THE MATTIS TOUCH: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who once reportedly joked that all he needs to be happy is two pairs of jeans and a full tank of gas, arrived Tuesday in Colorado Springs in his own frugal style. He ditched reservations at a landmark downtown hotel for rooms at a hotel by the highway. After a rousing commencement speech to the Air Force Academy graduating class Wednesday, Mattis will spend this morning at a change-of-command ceremony at U.S. Northern Command before heading back to Washington, D.C. Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy is set to take over the combatant command as well as North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, during the ceremony at Peterson Air Force Base.

HAPPENING TODAY — MORE NDAA AMENDMENTS: After plowing through 103 amendments Tuesday and another 92 on Wednesday, House lawmakers today consider another 75 amendments for inclusion in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act.

A look at some of the amendments on tap for today:

Overseas spending: Requires a report from U.S. comptroller general to report how funds for overseas contingency operations are delegated.

Raptor: Upgrade 34 F-22 trainers to combat-ready aircraft.

OA-X: Directs the Air Force secretary to report how the light attack experiment program supports partner-nation requirements. Competitors are the AT-6 by Textron Aviation and the A-29 Super Tucano by Sierra Nevada/Embraer.

Wars: Directs a report on who the military has fought under the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force.

Russian aggression: Makes sure the U.S. and other NATO countries conduct more naval exercises in the Baltic and Black seas.

Yemen: Directs the defense secretary to find out if any nations violated the law while conducting exercises in Yemen.

AI: Establishes a commission on artificial intelligence to make recommendations on national security needs.

Blockchain: Directs DoD to consider blockchain, the technology that allows the transfer of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, when assessing advancements in artificial intelligence.

Automation: Requires the defense secretary to send a report on the effects of automation among private contractors over the next 10 years.

WHAT GOT TOSSED: Lawmakers rejected amendments that would have cut money to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Weapons account, required a 20-year estimate on the costs of all nuclear weapons, limited funding for the W76-2 warhead modification program until a report is submitted, and required the military to buy flatware and dishes made in the U.S.

ALSO TODAY: This afternoon in the East Room, Trump will award the Medal of Honor to retired Master Chief Special Warfare Operator Britt Slabinski, a former member of the Navy’s SEAL Team 6, for his valor under fire on a mountainside in Afghanistan 16 years ago.

Slabinski is being honored for leading a team under heavy enemy fire in an attempt to rescue teammate Petty Officer 1st Class Neil Roberts during Operation Anaconda in 2002. “Slabinski’s selfless actions throughout the 14-hour battle constituted gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty,” says the U.S. Navy.

THEN LATER: At 3:20, Trump meets with Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson and Vice Adm. Ted Carter, Naval Academy superintendent, in the Oval Office. Trump is set to give the commencement address at Annapolis tomorrow.

STRIKE ON TALIBAN: U.S. Forces-Afghanistan reports this morning that it has conducted an artillery strike on a known Taliban meeting place. “Task Force-Southwest, under U.S. Forces-Afghanistan authorities, confirmed a ground-based rocket artillery strike using the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, against a command and control node for high-level Taliban leaders in Musa Qala district, May 24,” said a statement.

The target was “a known meeting location” for “prominent Taliban leaders,” who “planned and facilitated attacks” against Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, who are supporting election security in the area,” according to the statement.

LATEST NORTH KOREA THREAT: North Korea has issued another warning suggesting that next month’s Singapore summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Trump is in jeopardy because of U.S. actions, according to reports from the region.

“Whether the U.S. will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at a nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision and behavior of the United States,” Choe Son Hui, North Korea’s vice foreign minister, said in a statement Thursday local time, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. “In case the U.S. offends against our goodwill and clings to unlawful and outrageous acts, I will put forward a suggestion to our supreme leadership for reconsidering the DPRK-U.S. summit,” she said.

PENCE A ‘POLITICAL DUMMY’: Choe was also quoted by the North’s state-run news agency as calling Vice President Mike Pence a “political dummy” for comments in a Fox News interview Monday, in which he compared negotiations with North Korea to Libya’s decision to give up its nuclear program.

“Vice President Pence has again spat out nonsense that the DPRK would follow in Libya’s footsteps. It has to be underlined however that in order not to follow in Libya’s footsteps, we paid a heavy price to build up our powerful and reliable strength that can defend ourselves and safeguard peace and security in the Korean Peninsula and the region,” Choe was quoted as saying.

POMPEO ‘COULDN’T BE CLEARER’: In his congressional testimony yesterday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in his face-to-face discussion with Kim he “could not have been clearer” about what the U.S. expects. “Our demands have been unambiguous,” he testified. “In my conversations with him, we’ve talked about what our mutual goals are, the things that the world demands and that America demands, and the things that North Korea wants to see for itself as well.”

POSSIBLE PHASE-IN: In an interview that Fox News aired this morning, Trump said he would be willing to accept denuclearization in phases, rather than all at once. “I’d like to have it done immediately. But physically, a phase-in may be a little bit necessary, it would have to be a rapid phase-in. But I’d like to see it done at one time.”

SEVEN SUMMIT SCENARIOS: Bruce Klingner, former CIA deputy division chief for the Koreas who is now at the Heritage Foundation, lays out his seven possible scenarios for what could occur if the Trump-Kim summit takes place June 12.

