TRUMP KNOWS BEST: President-elect Trump is nothing if not confident about his own instincts and judgment. Asked on Fox News Sunday about the CIA’s reported assessment that Russia intervened in the presidential election with the motive of helping Trump win, he responded “I think it’s ridiculous. I think it’s just another excuse. I don’t believe it.” Over on NBC, Trumps soon-to-be chief of staff Reince Priebus said Trump has confidence in America’s intelligence community, just not in The New York Times and The Washington Post, which reported the CIA’s private conclusion, based on anonymous sources.
Trump’s skepticism puts him on a collision course with some Republicans in congress who believe the possibility Russia interfered in the the U.S. election requires a full, bipartisan investigation. On CBS, Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain said Russia has a record of this kind of interference. “The Russians have interfered in a lot of other elections. The Russians have hacked into some of our most secret military information. The Russians have been using it as a tool as part of Vladimir Putin‘s ambition to regain Russian prominence and dominance in some parts of the world. Facts are stubborn things. They did hack into this campaign,” he said, adding that there are “a whole lot of issues out there. It requires an investigation.”
Of course Trump doesn’t have to rely on published reports. He can ask the CIA directly, but the president-elect, in that Fox interview also said he’s found the intelligence briefings he gets as president-elect to be repetitive and a waste of his time. “I don’t need to be told the same thing every day, every morning, same words. Sir, nothing has changed. Let’s go over it again. I don’t need that.” Meanwhile, Trump says “his generals” and his vice president are taking the daily briefing, and will keep him in the loop. “If something should change from this point, immediately call me. I’m available on one minute’s notice,” Trump said.
RATTLING CHINA: China is expressing “serious concern” about Trump’s suggestion he’s not necessarily on board with the long-standing U.S. “One-China policy.” On Fox, Trump said, “I fully understand the One-China policy. But I don’t know why we have to be bound by a One-China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.” A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, quoted by the AP, said the policy is the “political foundation” of any diplomatic relationship between China and the U.S., and that any damage to it could render cooperation “out of the question.”
STATE OF PLAY: Trump defended his front-runner for secretary of state, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, on Sunday, calling his close relationship with Russia a “great advantage,” Caitlin Yilek writes. “He’s much more than a business executive,” Trump said Sunday on Fox News. “I mean, he’s a world-class player. He’s in charge of, I guess the largest company in the world. He’s in charge of an oil company that’s pretty much double the size of his next serious competitor.”
Capitol Hill didn’t see the advantage, however. On Saturday, McCain called Tillerson’s ties to Russia “a matter of concern.” Sen. Lindsey Graham has said the possibility that Tillerson could lead the State Department is “unnerving.”
“It might unnerve people who think that the best route for our country to go is to ignore people and to have an enemies list and adhere to that list,” countered Priebus on NBC. “I just don’t believe, and neither does the president-elect, that solving the world’s biggest problems are best done by ignoring people and having crummy relationships across the globe.” Priebus predicted Trump will make an announcement on secretary of state, “maybe early to mid-next week.”
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OBAMA’S NOT-SO-SECRET PLAN TO CLOSE GITMO: He hasn’t said it flat out, but President Obama is hoping to have planted the seeds of Guantánamo’s demise by appealing to Trump’s business acumen. In these last two months, the Obama administration hopes to get the prison population at Gitmo down to about 40, which would make the per-prisoner cost a whopping $11 million per detainee, compared to less than $100,000 to house the remaining terrorist suspects in a U.S. supermax prison. Will the financial argument win the day? It depends on whether Trump flip-flops on another of his campaign pledges to fill Guantánamo back up with “bad dudes.”
TRAVELS WITH CARTER: Defense Secretary Ash Carter visited troops in Iraq on Sunday to thank them for their service as part of his around-the-world farewell tour. Speaking at the Qayyarah West Airfield just south of Mosul, Carter said the Islamic State is on the ropes. “A significant part of their leadership has been killed. And the rest of it, knowing that they’re being hunted, are therefore forced to behave like hunted men.” Counter-Islamic State commander Lt. Gen. Steve Townsend said their best estimate is that about 2,000 enemy fighters have been killed or badly wounded in two-month-long campaign to retake Mosul from the Islamic State, and that there are still 3,000-5,000 left in the city.
Carter also announced over the weekend that about 200 U.S. troops would join the 300 special operations forces already in Syria helping Kurdish and Arab forces in the fight against ISIS, Gabby Morrongiello reports. The Pentagon chief said the deployment of additional troops, which includes trainers, advisers and explosive ordnance disposal teams, will in Carter’s words “bring down the full weight of U.S. forces around the theater of operations like the funnel of a giant tornado,” to ensure the success of isolating Raqqa, generate sufficient local forces to seize the city, and deny the Islamic State sanctuary beyond there.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports the Pentagon is drawing up proposals to offer to the Trump administration designed to intensify the U.S. campaign against the Islamic State, including reducing White House oversight of operational decisions and moving some tactical authority back to the Pentagon.
This morning, Carter is in Israel where he is scheduled to visit Nevatim Air Base in Tel Aviv and take part in a ceremony to welcome the arrival of the first Israeli F-35 joint strike fighters.
NETANYAHU READY TO DEAL: Speaking of Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes”, said he’s confident relations between the U.S. and Israel will thrive in a Trump administration. “I know Donald Trump. I know him very well,” Netanyahu told Leslie Stahl. “And I think his attitude, his support for Israel is clear. He feels very warmly about the Jewish state, about the Jewish people and about Jewish people. There’s no question about that.”
