NEWSMAX -- "He is carrying a big stick and speaking firmly. It has a reverberating effect back here at home, especially in the Pentagon," Holt told Newsmax's "Sunday Agenda."

The military wants to be led, he said, "by a no-BS, constitutionally focused ... leader who believes in peace through strength — the highest form of readiness."

Holt added that recruiters are also reporting after Trump's election that more people are expressing interest in joining the military. 

He praised Trump's decision to visit Arlington National Cemetery Sunday to place a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 

"It's a beautiful thing for him to start the day before he starts," Holt said, referencing Inauguration Day, "at Arlington, where those lie who paid the ultimate price for our nation."

"We're focusing on this nonsense when we should be focusing on the tremendous amount of Chinese land around our military bases, the drones, and the unaccounted-for People's Liberation Army here in our country that came across the border," Holt added.

"And let's not forget the Chinese police stations and Confucius Institutes all need to come out of this country. We need to show China that the Western Hemisphere, and this country in particular, is not their garden."