcycle or a four wheeler ahead of our armored convoys, so that he could be closest to the ground to see the trip wires.”
According to one of Pucino’s obituaries, the Green Beret was the kind of guy who “held [a soldier’s hand after he was shot] hand and told jokes as they rode back to the base hospital. Pucino also donated two pints of blood for his friend — and then hopped into the helicopter so he could head back to the war zone.”
“I'll never forget kind of stopping them right before they went out of the wire one time,” Waltz said. “And I told him how much I admired him and how much he's pushing his luck. And he said, ‘well, if I miss one, I want it to only get me, not my four brothers in the vehicle by me.’ And so the guy was just an absolute stud and a hero, and I don't say that term flippantly; his foundation works very closely with the Gary Sinise Foundation. I'm very honored they endorsed my book.”
During his time in office Waltz has prioritized maintaining military readiness so that future Green Berets are equipped to succeed. He writes in Hard Truths about his “very heated conversation with the superintendent of the Air Force Academy. Orientation slides for 18-year-old cadets say “‘don't say mom, don’t say dad, say parent. Don't say boyfriend, girlfriend, say partner. And that colorblind is offensive.’ That's indoctrination,” Waltz said.
As Waltz told the Air Force Academy’s superintendent, “‘our enemy's bullets don't care about any of that. They just care if are you an American or not?’…They just clearly have this garrison mentality. What I mean by garrison, is this kind of peacetime approach. And I think all we need to be thinking about is having the best of the best who can survive and win in combat and defeat our enemies and make kicking ass great again.”
Waltz said that the Biden-Harris administration’s failures are evident in the disastrous and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“I don't expect any accountability with Harris, just none,” he said. “When you constantly, very publicly, describe that utter shit show as an outstanding success. Why would you hold anybody accountable for something that you thought was fantastic? And by the way, that was the beginning of the end of the Biden presidency. He ran on two things: competence and compassion; competence being the adults in the room, and compassion being the nice guy that Trump wasn't. And I've never seen anything more incompetent or cold-hearted than the way that was done right, and his poll numbers have never recovered.”
Trump, on the other hand, Waltz takes “at his word. I sat there in his restaurant at Bedminster after he spent six hours with these Gold Star families; he was only scheduled to spend one hour with them. These families couldn't even get a meeting with Biden; they watched him check his watch as their loved ones in flag-draped coffins went by, and Trump promised him transparency. He said, ‘I don't care. All the emails, all the drone footage, all the video tapes, everything; you can have it all. We'll lock everybody in a room till you run out of questions.’”
Waltz, who has been campaigning with Trump, pointed to a recent visit the former president made in Virginia, where active duty members of the Navy helped fill the venue. “Some of the commanding officers just basically cut the workday short to let them all come,” Waltz said. “And on the one hand, they are out there getting their gun on, shooting at Houthis, and at drones, and at missiles, but on the other hand, they're so sick of the DEI, they're so sick of getting bigger celebration for Pride Week than they are for shooting down nuclear missiles. And they're just ready for him to be back.”
The congressman has already written two memoirs and a children’s book, and he might not be finished writing. “There's all these untold, amazing stories out there,” he said, “In the Green Beret realm, what we did with just a few dozen Green Berets in Colombia to help dismantle the Medellin Cartel that was literally threatening to take over the entire country, and took down the FARC with a couple of dozen Green Berets working with the Colombians. Same thing in El Salvador in the 1980s, another untold, you know, incredible story. Even expanding on one of the stories that I talk about in the book would be interesting. Vasili Arkhipov, Soviet submarine captain, was ordered to launch a nuclear-tipped torpedo into the middle of the U.S. naval blockade during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He refused. That would have launched World War Three.”
“There's just so many of these untold stories,” he said. “I don't think there's a need for fiction. There's so much amazing nonfiction out there.”
Below is a transcript of our interview with Rep. Mike Waltz, lightly edited for clarity.
Washington Reporter:
Congressman Waltz, thanks so much for talking today about your latest book, Hard Truths. You’ve been campaigning with and for Donald Trump all across the country. And you decided to write a third book. How’d you find the time for this?