He writes that Trump may have “painted himself into a diplomatic corner,” by criticizing all the previous deals. “Any agreement that the Trump Administration reaches with Pyongyang must be better than the Iran nuclear agreement, previous international denuclearization accords with North Korea, and U.N. resolutions imposing punitive measures on North Korea,” Klingner argues.

CLOSING CEREMONY: North Korea set off a series of explosions in the presence of foreign journalists at its Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site, which is located in a remote area of the country’s northern region, AP reported.

The explosions at the nuclear test site deep in the mountains of the North’s sparsely populated northeast were centered on three tunnels into the underground site and a number of observation towers in the surrounding area.

The experts at 38 North have put together a Test Site Tutorial about the layouts of the various test tunnels. “A close study of commercial satellite imagery and other open source information suggests that the North Koreans likely modeled their nuclear test tunnels after older designs used by the US, France and Pakistan,” the report says. “This includes a ‘zig-zag’ tunnel terminating in a ‘fish-hook’ shape to assist with ‘self-sealing’ after detonation, with ‘blast traps’ located at various intervals along each tunnel.” The analysis notes there are several separate tunnel systems including some originating from the south and west portals that have not yet been used.

NUKE GUARDS ON LSD: Air Force records obtained by The Associated Press show that some airmen — entrusted with guarding America’s nuclear missiles — bought, distributed and used the hallucinogen LSD and other mind-altering illegal drugs. “One airman said he felt paranoia. Another marveled at the vibrant colors. A third admitted, ‘I absolutely just loved altering my mind,’” reports the AP. The service members were part of a ring that investigator said operated undetected for months on a highly secure military base in Wyoming,

“Although this sounds like something from a movie, it isn’t,” said Capt. Charles Grimsley, the lead prosecutor of one of several courts-martial.

TRAINER CRASHES: Two pilots safely ejected from an Air Force T-38C Talon II supersonic jet trainer before the aircraft crashed in eastern Mississippi on Wednesday.

INJURIES IN CHINA: U.S. government employees stationed in southern China were warned yesterday about reports of “abnormal sensations of sound and pressure” that pointed to a mild brain injury, CNN reported.

INVITING TURKEY BACK: Pompeo said he is working to convince Turkey to “rejoin NATO” by better reflecting NATO’s goals, following years of divergence with the U.S.

Asked point blank at yesterday’s hearing if Turkey should stay in NATO, Pompeo said despite growing differences Turkey remains an important ally. “If Secretary Mattis was sitting here, he would say we need them to be a NATO partner. I would agree with that assessment,” he said, but added, “We need their behavior to reflect the objectives of NATO.”

“And it’s what we’re diligently working to do to get them to rejoin NATO in a way with their actions that fit, that are consistent with what we’re trying to achieve in NATO and not take actions that undermine its efforts.”

WHEN THE CENTER HELD: Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is out with a new political memoir that recalls another time when the country was deeply divided. Rumsfeld served as chief of staff and defense secretary for President Gerald Ford, and Rumsfeld, a meticulous record keeper, drew on his extensive personal archive memos to recall the turmoil of the Watergate era.

“Gerald Ford was a friend and a wonderful human being and an outstanding president in a difficult time and I happen to have something like 2,000 memos of my meetings with him, so we took those memos and that became the basis for a book that ought to have been written,” Rumsfeld said.

“He went in at a very difficult time,” Rumsfeld told me at a book party last night at Washington’s St. Regis hotel, hosted by his former Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke. “He was there a very short time and it’s awfully hard for people outside to know the challenges that a president faces, and he faced a lot of them.”

The book is called When the Center Held, pun intended, “Ford happens to also have been the center on the University of Michigan football team. So it’s a little play on words,” Rumsfeld said.

Rumsfeld, who will be 86 in July now walks with a cane, which he joked last night that he only picked up because his wife Joyce uses one, and he didn’t want her to get ahead of him. “I don’t really know how to use it,” he said with a sly smile.

THE RUNDOWN

The Drive: Here Is Boeing’s Master Plan For The F/A-18E/F Super Hornet’s Future

Task and Purpose: Just Kills: The True Story Of How The Marine Corps Blew The Biggest War Crimes Case Since Vietnam

Breaking Defense: Navy, Boeing Tout Block III Super Hornet As Partner For F-35

Defense One: Pentagon Is Speeding Up Arms Exports To Saudi Arabia, Other Allies

New York Times: How a 4-Hour Battle Between Russian Mercenaries and U.S. Commandos Unfolded in Syria

Wall Street Journal: Iran’s Supreme Leader Fires Back At U.S. Demands

New York Times: Deep in the Desert, Iran Quietly Advances Missile Technology

Roll Call: Trump Administration Tries to Reassure Key Senators About ZTE Enforcement

Defense One: No Joke: Top Special Ops Commander Says No Offense Intended, Lauds Press

Navy Times: Why wouldn’t the Pentagon pay to fly the fallen McCain sailors’ families to Dover?

Foreign Policy: North Korea Is a Dangerous Distraction

Defense News: Why are US drones being based in Greece for the first time?

Washington Post: As a Navy SEAL receives the Medal of Honor, frustrations remain about a related case

Stars and Stripes: Japanese Defense Minister Expresses Concern After Osprey Crash Report