WITH FRIENDS LIKE THE US: After insulting Denmark by suggesting it should consider selling Greenland to the United States in what he said was “essentially, it’s a large real estate deal,” President Trump declared he was the aggrieved party because of the brusque way the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, dismissed his offer as “absurd.”
“I thought that the prime minister’s statement that it was absurd, that was an absurd idea, was nasty. I thought it was an inappropriate statement. All she had to do is say, ‘No, we wouldn’t be interested,’” Trump said yesterday, explaining why he canceled a planned September state visit to Denmark that was to include a meeting with the Danish queen.
“She’s not talking to me; she’s talking to the United States of America. You don’t talk to the United States that way, at least under me.”
THEATER OF THE ‘ABSURD’: The dictionary defines absurd as “wildly unreasonable, illogical, or inappropriate” or “arousing amusement or derision,” and Trump seemed completely unaware that was how his revival of a Truman-era idea was playing around the world as well as here at home.
“To be frank, I haven’t ever really been prepared for the day in which Denmark was something we would have to be worried about,” Republican Florida senator Marco Rubio told the Washington Examiner. “By and large, it’s been a stable partner and ally for a long time. So this is just a new dynamic.”
DENMARK NOW IN TRUMP’S CROSSHAIRS: In a series of follow-up tweets, Trump blasted Denmark, one of the founding members of NATO, with one of his go-to complaints, the amount the tiny country spends on its own defense.
“For the record, Denmark is only at 1.35% of GDP for NATO spending,” Trump tweeted. “They are a wealthy country and should be at 2%. We protect Europe and yet, only 8 of the 28 NATO countries are at the 2% mark. The United States is at a much, much higher level than that.”
Trump included a NATO chart showing the progress member countries are making toward meeting a goal set in 2014 under President Obama to increase defense spending to 2% of GDP by 2024. Trump claimed the reason spending has steadily increased was not the 2014 pledge made by NATO members but, in his words, “Because of me.”
NO WAY TO TREAT AN ALLY: While Trump likes to use the level of defense spending as the measure of the value of NATO allies, Denmark — a country of fewer than 6 million people and with a military of about 17,000 troops — has been punching above its weight for years.
So Trump’s criticism about Denmark not doing enough to provide for its own defense is particularly hurtful, says Rufus Gifford, a former U.S. ambassador to Denmark.
“This is just not the way you treat an ally,” Gifford said on CNN yesterday. “Denmark has been a robust contributor to U.S.-led military missions despite its relatively small armed forces, including joining the coalition of the willing during the 2003 Iraq invasion and sending 750 troops to Afghanistan during the height of NATO-led military missions,” Gifford said. “In fact, the Afghan war ended up being the deadliest military campaign in modern Danish history, losing more service members per capita than the U.S. did.”
OPERATION CLEAN-UP: Diplomacy being the purview of the State Department, it fell to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to clean up the mess. He called Danish foreign minister Jeppe Kofod and, according to a statement, “expressed appreciation for Denmark’s cooperation as one of the United States’ allies and Denmark’s contributions to address shared global security priorities.”
Kofod tweeted a photo of the call and indicated it was a warm and welcome outreach. “Appreciate frank, friendly and constructive talk with @SecPompeo this evening, affirming strong US-DK bond. US & Denmark are close friends and allies with long history of active engagement across globe,” Kofod said. “Agreed to stay in touch on full range of issues of mutual interest.”
TRUMP’S ISIS THREAT: While speaking with reporters on the South Lawn yesterday, Trump also unloaded on America’s European allies, who he said are failing to assume responsibility for ISIS fighters from their countries.
“We’re holding thousands of ISIS fighters right now, and Europe has to take them,” Trump said. “And if Europe doesn’t take them, I’ll have no choice but to release them into the countries from which they came, which is Germany and France and other places.”
Later, in a speech to the national convention of American Veterans (AMVETS) in Louisville, Kentucky, Trump expanded on his complaint.
