POMPEO, THE ICEBREAKER: That giant cracking sound you heard yesterday was the sound of the ice breaking between North Korea and the United States. “We’ve started talking to North Korea directly. We have had direct talks at very high levels — extremely high levels — with North Korea,” President Trump said yesterday during his Mar-a-Lago summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “I really believe there’s a lot of goodwill,” Trump said. “A lot of good things are happening.”

HAPPENING TODAY: As the U.S. tries to smooth over the relations between two key Gulf allies — Saudi Arabia and Qatar — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis meets with Qatari Defense Minister Khalid Bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah at the Pentagon this afternoon.

MESSAGE FOR ASSAD: At the start of yesterday’s meeting with the Albanian defense minister, Mattis defended the size and scope of the 105 cruise missile attack on three suspected chemical weapons sites in Syria. Mattis said the U.S., Britain and France “did what we believed was right under international law,” adding “I hope that this time the Assad regime got the message.”

Mattis was responding to a reporter’s question about remarks Emmanuel Macron made to European Parliament Tuesday, in which the French president said, “These strikes don’t necessarily resolve anything, but I think they were important,” because they upheld “the honor of the international community.”

UNIMPRESSED BY MATTIS: In the afternoon, Mattis and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford made the trek to Capitol Hill to give lawmakers closed-door briefings on the Syria strike, an exercise that left many members unsatisfied and frustrated.

Rep. Thomas Massie complained the Congress was given no new information. “I hate to say this,” but “it felt to me that this briefing was perfunctory and that they were basically just engaged in rope-a-dope.” House Democrats were left fuming over Mattis’ explanation for why Trump had the right to conduct a military strike against Syria, and on the Senate side, reliable Republican critics Sens. Lindsey Graham and Bob Corker were decrying the lack of a long-term strategy.

Corker said after the classified briefing it’s clear Trump intends to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria as soon as possible following the defeat of the Islamic State. “I think the administration’s plans are to complete the efforts to defeat ISIS and to not be involved,” said the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. “Syria is Russia and Iran’s now. They will be determining the future. We may be at the table, but when you’re just talking and have nothing to do with shaping what’s happening on the ground, you’re just talking.”

“I am very unnerved by what I hear and what I see,” Graham said. “I think President Trump’s been a good commander in chief, but when it comes to Syria, I think he’s going down a very dangerous path.”

DOUBTING PAUL: When it comes to skepticism about the Syria mission, few lawmakers can match Sen. Rand Paul, who harbors deep doubts that Bashar Assad was behind the chemical attack in Douma. “I still look at the attack and say Assad must be the dumbest dictator on the planet or maybe he didn’t do it. I have yet to see evidence he did do it,” Rand told CNN yesterday. “The agency claims they have that evidence, but think about it, he’s been winning the war for the last couple years. The only thing that would galvanize the war to Assad directly is a chemical attack. It killed relatively few people compared to what could be killed with traditional bombs, traditional machine guns, traditional tanks, so you wonder what made them use chemical weapons.”

Paul also confirmed he will vote against confirming Pompeo as secretary of state and Gina Haspel as CIA director. “I think she’s a terrible representative,” he said of Haspel. “I will absolutely oppose her coming forward and her nomination.”

ISIS ISN’T DEFEATED: The Pentagon admitted yesterday that in the fog of Syria’s civil war, few people noticed that the Islamic State has regained ground in Syria. Not in the areas where the U.S. is working with partner forces, but in areas around Damascus where the Assad regime is supposedly in control. “In the pro-regime areas west of the Euphrates River we have seen a resurgence, or rather some ISIS elements coming back and attacking with success pro-regime forces,” said Col. Ryan Dillon, chief U.S. military spokesman, in a video briefing from Baghdad.

Dillon explained why this month the U.S. stopped touting that 98 percent of territory once held by ISIS had been liberated. With its gains in the west, where the U.S. is not operating, the liberated territory has shrunk to just over 90 percent.

THORNBERRY FLOATS BIG DoD CUTS: After a windfall of military spending, Rep. Mac Thornberry wants to start cutting deep into the fat of the Pentagon budget. The House Armed Services chairman is proposing legislation that imposes a 25 percent across-the-board spending reduction for the Pentagon’s sprawling system of support agencies and activities by 2021. “We’ve got to speed up decision-making here and have accountability. If you’ve got 20 agencies that are providing input who do you hold accountable for the results?” Thornberry told reporters on Tuesday. The Pentagon’s so-called Fourth Estate comprises 28 different entities and about $100 billion in annual funding. His legislation could shave as much as $25 billion, though committee staff cautioned that figure could change or be smaller.

