President Donald Trump has ordered air strikes and other operations during his first three months back in office that have killed 74 leaders of terrorist groups plotting to strike Western assets and the U.S. homeland, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz revealed Tuesday to Just the News.

Waltz provided the counter-terrorism casualty statistics during a wide-ranging television interview where he also addressed the outlines of an emerging peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, predicted the president’s upcoming visit to the Middle East would set the stage for the Abraham Accords 2.0 and insisted that China has blinked behind the scenes in its standoff with Trump over tariffs.

“Well, they're certainly reaching out,” Waltz, a former Army Green Beret colonel and Florida congressman, told the Just the News, No Noise television show on the Real America’s Voice network when asked about Beijing and tariff talks. “That's because what President Trump knows is that they need our markets. They want us to purchase goods. President Trump knows how to use leverage.

“At the same time, he'll have a good relationship with these heads of state. He'll have a relationship with President Xi, with leaders around the world,” he added. “He understands that you have to have that good, strong personal interaction. You can be tough. You can be tough in talks. Be tough in negotiations. President Trump is absolutely tough. I haven't seen anybody who has the kind of instincts that he has. But at the same time, we can get to a deal and get to a deal that has America first and is good for the American people.”

Counter-terrorism operations

Waltz gave the administration’s most definitive accounting of renewed U.S. counter-terrorism operations, which lagged under former President Joe Biden after reaching a crescendo at the end of Trump’s first term with a 2020 air strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian general who oversaw Tehran’s feared Revolutionary Guard and was identified by the U.S. as the man who organized terror proxies across the globe.

Waltz said the strikes have reached far beyond the Houthi rebels in Yemen that have garnered the most media attention and have also been focused on groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS in the Middle East and Al-Shabab in Africa. He confirmed such terror groups have active plans to strike the U.S. homeland, after capitalizing on the open border of the Biden years.

“I can tell you, from ISIS to al-Qaeda, to groups like Al-Shabab, all have plots and plans to hit the homeland once again, And if you look under the Biden administration, with a wide-open border, that was incredibly dangerous,” he said. “President Trump has eliminated 74 named terrorist leaders that the Biden administration wasn't going after. You add to that 45 Americans who are being held hostage by various regimes and groups around the world that he's brought home and that is just an incredible achievement in just a couple of months.”

For emphasis, he added: “Americans should sleep better at night. We're only three months in, and look at the results President Trump is getting. The mainstream media doesn't want to talk about those.”

U.S. military and intelligence officials confirmed to Just the News on Tuesday the numbers Waltz provided and offered details about some of the top targets who have been eliminated by strikes carried out by U.S. Central Command, including:

• A March 13 precision airstrike in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, that killed the Global ISIS #2 leader Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai, also known as Abu Khadijah, who was the emir of ISIS’ governing body.
• A March 2 joint operation with Somalia military forces that killed three dozen fighters and leaders of the Al-Shabaab group in that African nation.
• A Feb. 23 airstrike in northwest Syria that killed Muhammed Yusuf Ziya Talay, the senior military leader of the terrorist organization Hurras al-Din, an Al-Qaeda affiliate.
• A Feb. 2 special forces attack that used a bomb to kill Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, an Islamic State boss in Syria.
• A U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) operation on Feb. 1 that eliminated Islamic State attack planner Ahmed Maeleninine along with 13 other high-ranking operatives.

India and China

Waltz also decried a militant terrorist attack earlier Tuesday that killed dozens of civilians in the disputed Kashmir region of India, revealing Trump spoke by phone hours after the tragedy with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Like China, Waltz expressed optimism a trade deal was soon in the offing with India after it recovers from the terror attack.

“The President and Prime Minister Modi have a great relationship. He was one of the first leaders that came to see the president in the White House,” he explained. "It is a crucial relationship: the world's largest democracy and the world's oldest democracy. But they've also had some very realistic and tough engagements on trade. We have to lower their barriers for our markets."

“At the same time they're buying our defense equipment, they are shifting in terms of coming toward more towards the United States. And so all of those things are in play,” he added. “But today's call was really about condemning terrorism, making sure that the people of India and Prime Minister Modi know that President Trump and the United States of America stand with them.”

Abraham Accords 2.0 and a return to peace

Waltz expressed optimism that Trump's trip early next month to the Middle East would set the stage for a new round of Abraham Accords between Israel and its Arab neighborhoods, with Saudi Arabia as the next likely signatory.

"What we want to see under this next term is a return to peace. The more we're talking about trillions of dollars in investments from these countries into the United States of America, things like data centers, AI, rail infrastructure and getting back to having real peace accords, and growing the Abraham accords," Waltz said.

"That's what President Trump is. He is the president of peace. He's the president of diplomacy, the president of negotiations, and you're going to see that unfold in his overseas trips," he added.

The national security adviser also confirmed that the Trump administration was prioritizing a transition to a European-led security infrastructure for the continent as a component of plans to end the Russia-Ukraine War.

The conflict has persisted since February 2022 and negotiations have thus far failed to yield fruit. 

Demanding that NATO pay its fair share

"He is going to continue [to] demand 5% of their GDP heading into a big NATO Summit this year," Waltz said of European nations. "A key pillar of this is that Europe take the lead for Europe's security. Already historic progress on the front but getting to that next phase will really be historic for the American economy."

"A couple of the key pillars are going to be the discussions around the territory, discussions around making sure that this doesn't happen again," Waltz added. "President Trump, in his second term, is determined to end the killing, to stop the fighting... That's one piece."

"And then the other piece is Europe has to step up for its own security needs,” he continued. “The United States has obligations all over the world, but most importantly, has obligations to its fellow Americans," he went on. "And I could tell you, when President Trump was in his first term, literally a little more than half a dozen countries were meeting their 2% bare minimum [defense spending target]. That doubled under his first term."

Praise for Marco Rubio's State Department reorganization

Waltz also shouted out Secretary of State Marco Rubion, specifically for unveiled a massive reorganization of his department that Republicans talked about for decades but which came to fruition Tuesday.

"You hear, you know, people talking about it. You hear Congress having hearings about it. This is actually happening under Secretary Rubio, under President Trump," Waltz said. "You know, enough is enough with a bureaucracy that kind of exists to support itself but that needs to be in line with the President's vision.

"We are streamlining government across the board, and we finally have taken that step with the President and with the State Department. So this is another great day for for the American taxpayer. I think that says we want to see results," he added.