‘DEMENTED WORDS’ HAVE ‘CONSEQUENCES’: Late last night, President Trump fired off a furious tweet in response to what he saw as a direct threat made by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. “Peace with Iran would be the mother of all peace and war with Iran would be the mother of all wars,” Rouhani said in a televised speech Sunday in Tehran, in which he repeated a threat to shut down the vital Strait of Hormuz. “We have always guaranteed the security of this strait. Do not play with the lion’s tail, you will regret it forever.”

HAPPENING TODAY: Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan welcomes to the Pentagon Gen. Do Ba Ty, vice chairman of the Vietnam National Assembly at 9 a.m.

NDAA SET TO BE UNVEILED: The House and Senate were wrapping up conference work on the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act late last week and a final version of the $716 billion policy bill is expected to be released early this week. The big upcoming reveal could determine a host of policy issues. Lawmakers were debating whether to lay the groundwork for Trump’s Space Force, allow the Air Force to shift away from its fleet of E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System aircraft, or JSTARS, and the future of proposed cuts to Pentagon support agencies. The final details are closely held by the armed services committees, which are charged with writing the NDAA, but details began to leak on Friday.

ZTE PENALTIES NIXED: A bipartisan group of senators had earlier managed to get an amendment into the Senate version of the NDAA that would have reinstated penalties on Chinese telecom company ZTE. But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who co-sponsored the legislation, said Friday it had been stripped from the final bill. “By stripping the Senate’s tough ZTE sanctions provision from the defense bill, President Trump — and the congressional Republicans who acted at his behest — have once again made President Xi [Jinping] and the Chinese government the big winners and the American worker and our national security the big losers,” Schumer said in a statement.

Sens. Mark Warner and Marco Rubio, two other sponsors, lamented the decision and called it a mistake and a bad deal that would make the country less safe. The penalties threatened to scuttle a deal between Trump and China that seeks to rehabilitate the company and the White House strongly opposed the legislation. Many in Congress see ZTE as a national security threat. Sen. Tom Cotton, who is considered close to Trump and often an ally in the Senate, was also a backer of the ZTE amendment, but he took a more optimistic position. “Although it’s regrettable the [NDAA] report doesn’t include all of the Senate bill’s language on ZTE, on the whole, it is a good piece of legislation that will strengthen our military and take a tough line against our adversaries around the world,” he said in a statement.

MATTIS RUSSIA WAIVERS: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis appeared to be doing some last-minute NDAA lobbying on Russia sanctions Friday as Congress’ annual defense policy bill heads toward the finish line. The bill could weigh in on whether allied countries such as India that have done business with Moscow in the past will be allowed to buy U.S. defense products. Mattis again pressed for legislation allowing friendly countries to seek waivers to the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA, which was passed overwhelmingly by Congress last year and imposes stiff penalties on Russia.

“Doing so allows nations to build a closer security relationship with the U.S. as they continue to transition from reliance on Russian military equipment,” Mattis said in the statement. “The fundamental question we must ask ourselves is do we wish to strengthen our partners in key regions or leave them with no other option than to turn to Russia, thereby undermining a once in a generation opportunity to more closely align nations with the U.S. vision for global security and stability.”

BOOSTING UKRAINE SUPPORT: Just days after Trump’s summit with Putin, the Pentagon said Friday it will provide an additional $200 million to Ukraine to boost its security as it struggles with a Russia-backed insurgency. The funding will go to more training, equipment and military advising so the former Soviet republic can “defend its territorial integrity,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “This is good news, and it sends a clear message that America stands with the Ukrainian people in their struggle to secure a democratic, prosperous, and independent future in the face of Russian aggression,” Sen. Rob Portman, co-chair of the Senate Ukraine Caucus, said in a statement.

The U.S. has supplied more than $1 billion in security assistance to the country since 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea and backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. The $200 million in new security funding is a significant increase in assistance and is likely to send a stronger message to Moscow. The Trump administration broke with the previous administration and began providing lethal weaponry, including Javelin anti-tank missiles, to Ukraine this year.