Rep. Mike Waltz:
I wouldn’t ascribe a grand strategy here, it was just when I got it done and when the publisher wanted to do it. Really what drove me to write it was that I have continuously been asked ‘what is the difference between a Green Beret and a SEAL and a Ranger? What do you do that’s different? How do you think differently?’ I’ve been asked that at a lot of high schools, ROTC departments, colleges, universities, and speaking groups. And then the other question that I would often get asked is ‘how does being a veteran make a difference for you in Congress? How do you apply that to your business, to politics?’ And I thought it would be an interesting concept to talk about the lessons in Hard Truths. And I learned a lot of lessons the hard way, through Ranger training and special forces training, and in combat, and now to this new kind of ideological combat that we find ourselves in. So that was the genesis of the book. It took me a couple of years, because I'm kind of busy in my day job to get it done on nights and weekends, and this is when they wanted to put it out. But yes, it has been a little busy with my own campaign, with Trump's campaign, and now helping others and then having a book rollout.
Washington Reporter:
As you've been traveling the country with Trump, what is the sense from military voters, active duty, and from veterans, about the stakes of this election?
Rep. Mike Waltz:
I don't know if you remember his rally in Virginia near the big Navy bases that are down there. I was looking around the crowd, and you see a kind of certain profile with most of these Trump rallies, and they looked very fit. I could tell it was a lot of military. And I talked to this one Navy guy, and he said, ‘man, I bet you two thirds of this crowd is Navy.’ And everybody was so determined to come that some of the commanding officers just basically cut the workday short to let them all come. And on the one hand, they are out there getting their gun on, shooting at Houthis, and at drones, and at missiles, but on the other hand, they're so sick of the DEI, they're so sick of getting bigger celebration for Pride Week than they are for shooting down nuclear missiles. And they're just ready for him to be back. So that was a huge indicator for me. The guy qualified that ‘nobody here cares if you're gay or not, it is just about standards.’ We set the standards in the military. You hit them, you hit them. You don't, you don't. But there's just this kind of obsession, it seems like, coming out of the Pentagon lately with the social engineering, and there was just a lot of frustration. And I hear that left, right and center, over the last couple of years, we have reached this focal point, whether it was the pronoun training at the Air Force Academy, the understanding of your white rage going on at West Point, and my office has become this focal point of people sending me the materials, and the garbage that that's being taught out in our military academies and our training.
Washington Reporter:
What do you see as the difference in visions and policies that would demarcate a second Trump term and a first Harris term/second Biden term?
Rep. Mike Waltz:
One of the huge issues that is on the table is the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that is up next year, and if they double the capital gains tax rate, it will destroy small businesses, entrepreneurship, and innovation in this country. It will chase capital overseas that could be invested in the next great invention, the next iPhone, the next SpaceX, the next fusion powered vehicle. If the government is going to take half of what you make for an investor, and if you finally build up a small business and actually decide you want to sell it, after all of that risk and all of that hard work and blood, sweat, and tears and the government's just going to take half of it, what's the point? So I think that is one, the unrealized income tax is a move towards socialism. You should take Kamala at her word in terms of price controls, where they see businesses and corporations as the enemy. I think that's on the domestic front, crime will continue to spike and out of control, because the criminal is the victim, rather than the victim. And then internationally, we are seeing the most dangerous coalescing of America’s enemies with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea that we've seen since World War One or World War Two, except now they all have nukes. It is an incredibly, incredibly dangerous time. And not only do they have nukes, one of those adversaries, China, has the ability to crash our entire economy and way of life. So we've got to have strength back in our White House, someone who understands negotiations, who understands leverage, and that our adversaries respect and fear.
Washington Reporter:
Talk about the foundation that the proceeds of your book are going to.
Rep. Mike Waltz:
My proceeds will go to both the Green Beret Foundation and the Matthew Pucino Memorial Foundation. Matt Pucino was one of my Green Berets who I lost. I talk about his story in the book; he volunteered to go on point, literally, on every single mission. The Taliban, because our jammers were working for their remotely detonated IEDs, they went back to trip wires. They kind of went old school on us. He volunteered to go ahead on a motorcycle or a four wheeler ahead of our armored convoys, so that he could be closest to the ground to see the trip wires, and I'll never forget kind of stopping them right before they went out of the wire one time. And I told him how much I admired him and how much he's pushing his luck. And he said, ‘well, if I miss one, I want it to only get me, not my four brothers in the vehicle by me.’ And so the guy was just an absolute stud and a hero, and I don't say that term flippantly; his foundation works very closely with the Gary Sinise Foundation. I'm very honored they endorsed my book.
Washington Reporter:
One of your goals also here is to beat Dan Crenshaw on the bestseller list. Do you guys have a prize at stake here, or is it just bragging rights? And how's that going so far?