The Fourth Estate support spending has ballooned in recent years and Thornberry said it is slowing the Pentagon with bureaucratic bloat. “There are 60 chief information officers at the SES level,” he said. “Is it any wonder we have a challenge in getting our IT act together or that we have a challenge in conducting an audit and having databases talk to each other, etc. It’s just unbelievable to me.” Under the legislation, Pentagon Chief Management Officer Jay Gibson would be in charge of managing the reforms. “If the CMO comes and tells me, ‘I can’t do that, it’s unrealistic, it needs to be 17 percent,’ you know, that’s why I put a number out there,” Thornberry said.

AGENCIES GET THE AX: House Armed Services holds a hearing on the Fourth Estate today. Thornberry introduced the legislation just before the committee begins marking up of the National Defense Authorization Act so it could be added to the annual policy bill. That means the mandated 25 percent in cuts could become law late this year when the NDAA is typically passed. Some intelligence and combat support operations would be shielded, but Thornberry also wants to completely eliminate seven agencies in the Pentagon. Here is what would get the ax:

• Defense Information Systems Agency
• Defense Technical Information Center
• Defense Test Resource Management Center
• Washington Headquarters Service
• Defense Technology Security Administration
• DOD Human Resources Activity
• Office of Economic Adjustment

AUMF HEARING: Senate lawmakers might hold a public hearing on new legislation outlining the president’s war-making authority against terrorist groups, following a Tuesday discussion in the Foreign Relations Committee. “Let me see if I can get an administration official up here on Wednesday and we’ll see what we can do,” Corker said yesterday morning.

HERO PILOT: Tammie Jo Shults, the pilot at the made an emergency landing of the Southwest flight yesterday that suffered a blown engine, was one of the Navy’s first female fighter pilots, the Associated Press reports.

NEW MISSILE FOR THE F-35: Raytheon and the Navy are in the final stages of integrating the Joint Stand-Off Weapon C on the F-35C, which is the carrier variant of the tri-service fighter, according to a Raytheon release. Full deployment is expected next year.

“With JSOW C in its internal weapons bay, the Navy’s F-35C can now eliminate the toughest ground targets from significant standoff ranges,” said Mike Jarrett, vice president of Raytheon Air Warfare Systems. “JSOW’s advanced warhead and smart fuse provide fighter pilots with plenty of flexibility against hard and soft targets — plus, it has many programmable effects.”

NOT QUITE 4,000: The Pentagon authorized funding through October for up to 4,000 National Guard troops to be called up by four state governors to assist in border security. As of yesterday, there were 965 National Guard troops deployed near the U.S.-Mexico border, according to testimony from Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengyel, the chief of the National Guard Bureau.

Lengyel told a Senate appropriations subcommittee the troops are involved in “primarily things that enable Customs and Border Protection agents to leave nondirect border security jobs and go to the border and provide border security, and doing things like maintenance, communications, transportation, the operation of perhaps heavy equipment, analysis, trend analysis, and using some intelligence and surveillance and some aviation assets to assist in those endeavors.

“What they are not doing is any direct civilian law enforcement operations, and they are not doing any direct contact with migrants unless … explicitly authorized by the Department of Defense, and that has not yet occurred.”

TRUMP ON CALIFORNIA: The president this morning addressed the disagreement between the administration and California Gov. Jerry Brown, who has balked at using the Guard money for border security. “There is a Revolution going on in California. Soooo many Sanctuary areas want OUT of this ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept. Jerry Brown is trying to back out of the National Guard at the Border, but the people of the State are not happy. Want Security & Safety NOW!”

THE RUNDOWN

Daily Beast: Trump Reaches Deal to Send Detained U.S. Citizen Abroad, Gov’t Says

Reuters: U.S., Syria give conflicting accounts on global chemical weapons experts

Military Times: Trump’s new drone, defense export rules expected this week

Defense One: The Corker-Kaine Bill Would Codify, not End, the Forever War

USNI News: Lawmakers Press NORTHCOM, PACOM Nominees on Strategies for Handling China

AFP: Former IS prison sees football revival in Syria’s Raqa

Foreign Policy: Senators Demand Answers From Trump Team on Yemen

Air Force Times: The 101st Airborne Division is back in Afghanistan

New York Times: Skripal Attack Used ‘Very Small Amount’ of Liquid Poison, U.K. Says

Politico: Coast Guard won’t ban transgender members unless compelled

Defense News: What birds cause the most damage to U.S. Air Force assets?

Business Insider: Russia is desperately trying to save its only aircraft carrier — that’s outdated and plagued with problems

Army Times: Price tag for new National Guard border operations still unknown, 4-star says

Breaking Defense: Rep. Bacon Offers Electronic Warfare Bill: ‘We’re Behind’