ANOTHER BIG WEEK: Two events will dominate the coming week: The official rollout of the Pentagon’s budget tomorrow, and the meeting of leaders of NATO nations at the alliance headquarters in Brussels Thursday. Member countries at the meeting are expected to make commitments to send additional troops to Afghanistan, with the bulk of the reinforcements coming from the United States. Friday, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who departs for Brussels Wednesday, said he has not yet made a recommendation to President Trump. “That recommendation is being put together by the chairman and myself, and I expect it’ll go to decision very, very soon,” Mattis told reporters at a Pentagon briefing. “But, no, it has not been made yet.”
The president, who arrives in Brussels Thursday, will be coming from his meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican. Trump will reaffirm America’s “strong commitment to NATO,” and discuss “allied responsibility-sharing and NATO’s role in the fight against terrorism,” according to a White House statement.
TRUMP NOW IN TEL AVIV: Air Force One touched down in Tel Aviv just after 5 a.m. Washington time, noon local time, on Trump’s second stop on his extended foreign trip. The president and the first lady were met on the tarmac by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife. Under bright sunny skies, Trump was escorted down a long red carpet by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin for a troops review to the strains of a military band, but unlike in Saudi Arabia, there was no sword dance. Trump will spend two days in Jerusalem with a side visit scheduled to Bethlehem in the West Bank.
Before Trump landed, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was asked by reporters on Air Force One if the president planned to apologize for sharing Israeli intelligence with the the Russians. “I don’t know that there’s anything to apologize for,” Tillerson said. “To the extent the Israelis have any questions, or clarification, I’m sure we’re happy to provide that.”
WHAT PRECISELY DID THE PRESIDENT SAY? “I don’t remember exactly,” was national security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster’s response yesterday on ABC’s “This Week,” when he was asked about the New York Times report that Trump told the Russians in the Oval Office, “I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.” McMaster would neither confirm nor deny the quote, and said the notes of the meeting were not a direct transcript. “The gist of the conversation was that the president feels as if he is hamstrung in his ability to work with Russia to find areas of cooperation because this has been obviously so much in the news,” McMaster said. “And that was the intention of that portion of that conversation.”
Asked about the “nut job” quote on Fox New Sunday, Sen. John McCain, one of Trump’s sharpest Republican critics, said he was rendered “almost speechless” by the report. “I don’t know why someone would say something like that,” McCain said, adding that regardless of what Trump said, it was a mistake to offer Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov the honor of an Oval Office visit. “I know this, Mr. Lavrov is the stooge of a thug and a murderer who used Russian precision weapons to strike hospitals in Aleppo, who’s committed human rights violations all over the place, as — invade Ukraine, has taken Crimea, has acted in the most thuggish and outrageous fashion and he had no business in the Oval Office,” McCain said. “If there’s a president-to-Putin engagement in a meeting, I think that’s under the right circumstances, that might be OK, but not this stooge Lavrov, who is nothing but a propagandist.”
WHERE’S TRUMP’S BUILDUP? When the White House unveils the president’s full 2018 defense budget on Tuesday, lawmakers, experts and industry will finally get to see how far it will move the country toward the much bigger military promised by candidate Trump. Under that massive, multi-year rebuilding plan, the Navy would have about 75 more ships, the Army 65,000 more soldiers, the Air Force hundreds more tactical aircraft and the Marine Corps more battalions. The answer might be “not very far,” at least in the coming year.
The administration hemmed itself in when it announced in March that total national defense baseline spending would be $603 billion, part of what the Office of Management and Budget said was an effort to rebuild the military while also not increasing public debt. It includes deep cuts to non-defense programs to offset the defense costs. The $603 billion includes $574 billion in base Defense Department spending and $29 billion for “other” national defense, including nuclear-related activities in the Energy Department.
“The budget outline that [the Office of Management and Budget] released … is not enough to keep the promises the president has made to fix our military and to expand,” said Rep. Mac Thornberry, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, who has challenged Trump’s plans as too frugal.
The Pentagon plans a budget briefing at noon tomorrow, with John Roth, acting DoD comptroller, followed in the afternoon by more detailed briefings from each of the individual services.
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 Travis J. Tritten (@travis_tritten) 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 add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter @dailyondefense.