Rep. Mike Waltz:
Well, I already pretty much beat Dan in all things, including looks. It's a healthy competition with the SEALs, and he's been a great voice for veterans.
Washington Reporter:
What would you like to see, especially if Trump comes back, but even if Harris is president, in terms of a push for accountability to ensure accountability for the foreign policy mistakes of the Biden administration?
Rep. Mike Waltz:
I don't expect any accountability with Harris, just none. When you constantly, very publicly, describe that utter shit show as an outstanding success. Why would you hold anybody accountable for something that you thought was fantastic? And by the way, that was the beginning of the end of the Biden presidency. He ran on two things: competence and compassion; competence being the adults in the room, and compassion being the nice guy that Trump wasn't. And I've never seen anything more incompetent or cold-hearted than the way that was done right, and his poll numbers have never recovered. With President Trump, I take him at his word. I sat there in his restaurant at Bedminster after he spent six hours with these Gold Star families; he was only scheduled to spend one hour with them. These families couldn't even get a meeting with Biden; they watched him check his watch as their loved ones in flag-draped coffins went by, and Trump promised him transparency. He said, I don't care. All the emails, all the drone footage, all the video tapes, everything; you can have it all. We'll lock everybody a room till you run out of questions. And I take him at his word, and so did they.
Washington Reporter:
The Truth to Power chapter was my favorite. Is there one that stood out to you as a must read?
Rep. Mike Waltz:
Just on that truth to power piece, I write about how at the end of one of my tours, I went back into the White House as a civilian aid — this is the Bush White House, because I was a reservist. So I would mobilize, go down range, take the uniform off when I was done with my tour, and then go back in at very senior levels in the Pentagon, the Bush White House, and sit there and listen to these generals just bullshit the president and the Secretary, and one of them, was saying, ‘the Afghan army will be absolutely ready to stand on its own and fight on its own in 18 months, Mr. President,’ which, by the way, that timeline coincided with his time on the job out there. This was 2007, and I'm sitting there going, ‘half the people in the Afghan army are illiterate. They can't count, much less come up with coordinates. This is going to be a long, sustained effort. You can do it with a very, very small footprint.’ But what happens in Afghanistan doesn't stay in Afghanistan, and my fear now is just like when Obama yanked us out of Iraq in 2011 with no plan, what did we have three years later? The explosion of ISIS all over the Middle East, and attacks all over Europe and America. ISIS and al-Qaeda are back, and we have a wide open southern border now. That's the reality of it, and I'll always speak the reality that we see. We can't wait until we have another San Bernardino or Pulse nightclub or, God forbid, another 9/11, to speak truth and power.
Washington Reporter:
What would your next book be about?
Rep. Mike Waltz:
There's all these untold, amazing stories out there. In the Green Beret realm, what we did with just a few dozen Green Berets in Colombia to help dismantle the Medellin Cartel that was literally threatening to take over the entire country, and took down the FARC with a couple of dozen Green Berets working with the Colombians. Same thing in El Salvador in the 1980s, another untold, you know, incredible story. Even expanding on one of the stories that I talk about in the book would be interesting. Vasili Arkhipov, Soviet submarine captain, was ordered to launch a nuclear-tipped torpedo into the middle of the U.S. naval blockade during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He refused. That would have launched world war three. So there's just so many of these untold stories. I don't think there's a need for fiction. There's so much amazing nonfiction out there.
Washington Reporter:
Do you feel like foreign policy is playing a bigger role in this election than it traditionally does in politics?
Rep. Mike Waltz:
I don't know that people could get into the niche areas of it, but it leads to this general theme, strength versus weakness, security versus insecurity, and this contrast of four years ago, we had peace deals being signed on the White House lawn. President Trump was keeping us out of wars, and now you've got war all over the place. I love when we talk about the clear choice of having inflation and war or having prosperity and peace. To me, that really kind of boils down to the two choices we’ve got this election.
Washington Reporter:
You see those as going hand in hand in voters’ minds?
Rep. Mike Waltz:
This general theme of the border’s in chaos, crime is rising and out of control, and the world is on fire, right because of incompetence and weakness. Inflation out of control, border out of control, crime out of control, and the world on fire.
Washington Reporter:
What do you feel like, given your background as a small business guy, is the future of the publishing industry as more people shift to ebooks?