IT’S NOT JUST THE DEMS: A second Republican lawmaker has come out to say Trump was “manipulated” by Putin after the two leaders met in Finland. Nearly a week after Trump’s controversial private meeting and joint press conference with Putin in Helsinki, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick said the commander in chief was getting played.

“The president was manipulated by Vladimir Putin,” Fitzpatrick told NPR’s Michel Martin on “All Things Considered.” “Vladimir Putin is a master manipulator.” Fitzpatrick’s harsh critique follows that of Rep. Will Hurd, who said in a New York Times op-ed last week that Trump is being “manipulated by Putin.”

IT’S NOT JUST TURKEY: The U.S. is not happy that NATO ally Turkey plans to buy the Russian S-400 air defense system, and now another ally is reportedly considering buying the Russian anti-aircraft missiles. The Tass news agency quotes the Russian envoy to Qatar as saying that in addition to discussions of the S-400, Qatar and Russia also signed a deal on supplying Qatar with small arms, such as Kalashnikov assault rifles and anti-tank weapons.

NORTH KOREA’S STILL AT IT: North Korea has not stopped producing material needed to make nuclear bombs, according to the top U.S. general on the Korean Peninsula. “Their production capability is still intact,” Army Gen. Vincent Brooks, the commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, told the Aspen Security Forum. “We haven’t seen a complete shutdown of production yet. We have not seen a removal of fuel rods.”

TIME TO GET TOUGH: “Mr. President, North Korea is playing the same old game with you they played with every other president,” said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham yesterday on CBS. “Here is what I would do. I would put deadlines in terms of when I want North Korea to deliver the remains of our POWs and missing in action. And I would restart the military exercises.”

Graham blamed China for the fact that Kim has not met any of the commitments he made in the Singapore summit last month. “You are being tough on China, and you should be,” Graham said, directing his comments at Trump, “but China is pulling North Korea back. You need to make sure that China and North Korea know and believe that you are different than everybody else.”

STILL UPBEAT: “President Trump remains upbeat about the prospects of denuclearization of North Korea. So do I, as progress is happening,” Pompeo said at the U.N. Friday. “So what do we need to see? We need to see Chairman Kim do what he promised the world he would do. It’s not very fancy, but it’s the truth.”

The optimistic assessment from Pompeo comes as the Washington Post, quoting what it says are “conversations with a half-dozen White House aides, State Department officials and diplomats,” reports the president is increasingly frustrated by the lack of immediate progress and has “fumed at his aides in private even as he publicly hails the success of the negotiations.”

“Trump has been hit with a strong dose of reality of North Korea’s negotiating style, which is always hard for Americans to ­understand,” the Post quotes Duyeon Kim, a Korea expert at the Center for a New American Security.

THE RUNDOWN

Washington Examiner: Plane intercepted by Air Force fighter near Trump’s New Jersey golf course deemed not a threat

Politico: Trump’s impulsive decrees weigh on Pentagon

Reuters: Senators push sanctions to send Putin election meddling warning

USA Today: Russia calls U.S. charges against alleged spy Maria Butina fabricated; demands release

Washington Post: One of Afghanistan’s most divisive figures — who is also a vice president — returns from exile

PBS NewsHour: Iraq and Afghan war vets exposed to toxic air struggle for breath — and a diagnosis

Defense News: The US Navy’s new anti-ship missile scores a hit at RIMPAC, but there’s a twist

CNN: Dan Coats apologizes for reaction to Trump-Putin summit

Daily Beast: Moscow’s Man in Europe’s Parliament on Trial as a Spy

Breaking Defense: Up the Buy ASAP: Fixing American Airpower

Defense One: Faster, Transient, Endless: How America Must Adapt to Today’s Great-Power Competition

Business Insider: America’s global reputation will take ‘years to repair’ from the Trump era, experts warn

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