HAPPENING TODAY: Rain could affect the Pentagon’s plan for a full display of military pomp today on the lush, but soggy parade field at the Pentagon’s River entrance, as Mattis hosts the North American Defense Ministerial. The meeting with Canadian Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan and Mexico’s Secretary of National Defense Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda officially gets underway after the scheduled full honor parade at 12:30, although Mattis will welcome Zepeda to the Pentagon at 9:30 this morning. Mattis, who offered to host the ministerial shortly after he took office, is working to cement the defense relationship with America’s northern and southern neighbors, and emphasizing their united commitment to deepen cooperation to protect North America.
CHAFFETZ AND COMEY TO SPEAK: House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz says he plans to talk with fired FBI Director James Comey on Monday. The Utah Republican was asked by George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” if he had heard back from Comey after requesting documents related to his meetings with Trump and for him to publicly testify before his committee on May 24.
Comey has already agreed to testify in public before the Senate Intelligence Committee amid concerns that Trump fired him due to his agency’s investigation into possible ties between his campaign and Russia. “What I have heard is that I believe Director Comey and I are going to have a conversation on Monday,” Chaffetz replied, adding that he had not spoken with Comey “directly” yet. Comey’s public testimony is expected sometime after Memorial Day, but no date has been set.
NORTH KOREA GOES TO 11: For the second time in week, and the 11th time this year, North Korea launched a ballistic missile in defiance of the international community. “U.S. Pacific Command detected and tracked what we assess was a North Korean missile launch at 09:59 p.m. Hawaii time May 20. The launch of a medium range ballistic missile occurred near Pukchang. The missile was tracked until it landed in the Sea of Japan,” said Cmdr. David Benham, a Pacific Command spokesman, in a statement.
The missile appeared to be another test of the Pukguksong-2, a land-based version of its submarine-launched, solid-fueled missile. North Korean state media claimed the test confirmed that both the solid-fuel engine and late-stage guidance of the warhead were now ready for deployment. It quoted North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un as saying the Pukguksong-2 met all the required technical specifications so should now be mass-produced and deployed to the Korean People’s Army strategic battle unit, according to Reuters.
TILLERSON REACTS: North Korea may be acting out because of growing pressure on the country over its nuclear missile tests, Tillerson said on Fox News Sunday. “The ongoing testing is disturbing, we ask that they cease that,” Tillerson said. But it’s still “early in the game of putting the pressure on them, they may be acting out to this pressure which I believe they are beginning to feel.”
At the Pentagon Friday, Mattis was more succinct. “They clearly aren’t listening,” Mattis said, adding, “if this goes to a military solution, it is going to be tragic on an unbelievable scale.”
ARMS DEAL SIGNED WITH THE SAUDIS: President Trump on Saturday signed a $110 billion arms deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. The arms transaction is intended to bolster national security in Saudi Arabia as well as the country’s ability to combat terrorism. The White House says the agreement will provide fighter jets, tanks, radar, combat ships and anti-missile defense systems to Saudi Arabia and will create defense-related jobs in the U.S.
The defense cooperation agreements signed with the Saudis Saturday total $110 billion immediately, but will ultimately add up to $350 billion over the next decade. In total, Trump signed eight letters of acceptance and one letter of intent, said White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders. Also signed was a joint vision statement and private sector agreements.
WHAT IT MEANS: Trump’s arms agreement with Saudi Arabia ratifies an Obama administration policy that has drawn criticism from a voluble, bipartisan minority of senators. Saudi Arabia, armed with American weapons, fought a proxy war with Iran in Yemen, where the government was overthrown by a rebel group tied to the Iranians. Allegations that Saudi Arabia has bombed civilians and committed other human rights abuses compromised what would otherwise tended to be unanimous U.S. support for the conflict. A $1.15 billion arms deal last year turned controversial, but that pact is dwarfed by the $110 billion pact signed Saturday.
“[M]any of the armaments we’re providing to Saudi Arabia will help them be much more precise and targeted with many of their strikes, but it’s important that pressure be kept on the rebels in Yemen,” Tillerson told reporters following meetings in Riyadh. But Saudi Arabia has attacked civilians intentionally, according to Senate critics of such agreements, rather than by mistakes borne of imprecise airstrike technology.
AND THERE’S A NEW ANTI-TERROR TASK FORCE: The U.S. and Saudi Arabia entered into a strategic agreement on Saturday that establishes a new joint commission to combat terrorist financing while deepening military ties between the two nations. Trump and Saudi King Salman signed the Saudi-U.S. Joint Strategic Vision Declaration as part of a state visit by the president to the Middle Eastern kingdom.
