Tuesday on FNC’s “Fox & Friends,” Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) ripped President Joe Biden for his handling of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) planned trip to Taiwan amid threats from the Chinese Communist Party.

Waltz described the mixed messaging from Biden, Pelosi and the Pentagon over the trip as a “mess.”

“Look, internally, this is a mess — obviously,” Waltz emphasized. I mean, that’s the understatement of the day. The speaker was furious that the Biden White House leaked this to the Financial Times, which I think was a huge strategic mistake. … Then he comments on her trip and says the military doesn’t want her to go. Now, she’s in a box; she has to go. She cannot back down from this. The message that it will send to the Chinese military and our allies will be devastating.”

“But Brian, but here’s the big difference: from prior years, we have these kind of dustups with the Chinese over visits to Taiwan. The difference then to now is back then, they knew, and we knew they couldn’t really do anything about it militarily,” he continued. “Now, the Chinese believe … that they can do something militarily, they can match us.”

“That’s the game changer and why we have to wake up as a country,” Waltz added.

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent