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NEVERMIND, IT’S ALL GOOD: After a tumultuous 24 hours, President Trump held a news conference this morning in Brussels in which he basically said his tough love approach with NATO members has worked like a charm. “NATO now is really a fine-tuned machine. People are paying money they never paid before, and the United States is being treated much more fairly.” The head-spinning turnaround followed a tumultuous 24 hours that left NATO allies flummoxed about what to make of Trump’s no-holds-barred attack on the alliance. “I let them know, yesterday I let them know that I was extremely unhappy with what was happening and they have substantially upped their commitment,” Trump said. “Now we’re very happy and we’ll have a very strong, very powerful NATO.” ‘WHAT’S NATO GOOD FOR?’ Trump said a lot of provocative things as he took the NATO summit by storm yesterday, with a full-frontal assault on the defense budgets of allies that he considered an affront to the United States and an insult to U.S. taxpayers. But one tweet summed it up. “What good is NATO,” Trump tweeted, “if Germany is paying Russia billions of dollars for gas and energy? Why are there only 5 out of 29 countries that have met their commitment? The U.S. is paying for Europe’s protection, then loses billions on Trade. Must pay 2% of GDP IMMEDIATELY, not by 2025.” UPPING THE ANTE: Under a 2014 pledge, NATO nations are obligated to work toward spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on their own defense by 2024. Trump is not only insisting all 29 countries meet the goal now instead of six years from now, in a meeting behind closed doors he also demanded they double their spending to 4 percent, which according to NATO is more than the U.S. spends. The latest NATO estimate is that American spends 3.5 percent of its GDP on defense, while Trump said the number is actually 4.2 percent. “Not acceptable!” Trump tweeted this morning, “All NATO Nations must meet their 2% commitment, and that must ultimately go to 4%!” Once again we look to Trump’s classic 1987 best-seller The Art of the Deal for insight into Trump’s negotiating tactics. “My style of deal-making is quite simple and straightforward. I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing to get what I’m after,” wrote the book’s author Tony Schwartz. MERKEL’S RESPONSE: As we noted yesterday, at a breakfast with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Trump singled out Germany for his harshest criticism, accusing it of being “captive” and “totally controlled” by Moscow because of its energy pipeline deal. Yesterday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was pointed but reserved in her response. Arriving at NATO headquarters, she told reporters, “I myself experienced a part of Germany that was controlled by the Soviet Union, and I am very happy today that we are united in freedom as the Federal Republic of Germany. We decide our own policies and make our own decisions, and that’s very good.” She avoided confrontation while seated next to Trump during a joint appearance later. “Let me say that I am very pleased, indeed, to have this opportunity here for this exchange of views,” Merkel said. “I think they’re very important to have those exchanges together, because after all, we are partners, we are good partners, and we wish to continue to cooperate in the future.” And Trump, as is often his style, was also conciliatory and complimentary as he spoke in the company of Merkel. “We have a very, very good relationship with the chancellor. We have a tremendous relationship with Germany,” he said. DAMAGING RHETORIC: Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker says while he agrees Trump has a valid point about the inequities of burden sharing by NATO members, he says the president’s brash style and harsh rhetoric risks permanent damage to America’s relationship with long-time allies. “I absolutely agree on the substance, but I think there are ways of communicating with your friends, and sometimes it feels like we punch our friends in the nose and hold our hand out to people who are working strong against us,” Corker told CNN yesterday. NOT NORMAL: “I think it’s important we don’t normalize this,” said former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Nick Burns on CNN last night. “What made us great is our military alliances over the last 75 years, our ability to trade, our ability to keep a worldwide trading system together and promote democracy around the world. And the president is doing none of that, in fact he’s overturning all of that. This is a radical revolution and it’s hurting America. “I felt that the president treated NATO allies almost with contempt today, picking fights with Germany, demanding they reach their defense spending levels now, not by the agreed day 2024, agreed date. Then no, 2 percent is not good enough, you have to raise your budgets by 4 percent. It wasn’t even remotely serious.” DEFENDING NATO: Meanwhile, the House yesterday by voice vote unanimously approved a resolution supporting NATO just hours after Trump’s rebuke. The Senate passed a similar resolution Tuesday by a vote of 97-2. Republican Sens. Mike Lee and Rand Paul voted against the Senate measure. WHAT WAS KELLY THINKING? In a video clip that Trump himself tweeted out from yesterday’s breakfast with Stoltenberg, White House chief of staff John Kelly appears to be noticeably uncomfortable as Trump is berating Germany for being “totally controlled by Russia.” A grim-faced Kelly looks down, then away, which prompted amateur body-language readers on social media to speculate he was rendering an opinion about his outspoken boss. In a statement to The Washington Post, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Kelly was simply “displeased because he was expecting a full breakfast and there were only pastries and cheese.” Good Thursday 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. |
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NDAA NEGOTIATIONS: Leaders on the House and Senate Armed Services committees held a brief news conference Wednesday before disappearing behind closed doors to begin negotiations on the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act. “We’ll listen to everyone’s complaints and then we’ll try to get this through. Looking forward to it,” Sen. Jim Inhofe, the senior Republican who has been heading the Senate Armed Services Committee in Sen. John McCain’s absence. Rep. Mac Thornberry, the chairman of the House committee, said he expects to “finish in fairly short order” and have a final NDAA bill before the end of the month. “Our job has been made easier this year because the budget agreement but it is important that not only we get this bill done on time but an appropriations [bill] to match so that the troops can see the benefit of the two-year budget deal,” Thornberry said. The two majority leaders and top Democrats on the committees mentioned McCain’s absence due to cancer treatment. Thornberry said McCain’s presence is “acutely felt” in the substance of the bill. McCain was named a conferee to the negotiations and will continue to participate from his home in Arizona through staff, Inhofe said. THREE-MCCAIN DESTROYER: The Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS John S. McCain was named in honor of the Arizona senator’s father and grandfather. But on Wednesday, Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer expanded the name of the Japan-based ship to also include the senator. “My father and grandfather dedicated their entire lives to their naval service. The greatest honor of my life was to serve in the company of heroes, and I look back with incredible gratitude for my formative years in the Navy. I hope the generations of sailors who will serve aboard the USS McCain will find the same fulfillment that my family does in serving a cause greater than oneself,” McCain said in a statement. McCain’s grandfather served as a carrier task force commander during World War II and his father was the head of U.S. Pacific Command. “As a warrior and a statesman who has always put country first, Sen. John McCain never asked for this honor, and he would never seek it. But we would be remiss if we did not etch his name alongside his illustrious forebears, because this country would not be the same were it not for the courageous service of all three of these great men,” Spencer said. ONLY THE BEST: Trump says he has agreed to help NATO allies buy American, because the U.S. he says “makes by far the best military equipment in the world.” Trump said the U.S. won’t “finance” the sales, but will facilitate the purchase of the “best jets, missiles, guns, everything.” “Our equipment is so much better than anybody else’s. When you look at our companies, Lockheed and Boeing and Grumman, the equipment and the materiel we make is so superior everyone wants to buy it,” he said this morning in Brussels. SEEKING ANSWERS ON NORTH KOREA: Quite a few anonymous reports have suggested the U.S. intelligence community is at odds with Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s upbeat assessment that Kim Jong Un is serious about negotiating away his nuclear arsenal. Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wants to hear it from the top. Warner has fired off a letter to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats asking whether he can clear things up. Specifically, Warner wants an assessment of Kim’s commitment to “complete denuclearization,” his willingness to accept intrusive inspections and a description of what a complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization process would look like and whether North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile program presents a persistent threat to the U.S. and its allies. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT? One of the lessons of today’s toxic social media environment is that anything you have ever said or done can and will be used against you in the court of public ridicule. The latest example comes from the wife of Bill Shine, the new White House deputy chief of staff for communications. Comments Darla Shine made on her radio show in 2009 suggest she was not a fan of women serving alongside men in the military. “Why on Earth would you fight to go on a submarine ship for months on end? You know there was just a story with these girls, these women upset that they are sexually harassed in the military,” she said, according to CNN. “What do you think is going to happen when you go on a submarine for 12 months with 4,000 horny soldiers?” Setting aside there are not 4,000 sailors (not soldiers) on a submarine, it should be noted that radio talk show hosts routinely say provocative things, and that the White House hired Bill Shine, not his wife. The remarks would likely not be a story if not for the fact that Bill Shine is a former Fox News executive who left the network after a sexual harassment scandal. THE RUNDOWN Washington Post: North Korean officials no-show for meeting about U.S. troop remains Daily Beast: Can America’s New Stealth Fighter Out-Fly a ’70s Retro Plane? Foreign Policy: U.S. Envoy to NATO: A Washington Insider Caught Between Trump and a Hard Place Defense One: China, Russia, and the US Are All Building Centers for Military AI AFP: Iraq’s Mosul celebrates, one year after IS ousted USNI News: Second Zumwalt Destroyer Needs New Engine After Turbine Blades Damaged in Sea Trials Defense News: NATO has a new Baltic command structure Reuters: After Trump’s spending demands, NATO summit turns to Afghanistan New York Times: Suicide Bombing on Afghan Education Department Kills 12 DoD Buzz: New Steel Tariffs Not Derailing Plans for 355-Ship Navy Yet: Admiral Navy Times: Pentagon report slams new US Strategic Command headquarters construction |
CalendarTHURSDAY | JULY 12 7 a.m. 11100 Johns Hopkins Rd. Ninth Annual Integrated Air and Missile Defense Symposium. ndia.org 9 a.m. 1201 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Transatlantic Crossroads: What to Expect from the NATO Summit. hudson.org 10 a.m. 529 14th St. NW. Ohio Gov. John Kasich Addresses America’s Foreign Policy. press.org 10 a.m. Dirksen 419. Hearing on Tariffs and Implications for U.S. Foreign Policy and the International Economy. foreign.senate.gov 7 p.m. 1152 15th St. NW. U.S.-North Korea Relations: Where We Are and Where We’re Going. georgetown.edu FRIDAY | JULY 13 9 a.m. 300 1st St. SE. Space Breakfast Series Presents on Commercial Launch and Ranges with Brig. Gen. Wayne Monteith, Commander of the 45th Space Wing. mitchellaerospacepower.org 1 p.m. 1201 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Dialogue of American Foreign Policy and World Affairs: Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Walter Russell Mead. hudson.org MONDAY | JULY 16 2 p.m. 1030 15th St. NW. Pulling at the Strings: Kremlin’s Interference in Elections with a Fireside Chat Between Sens. Mark Warner and Marco Rubio. atlanticcouncil.org 3 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. With Partners Like These: Strategies and Tools for Counterterrorism Cooperation. csis.org TUESDAY | JULY 17 8 a.m. 2101 Wilson Blvd. S&ET Division Executive Breakfast. ndia.org 4 p.m. 2101 Wilson Blvd. Beyond the Hype: Industry’s Experience with OTAs. ndia.org WEDNESDAY | JULY 18 6:30 a.m. 2425 Wilson Blvd. Institute for Land Warfare Breakfast Series with Lt. Gen. Paul Ostrowski, Principal Military Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology. ausa.org 9 a.m. 1789 Massachusetts Ave. NW. US competition with China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran: A conversation with Rep. Michael McCaul. aei.org 11:45 a.m. 1201 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Conversations on National Security and U.S. Naval Power: Rep. Joe Courtney and Seth Cropsey. hudson.org THURSDAY | JULY 19 8:30 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. From Washington to Brussels: A Discussion on the 2018 NATO Summit with with Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Thom Tillis. csis.org 12 noon. 1030 15th St. NW. Russia’s Interference in the U.S. Judiciary. atlanticcouncil.org 12:30 p.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. Deep Fakes: A Looming Challenge for Privacy, Democracy, and National Security with Sen. Marco Rubio. heritage.org 4 p.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. No friends, no enemies? Trans-Atlantic relations after Trump’s Europe trip. brookings.edu
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ADVERTISEMENT: NDIA invites you to attend the Army Science and Technology Symposium and Showcase August twenty first through twenty third at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in DC. Register today at http://www.ndia.org/ArmyScience |
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