Under the agreement, the two countries plan to form a Strategic Joint Consultative Group “to chart the course of this strategic partnership.” The new strategic alliance between the U.S. and the oil-rich kingdom will be based on three tracks: Countering “violent extremist messaging” from the region; disrupting the financing of terrorism; and advancing defense cooperation.
TRUMP’S MUSLIM SPEECH: Trump, in a much anticipated speech on terrorism to Muslim leaders in Saudi Arabia, on Sunday said: “Terrorists do not worship God. They worship death.” Speaking of “bloodshed and terror,” Trump said: “There can be no coexistence with this violence. There can be no tolerating it. No accepting it. No executing it. And no ignoring it. Every time a terrorist murders an innocent person, and falsely invokes the name of God, it should be an insult to every person of faith.”
Addressing King Salman, Trump said he hopes “today we begin a new chapter that will bring lasting benefits to all of our citizens.”
See the video of the full speech and read the transcript here.
HIGH MARKS: Trump on Sunday discarded “America First” in his speech to Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia, falling back on the bipartisan internationalism that has characterized U.S. foreign policy for decades. That was the assessment of foreign policy analysts on the Left and the Right who have been critical of Trump.
They still found plenty to disagree with regarding certain portions of the president’s remarks, delivered before the heads of state of several Arab countries. But they said that Trump’s tone during his first address abroad as president assuaged their worst fears, born of his sharp, quasi-isolationist and anti-Muslim rhetoric during the campaign.
“He hit most of the right buttons and missed many of the wrong ones,” Aaron David Miller, a former adviser to Democratic and Republican presidents who is now vice president and a distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
A RADICAL DEPARTURE: Over the course of his campaign, candidate Trump repeatedly criticized President Obama and Hillary Clinton for not invoking “radical Islamic terrorism,” but the White House said he would not uses the phrase in his speech, instead referring to “Islamist extremism.” But in what appeared to be a moment when the president went off script, Trump used both Islamic and Islamists, the latter words usually reserved for extremists. “That means honestly confronting the crisis of Islamic extremism and the Islamists and Islamic terror of all kinds,” he said.
RUNNING OUT OF STEAM? When asked why Trump deviated from the prepared text of his speech, an administration official said Trump is “just an exhausted guy,” just three days into his first trip abroad as president. After the speech, Trump reportedly canceled his appearance at the Tweeps Forum. Ivanka Trump filled in for her father, speaking to about 400 people at the event. During the campaign Trump repeated criticized Hillary Clinton for “lack of stamina.”
NO TAX DOLLARS SPENT: There has been increasing criticism in recent years of the traditional practice of commissioning expensive oil paintings of retired federal officials. In recent appropriations bills, amendments have barred the expenditure of tax dollars for what is largely seen as an exercise in vanity. On Friday, Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel managed to uphold the tradition of being memorialized by an oil portrait to hang on the third floor E-ring hallway along with portraits of all the other defense secretaries, without billing the government, by convincing a renowned artist/illustrator to donate his time and talent for free. It didn’t hurt that the the artist was Hagel’s brother Michael. Hagel’s only instruction to his sibling: “Don’t make me look too damn good.” His brother’s response, “Don’t worry.”
THE RUNDOWN
USA Today: Services required to report plans to accept new transgender troops
New York Times: Killing C.I.A. informants, China crippled U.S. spying operations
Institute for the Study of War: Russia Lays a Trap in Syria
Defense News: US mega-deal to Saudi Arabia spurs concern in Israel
AP: At refugee camp, Trump envoy Haley vows more aid for Syrians
Wall Street Journal: NATO to take action on Trump spending call
Fox News: Taliban attacks kill at least 25 Afghan police
Military.com: Navy’s aging cruisers have no replacements in sight
The Daily Beast: As America talks of a failed Trump presidency, the world watches in fear
Task and Purpose: The Army is testing a microwave weapon system in the mountains of New Mexico
USA Today: Iranian president Hassan Rouhani’s strong re-election signals more global outreach
CNN: Water breaches ‘Doomsday’ vault entrance, seeds unharmed
Calendar
MONDAY | MAY 22
11 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Avenue N.W. Rep. Mac Thornberry on military readiness, modernization, and innovation. Brookings.edu
12 noon. Pentagon River Terrace Parade Field. Full honor parade for the North American Defense Ministerial.
5 p.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Canada’s defense policy review and its implications for NATO and NORAD with Harjit Sajjan, Canadian defense minister. wilsoncenter.org
TUESDAY | MAY 23
9 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. A full day conference on civil-military relations in policy, politics and public with retired Adm. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. csis.org
9:30 a.m. Dirksen G-50. Worldwide threats with Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, and Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. armed-services.senate.gov
10 a.m. House Visitors Center 210. Open and closed hearings for the Russia Investigation Task Force with John Brennan, former CIA director. intelligence.house.gov
11:30 a.m. 800 16th St. NW. A dialogue with Canadian Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan. cabc.co
2:30 p.m. Russell 222. Cyber posture of the services with Joint Staff and branch cyber commanders. armed-services.senate.gov
2:30 p.m. Senate Visitors Center 217. Closed hearing on Navy readiness challenges, emerging threats, and the 355-ship force objective. armed-services.senate.gov
3:30 p.m. Rayburn 2118. Budget request for U.S. Cyber Command with Adm. Mike Rogers. armed-services.senate.gov
4:30 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Debate on the modernization of nuclear missiles with retired Gen. C. Robert Kehler, former head of U.S. Strategic Command. csis.org
WEDNESDAY | MAY 24
1800 Jefferson Davis Hwy. Breakfast keynote by Vice Adm. Terry Benedict, director of the Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs. navyleague.org
9:30 a.m. Russell 232-A. Industry perspectives from Brian Cuccias of Huntington Ingalls, John Casey of General Dynamics, and Matthew Paxton, president of the Shipbuilders Council Of America, on options and considerations for achieving a 355-ship Navy. armed-services.senate.gov
9:30 a.m. Rayburn 2154. Oversight of the FBI’s independence. oversight.house.gov
10 a.m. House 140. Testimony from Gen. Joseph Lengyel, commander of the National Guard Bureau, and the chiefs of the reserve military forces. appropriations.house.gov
10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. The Russian military of 2035. csis.org
10 a.m. Dirksen 342. Border insecurity with the rise of MS-13 and other transnational criminal organizations. hsgac.senate.gov
10:30 a.m. Dirksen 192. Review of the 2018 budget for the Navy and Marine Corps with acting Navy Secretary Sean Stackley and Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations. appropriations.senate.gov
11 a.m. 1211 Connecticut Ave. NW. Examining the strategic implications of Trump’s first budget. stimson.org
12 p.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. The threats and challenges of the South Caucasus region for the Trump administration. heritage.org
2 p.m. Rayburn 2212. Navy Fiscal Year 2018 budget request for seapower and projection forces. armedservices.house.gov
2 p.m. Hart 216. The Kremlin’s gas games in Europe and the implications for policy makers, with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. atlanticcouncil.org
2 p.m. Rayburn 2172. Nuclear deal fallout and the global threat of Iran. foreignaffairs.house.gov
2:30 p.m. Dirksen G-50. Department of Energy atomic defense activities and programs with Frank Klotz, under secretary for nuclear security. armed-services.senate.gov
3:30 p.m. Rayburn 2118. Ground force modernization budget request with Army and Marine Corps officials. armedservices.house.gov
THURSDAY | MAY 25
8 a.m. Rayburn 2212. Air Force FY 2018 budget request for seapower and projection forces with Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, Lt. Gen. Jerry Harris, and Lt. Gen. Mark Nowland. armedservices.house.gov
8 a.m. 300 1st St. SE. A discussion about nuclear modernization and strategic stability with Gen. Stephen Wilson, Air Force vice chief of staff. mitchellaerospacepower.org
8 a.m. 7940 Jones Branch Dr. OPNAV N4 Supply Chain Risk workshop. ndia.org
9 a.m. Rayburn 2118. Fiscal Year 2018 priorities for nuclear forces and atomic energy defense with Gen. Robin Rand, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, and Vice Adm. Terry Benedict, director of Navy Strategic Systems Program. armedservices.house.gov
9 a.m. 1030 15th St. NW. Report launch on why Africa matters to U.S. national security. atlanticcouncil.org
9 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Countering Coercion in Maritime Asia with Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations. csis.org
9 a.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Rep. Adam Kinzinger about the way forward in Afghanistan, America’s longest war. wilsoncenter.org
9:30 a.m. Dirksen G-50. Posture of the Army with Gen. Mark Milley. armed-service.senate.gov
10:30 a.m. Dirksen 138. Review of the 2018 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security with Secretary John Kelly. appropriations.senate.gov