MABUS’ MUTINY: Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told Carter that if he wants to cut $17 billion from the Navy’s budget over the next five years, he’ll have to do it himself. Nora Bensahel, a scholar at American University, says Mabus may be trying to flag funding for shipbuilding as an area of the budget that Trump’s administration needs to fix once it takes office, since it will not have time to redo the entire fiscal 2018 budget request. “By raising it as a point of disagreement, [Mabus] takes a stand on principle and raises the issue to one Trump may consider more strongly,” she said. In the past, service secretaries have been fired for this kind of defiance, notably Army Secretary Tom White, forced to resign in 2003 by his boss Donald Rumsfeld, who was furious with White for lobbying Congress to revive a weapons program, the Crusader, Rumsfeld had killed.
A FOCUS ON MISSILE DEFENSE: A new administration, especially a Pentagon likely led by retired Gen. James Mattis, provides an opportunity to focus on rebuilding the country’s missile defense capabilities, George Landrith, the president of the Frontiers of Freedom Institute, wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Examiner. “When one considers that Russia alone has hundreds of long-range missiles carrying multiple warheads, 44 interceptors is not an impressive commitment to missile defense. It isn’t even a half-hearted effort,” he said.
ISIS MILITANT KILLED: Boubaker el Hakim, the planner behind last year’s attack at French satirical news outlet Charlie Hebdo, was killed in an airstrike last month in Raqqa, the Pentagon announced late Friday. A statement issued Saturday called the Islamic State leader “a longtime terrorist with deep ties to French and Tunisian Jihadist elements,” who was suspected of involvement in the 2013 terror attacks against Tunisian political leadership.
BOEING DEAL: Iran has signed a $16.6 billion deal for 80 Boeing airplanes now that sanctions have been lifted under the nuclear deal. The decade-long deal includes 50 Boeing 737s and 30 Boeing 777s, making it the largest between the U.S. and Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Daniel Chaitin writes.
NAVAL DESTROYER: The U.S. Army’s maneuver warfare outflanked the Navy saturday, and the Black Knights defeated the Midshipmen 21-17, breaking a 14-year drought. Trump attended the game and opined at halftime, “I love the armed forces. Love the folks. The spirit is so incredible. I mean, I don’t know if it’s necessarily the best football but it’s very good, but boy, do they have spirit, more than anybody. It’s beautiful.”
THE RUNDOWN
Defense News: Trump Proposes Lifetime Ban on Defense Firms Hiring DoD Contracting Officials
War on the Rocks: A memo to the next president on winning in Afghanistan
Associated Press: It’s Trump’s war soon: Afghan future is cloudy at best
Defense One: Want to Hurt the Taliban? Legalize Opium in Afghanistan
Wall Street Journal: Sorry, Mad Dog, Waterboarding Works
Defense News: Air Force Eyes Congressional Waiver From Fixed-Price Deal on JSTARS
UPI: U.S. Army to begin Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle testing
Military Times: Philippines curtails military exercises with U.S.
Breaking Defense: The Marine Corps Is Looking For A Few Good Nerds: Gen. Neller
Military.com: Marine Corps Ditches Desert Camouflage for Seasonal Uniforms
Military.com: Twin Blasts Near Istanbul Soccer Stadium Kill 29, Wound 166
Reuters: Exclusive: Syrian rebels get proposal to quit Aleppo, jihadists retake Palmyra
CBS News: U.S. Marines say “Gilmore Girls” offered “escapism” from times of war
Calendar
MONDAY | DECEMBER 12
10 a.m. 25 Massachusetts Ave. NW. A panel talks about what the U.S. surveillance policy should be in 2017 and beyond. cnas.org
TUESDAY | DECEMBER 13
8 a.m. 1250 S. Hayes St., Arlington, Va. Defense One hosts a briefing on space and satellite communications. defenseone.com
10 a.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. The Wilson Center hosts its latest event in the “Ground Truth Briefing” series on what India expects from Trump. wilsoncenter.org
12:30 p.m. Livestream. A panel of experts discusses the personality and profile of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. cfr.org
WEDNESDAY | DECEMBER 14
8:00 a.m. 1250 S. Hayes St., Arlington, Va. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft speaks at a Navy League breakfast event that is closed to press. navyleague.org
9 a.m. 1331 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. The Center for New American Security releases a new report titled, “Future Foundry: A New Strategic Approach for Military-Technical Advantage.” cnas.org
9:30 a.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. Hamdullah Mohib, the Afghanistan ambassador to the U.S., delivers the keynote at an event focused on American strategy in Afghanistan under President-elect Trump. heritage.org
9:30 a.m. 1501 Lee Hwy, Arlington, Va. Lt. Gen. William Bender, the Air Force’s chief information officer, will discuss his information dominance in his service. mitchellaerospacepower.org
6:30 p.m. 529 14th St. NW. Wall Street Journal reporter Jay Solomon discusses his new book, The Iran Wars: Spy Games, Bank Battles, and the Secret Deals That Reshaped the Middle East. press.org
THURSDAY | DECEMBER 15
10:30 a.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. The Wilson Center hosts an event looking at what 2016 meant for relations between U.S. and China. wilsoncenter.org
4 p.m. 1211 Connecticut Ave. NW. A panel of experts discusses what opportunities the next administration has in nuclear security. stimson.org
FRIDAY | DECEMBER 16
9 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. The Brookings Institution holds a panel discussion looking at U.S. and Japanese perspectives toward North Korea and its goals. brookings.edu
1 p.m. Livestream. The Council on Foreign Relations hosts United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. cfr.org
MONDAY | DECEMBER 19
10 a.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. A panel of think tank analysts talks about what Palestinians and Israelis expect from Trump’s administration. wilsoncenter.org
10:30 a.m. 1030 15th St. NW. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James delivers remarks at an Atlantic Council event titled “Capabilities, Reassurance & Presence: The US Air Force in Transatlantic Security.” atlanticcouncil.org