Rep. Mike Waltz:
I still think there are plenty of people who like the touch, feel, smell, whether it's a newspaper or a book or a magazine. Where I think the industry could drastically improve, is the way it thinks about marketing. It really is like this old school, ‘we'll send 50 hardcovers out to 50 book editors at 50 newspapers,’ and I know they just throw it in the stack. They must get 10 a day, versus really targeted digital marketing, like putting a banner ad on the workout of the day for CrossFit, and really identifying your constituencies much more effectively. We definitely do this in politics and other types of advertising, but I just don't see that kind of digital evolution, frankly, across the publishing world. We still have hardcover brick and mortar bookstores. My kids love going to the bookstore, to the actual Barnes and Noble, and running around in the aisle and sitting there on the little bench and reading books. My son, who's two, has stacks and stacks of books, hard copies that he loves to read. But I think the marketing is what could improve how they do it.
Washington Reporter:
Has there been a go-to author for you that you look to as someone who you model your own writing off of?
Rep. Mike Waltz:
That is a great question. I'll tell you one to throw a bone at my brothers in the SEALs who I thought was really effective: Jocko Willink and how he did Extreme Ownership. It was very much like ‘there I was in combat, here's the lesson I learned.’ In his case, he applied a lot of them to business, and their consulting business. In my case, it was more to this kind of national political conversation.
Washington Reporter:
When you were growing up, would you have thought that it would have been likelier for you to be a Green Beret, a congressman, or the author of multiple books?
Rep. Mike Waltz:
I'd have to go with Green Beret; something in me always wanted to join the military. Always wanted to serve. I never knew my dad, so maybe there's some Freudian issues in here. I just always studied the great leaders of military history, like George Patton, George C. Marshall, we could go down the list.
Washington Reporter:
Mike Waltz being another.
Rep. Mike Waltz:
Never, ever in a million years. Did I ever think I'd be in Congress.
Washington Reporter:
Let’s talk about military readiness. How have you seen our military change from when you were in it to being in the reserves to now doing oversight of it?
Rep. Mike Waltz:
Case in point, I tell the story about my very heated conversation with the superintendent of the Air Force Academy. In their orientation slides for 18 year old cadets, they say ‘don't say mom, don’t say dad, say parent. Don't say boyfriend, girlfriend, say partner. And that colorblind is offensive.’ That's indoctrination. I’ve called in almost every aircraft in the inventory for close air support. We never asked what gender or sexual orientation or skin color or religion the pilot was and but his response to me was, ‘well, when we're leading a unit, we need to be inclusive as possible and make everybody feel comfortable and that our minds are open for all types of people.’ I said ‘our enemy's bullets don't care about any of that. They just care if are you an American or not?’ They just clearly have this garrison mentality. What I mean by garrison, is this kind of peacetime approach. And I think all we need to be thinking about is having the best of the best who can survive and win in combat and defeat our enemies and make kicking ass great again.
Washington Reporter:
Where does this come from in the military?
Rep. Mike Waltz:
It started under Barack Obama. It really seemed to have taken off after 2020. I think a lot of the leaders hide behind Biden's executive order mandating it across federal agencies, but in my view, it's twofold. One, at the most senior levels, it is our general officers kind of flowing with the political winds. And at the most junior levels, 80 percent of our officers in the military come from the university system, from ROTC programs, and this is what we're producing out of higher education. Where you're seeing people really push back is that middle level: my age and a little bit younger who were in the trenches of the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan, and who understand that putting a 200 pound soldier on your shoulders and getting up the hill to the medevac helicopter while still in a gunfight is difficult. Physicality matters. Combat is deadly and ugly and physical and brutal, and you need the best of the best man, woman, or whatever.
Washington Reporter:
You're a professional terror financing sleuth. ActBlue has been accused of helping finance organizations that have been tied to terrorism, some of which have been kicked off the platform. What do you think Congress's role is in looking into this?
Rep. Mike Waltz:
Rep. Brian Steil and the House Admin Committee has really kicked this off. The media doesn't want to talk about it. The FCC doesn't want to deal with it, because they know it's benefiting Democrats. And the mainstream media certainly doesn't want to talk about it either. I'm glad it's finally getting some attention. I think the whole thing smells. There's a lot of smoke there. And fortunately, some attorneys general are going to turn their offices to uncovering and what is to me, obvious abuses. When you have a plumber who's a lifelong Democrat, who may have given 25 bucks here and 50 bucks there, give $600,000, or $700,000 in small dollar contributions that money's coming from somewhere.
Washington Reporter:
Congressman Waltz, thanks so much for your time.