MATTIS GETS TO WORK: After being approved overwhelmingly by the Senate on Friday just hours after President Trump took the oath of office, Defense Secretary James Mattis showed up at the Pentagon Saturday ready to get to work. An official DoD photo shows a smiling Mattis sitting at a small round table in his Pentagon office joined by Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford and Vice Chairman Gen. Paul Selva.
On this first full workday, Mattis, as the sole DoD political appointee approved by Congress, finds himself surrounded by vacant offices with empty desks. By one count, roughly 200 civilian positions at the Pentagon must be filled by appointment. Most do not require confirmation. One long-time career civil service employee, noting the growth in the number of principal deputies and assistant undersecretaries during the Obama years, posited the Trump administration may not fill all the vacant jobs. One civilian employee who was moving to another agency was urged to get on the payroll as of last week, in case Trump makes good on his pledge to institute a hiring freeze on federal workers. Mattis will largely be without his own team, which will be assembled in the next weeks and months. But fear not: The Pentagon will not grind to a halt. The massive bureaucracy is teeming with thousands of military workers and career civil servants, which reminds one of the old joke: How many people work in the Pentagon? About half.”
One difference between the Pentagon and other federal agencies is that the Pentagon has plenty of military folks to backfill for the missing civilians. One indication of how few people are on board at the White House is the lack of content on the whitehouse.gov website. If you are looking for transcripts of any of Trump’s public remarks, there are none to be found, except for his Friday address. If you want to read Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s controversial attack on the media Saturday, you won’t find that either. In fact, click through all the standard lists of executive orders, proclamations, nominations, and most pages are blank.
The Trump administration has posted a one-page description of its national security priorities, pledging among other things to end sequestration, build a “state-of-the-art missile defense system,” and improve services for veterans. “Our military needs every asset at its disposal to defend America. We cannot allow other nations to surpass our military capability,” the statement reads. “The Trump administration will pursue the highest level of military readiness.”
Late Friday night, Mattis also sent his first message to Defense Department personnel, which made a point of praising the intelligence community that has felt slighted by Trump and included a promise to work more with the State Department to strengthen alliances. “Every action we take will be designed to ensure our military is ready to fight today and in the future. Recognizing that no nation is secure without friends, we will work with the State Department to strengthen our alliances. Further, we are devoted to gaining full value from every taxpayer dollar spent on defense, thereby earning the trust of Congress and the American people,” Mattis wrote. “I am confident you will do your part. I pledge to you I’ll do my best as your secretary.”
Good Monday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre), National Security Writer Jacqueline Klimas (@jacqklimas) and Senior Editor David Brown (@dave_brown24). 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 be sure to add you to our list.
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HAPPENING TODAY: The Trump administration should get two more members of its national security team confirmed by the Senate by day’s end. Votes are expected to confirm Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and Mike Pompeo as CIA director.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said yesterday he plans to vote for Tillerson’s nomination, despite concerns about Tillerson’s business ties to Russia. Tillerson’s cozy relationship Moscow during his tenure as CEO of Exxon Mobil has troubled both Democrats and hawkish Republicans, including Graham and Sen. John McCain. Yesterday McCain said, despite deep reservations, he would also vote “yes” when the Foreign Relations Committee takes up Tillerson’s nomination today.
“This wasn’t an easy call,” McCain told ABC yesterday, “but I also believe that, when there’s doubt, the president, the incoming president, gets the benefit of the doubt. And that’s the way I have treated every president.”
One question: Will Sen. Marco Rubio risk the wrath of Trump by voting “no?” Tillerson needs a simple majority for confirmation.
CAN THE GOP SHAPE TRUMP’S FOREIGN POLICY? Having spent eight years accusing their Democratic colleagues of enabling a runaway president, congressional Republicans face a question: Will they fall in line when Trump charts a course they oppose?
As Joel Gehrke writes, Congress can dominate domestic policy, but has a comparatively weak hand to play in foreign affairs. Trump’s campaign dovetailed with traditional GOP views in some areas, such as bolstering the military, so he need not always be at odds with congressional Republicans. In other cases — his apparent desire for a rapprochement with Russia, despite the ongoing aggression in Ukraine; his doubts about the utility of military partnerships with Asia-Pacific allies — they could be on a collision course. If and when that clash happens, the lawmakers will have to contend with a president who has broad power to set foreign policy without congressional approval, reinforced by his popularity in Republican congressional districts.
Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker hopes to grasp that thorn with a velvet glove. “I think we, as a committee, have a significant opportunity to help shape foreign policy,” Corker told the Washington Examiner. “I think there has been significant trust built thus far with [Trump’s] team, and I think that’s something that can be built upon and it’s an interesting place to be.”
TRUMP’S INVITE TO BIBI: Trump invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Washington in early February, Netanyahu’s office and the White House said Sunday, Sarah Westwood writes. Both said the exact date would be set in the coming days. The Israeli leader issued a statement shortly after his first phone call with the new president, whom he had congratulated by phone shortly after Trump’s victory last year.
“The Prime Minister expressed his desire to work closely with President Trump to forge a common vision to advance peace and security in the region, with no daylight between the United States and Israel,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement Sunday.