“They say to us, ‘Why don’t you hold them in Guantanamo Bay for 50 years?’ and you just hold them and spend billions and billions of dollars holding them. And I’m saying, ‘No, you’ve got to take them.’ We fought; we have them captured. They’re all captured, thousands, ISIS. But now, Europe has to take them, and different countries, where they came from, have to take them.”
Good Thursday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Kelly Jane Torrance (@kjtorrance). Email us here for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter: @dailyondefense.
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HAPPENING TODAY: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo travels to Ottawa, Canada, for meetings with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland to discuss the “U.S.-Canada strategic partnership” and “opportunities to advance our shared goals, including returning democracy to Venezuela and the release of two Canadian citizens arbitrarily detained by China,” according to a State Department statement.
IRAN SANCTIONS WORKING: Pompeo gave a wide-ranging interview to the Washington Examiner’s Salena Zito and, among other things, said the U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran are having a measurable effect on the ground.
“We can see with the Shia forces in Iraq. We can see that they have fewer dollars. They’re having to make really difficult decisions about whether to spend money on defense or just spend money back home,” he said and cited the detention of the Iranian oil tanker Grace 1 as another example of how Iranian-backed forces are being starved of resources.
“You saw a ship that was laden with crude oil that was headed to support the Iranian Quds Force inside of Syria,” he said. “It was held up. We attempted to keep it held up. It’s now back on its way. We’re going to continue to do our best to ensure that particular shipment doesn’t get into the hands of terrorists so it can risk American lives or lives of citizens in any other part of the world.”
NORTH KOREA, CHINA, HONG KONG: In his Washington Examiner interview, Pompeo defended the negotiations with North Korea that have been widely seen as a failure, called on China to end the Hong Kong protests “humanely,” and again spiked rumors he might run for Senate from Kansas. You can read excerpts here.
NOW THERE ARE FOUR: U.S. allies have been slow to sign up for a maritime protection force in the Persian Gulf region, in which each country would protect its own ships, but yesterday the State Department announced the United States and the United Kingdom are no longer going it alone.
“The United States welcomes two more nations to the maritime initiative in the Gulf. We thank Bahrain and Australia for their announcements to help protect freedom of navigation,” said spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus. “There will be more countries joining us soon.”
ESPER’S 1ST INTERVIEW: Defense Secretary Mark Esper gave his first sit-down interview since taking over the top Pentagon job to Jennifer Griffin of Fox News Channel, telling the verteran national security correspondent that he considers China to be the number-one priority for the Pentagon.
“They’ve studied us, and they’ve learned about how we employ weapons; they’ve learned about our doctrine,” Esper said in the interview, which aired last night. “They are clearly professionalizing and expanding the capacity and capabilities of the military in order to push the United States out of that theater.”
Esper confirmed that a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone was shot down over Yemen this week and discussed the resurgence of ISIS, the sale of U.S. F-16s to Taiwan, the likelihood of North Korea eventually giving up its nuclear arsenal, Russia’s nuclear-powered cruise missile, and the need to include new weapons in any future arms control treaty.
2 US TROOPS KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN: The NATO-led Operation Resolute Support announced that two U.S. service members were killed yesterday in Afghanistan. No other details were released.
Under standard Pentagon policy, the names are being withheld until 24 hours after notification of next of kin.
The deaths bring the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this year to 14, up from 13 deaths in 2018 and 11 in 2017.
KILLING THE KILL VEHICLE: Under the theory of not throwing good money after bad, the Pentagon is canceling a multi-billion-dollar contract with Boeing for what’s known as the Redesigned Kill Vehicle, a new ballistic missile interceptor.
The move was announced yesterday by Michael Griffin, the Pentagon’s undersecretary for research and engineering. “Ending the program was the responsible thing to do,” he said in a statement. “Development programs sometimes encounter problems. After exercising due diligence, we decided the path we’re going down wouldn’t be fruitful, so we’re not going down that path anymore. This decision supports our efforts to gain full value from every future taxpayer dollar spent on defense.”
The move was lamented by missile defense boosters, such as Riki Ellison of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance. “This decision will delay the deployment of any additional GBIs [Ground Based Interceptors] for the defense of the United States homeland to the 2030 timeframe at the earliest,” writes Eillison. “The decision by Dr. Griffin also delays the modernization of the current 44 GBIs, currently made up of three generations of technical capability with the earliest from the 1990s.”
WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT?: Earlier this week, President Trump was asked if there was something that keeps him up at night. “Well, nothing keeps me up at night. I’ll tell you, we could wipe out anything,” he replied.
Now everyone is asking everyone the same question.
“I don’t have any trouble sleeping, personally,” Mike Pompeo told the Washington Examiner’s Salena Zito.
“Nothing keeps me up at night because I think we’re defended by the best military in history,” said Mark Esper to Jennifer Griffin of Fox News.
As for me, what keeps me up at night is wondering what I’m going to write about when my alarm goes off at 3:50 a.m.
The Rundown
AP: Danish ex-PM attacks Trump for comments on defense spending
Wall Street Journal: China Threatens Sanctions Over Planned U.S. Sale of Jet Fighters to Taiwan
AP: China ‘will not sit idly by’ over US arms sale to Taiwan
Reuters: Russia, China Seek U.N. Security Council Meeting on U.S. Missile Developments
USNI News: Putin Pledges Russian Response to U.S. Cruise Missile Test
Washington Post: 2 Deaths in Russian Missile Blast Were Caused by Radiation, Paper Reports
Washington Examiner: Venezuela’s Maduro offers to meet Trump after confirming the two governments held ‘secret meetings’
Reuters: Iran Says Top Waterways Won’t Be as Safe if Its Oil Exports Cut to Zero
Marine Corps Times: The Corps Is Looking at Unmanned Ships for a Pacific Fight
Air Force Magazine: Northrop Grumman, Air Force Plan Future of B-2 Fleet as Spirit Turns 30
Washington Examiner: Info of US troops in South Korea may have been stolen in massive hack of 1M credit cards
Washington Examiner: Special Forces training exercise to take place across North Carolina
Breaking Defense: America Adrift: ‘Bringing The World To Crisis”
Defense One: It’s Time for a NATO-China Council
Calendar
THURSDAY | AUGUST 22
8:50 a.m. 900 South Orme Street, Arlington. Institute for Defense and Government Advancement Multi Domain Battle Management Summit, with Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Daniel O’Donohue, joint force development director for the Joint Staff, delivering remarks on “Changing the Nature of Warfare in Order to Integrate all Domains.” At 11:15 a.m., James Collins, deputy assistant commissioner for intelligence at Customs and Border Protection, and Phyllis Corley, director of the Office of Director of National Intelligence Advanced Campaign Cell, participate in a discussion on “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning to Enhance Human Decision Making in the Field Operations.” www.idga.org/events-multidomainbattlemanagement
10 a.m. Washington Navy Yard. Change of command ceremony as Adm. John Richardson is relieved by Adm. Michael Gilday as the next chief of naval operations.
FRIDAY | AUGUST 23
7:30 a.m. 1401 Lee Highway, Arlington. Air Force Association Breakfast Series event with Gen. James Holmes, commander, Air Combat Command. events.r20.constantcontact.com
8:50 a.m. 900 South Orme Street, Arlington. Institute for Defense and Government Advancement Multi Domain Battle Management Summit, with Rear Adm. George Wikoff, deputy director of operations at the Joint Staff National Joint Operations Intelligence Center’s Operations Team Five, delivering remarks on “Synchronization Between all of the Service Branches for Enhanced Organization in Combat.” www.idga.org/events-multidomainbattlemanagement
9 a.m. 300 Army Navy Drive, Arlington. The Pentagon’s Defense Advisory Committee on Investigation, Prosecution, and Defense of Sexual Assault in the Armed Forces meets for an all-day session.
TUESDAY | AUGUST 27
8 a.m. 2401 M Street N.W. Defense Writers Group breakfast with Gen. Gustave Perna, commander of U.S. Army Materiel Command. nationalsecuritymedia.gwu.edu
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Nothing keeps me up at night because I think we’re defended by the best military in history.”
Defense Secretary Mark Esper answering the question of the week in an interview with Jennifer Griffin, Fox News Channel national security correspondent.