NATO MAY COME UP: British Prime Minister Theresa May comes to Washington this week to meet with Trump, but first she stops in Philadelphia to visit a retreat of Republican congressional leaders. May will be the first foreign leader to address the GOP group, and according to statement from her office, she “set out how we want to advance the special relationship in the coming years and work together on a number of shared challenges.” May is scheduled to meet Trump on Friday in what will be the new president’s first face-to-face visit from a foreign head of government. Top issues are expected to be trade and, of course, NATO and whether Trump truly believes the alliance is obsolete.
SYRIA PEACE TALKS BEGIN: The State Department says the U.S. is not involved in peace talks that began today in Kazakhstan because of the demands of the transition. The talks in the the Kazakh capital of Astana were brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran. They mark the first face-to-face meeting between the government of Bashar Assad and rebel factions fighting to overthrow him, according to the AP. If successful in bolstering a shaky cease-fire, today’s meetings are expected to be followed by more political talks in February in Geneva.
TRUMP’S WAR: In his first visit to show his support for the people who work to keep the country safe, Trump dropped in at the CIA Saturday, and tossed this hand grenade in the direction of the nation’s media. “So I can only say that I am with you a thousand percent,” said Trump. “And the reason you’re my first stop is, as you know, I have a running war with the media. They are among the most dishonest human beings on earth.”
That put us in mind of another time and place. The year was 2007, and Defense Secretary Bob Gates was addressing graduates at the U.S. Naval Academy. “Today, I want to encourage you always to remember the importance of two pillars of our freedom under the Constitution – the Congress and the press. Both surely try our patience from time to time, but they are the surest guarantees of the liberty of the American people,” Gates said that day. He called the press, “a critically important guarantor of our freedom,” and concluded, “The press is not the enemy, and to treat it as such is self-defeating.”
BERGDAHL’S LAST CHANCE: Attorneys for accused deserter Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl are trying to get charges against him dropped by making a legal argument that Trump has poisoned the process by repeatedly called Bergdahl a “dirty rotten traitor” while he was a candidate. In filings last week, his lawyer revealed he had asked President Obama to grant Bergdahl a pardon, but didn’t get it. His lawyer has put together a video compilation of the times Trump called Bergdahl a traitor, back when Trump was a private citizen, and not his commander in chief. Bergdahl’s court-martial on charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy is set for April. He walked away from his post in Afghanistan in 2009, and was a Taliban prisoner for five years until 2014 when he was swapped for five Taliban leaders who were being held in Gitmo.
NO, YOU DIDN’T MISS IT: It literally rained on one part of Trump’s inaugural parade. The poor weather caused the military to cancel a planned flyover that was supposed to include 20 aircraft, including an Air Force F-35.
THE RUNDOWN
Wall Street Journal: U.S. Eyes Michael Flynn’s Links to Russia
Defense One: The Foreign Crises Awaiting Trump
Defense News: Defense Industry Hopeful Trump Will Pick Up Obama’s Legacy of Export Control Reform
CNN: CIA officers: Trump speech was disrespectful
Washington Post: The Trump era has stranded these five men at Guantanamo Bay
Navy Times: The strange case of Lt. Cmdr. Edward Lin
USNI News: Russia, Syria Agree on Mediterranean Naval Base Expansion, Refit of Syrian Ships
Navy Times: Carrier George H.W. Bush, strike group departs Norfolk for seven-month deployment
MIlitary.com: 13 Marine Aircraft to Deploy to Australia
Marine Corps Times: Marines may follow Army’s lead in ditching the M9 Beretta
Defense News: The Army Handgun: A New Poster Child for Acquisition Malpractice?
UPI: Rolls-Royce to provide search-and-rescue vessel engines for Turkey
Calendar
MONDAY | JANUARY 23
10:30 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. A panel of think tank experts talks about prospects for the defense budget in the Trump administration. csis.org
TUESDAY | JANUARY 24
8:30 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Sen. Dan Sullivan speaks on a panel about U.S. defense priorities in the Arctic. csis.org
2:30 p.m. Dirksen 342. Rep. Mick Mulvaney, a vocal critic of the overseas contingency operations account, has his confirmation hearing to serve as the director of the Office of Management and Budget. hsgac.senate.gov
5:30 p.m. 1789 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Reporter Graeme Wood talks about his first-hand encounters with the Islamic State. aei.org
WEDNESDAY | JANUARY 25
9:30 a.m. Senate Visitor’s Center 203. The Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace releases a new study on the value of ICBMs and the new ground-based strategic deterrent. mitchellaerospacepower.org
10 a.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. The Woodrow Wilson Center hosts an event on NATO and Russia. wilsoncenter.org
3:30 p.m. 1030 15th St. NW. A panel of experts predicts what relations with Iran will look like under the Trump administration. atlanticcouncil.org
FRIDAY | JANUARY 27
12 p.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. Jay Solomon, author of The Iran Wars: Spy Games, Bank Battles, and the Secret Deals That Reshaped the Middle East, speaks at the Heritage Foundation. heritage.org
MONDAY | JANUARY 30
10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. The Center for Strategic and International Studies releases a new study on international joint acquisition projects. csis.org
12 p.m. 1030 15th St. NW. Sen. Chris Murphy delivers the keynote address at an event looking at what implications the Iran nuclear deal has for the U.S. interests in the Middle East. atlanticcouncil.org
5:30 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright talks about America’s place in the world. csis.org
