WE’RE GETTING OUT: Against the advice of his national security team and over the objections of many of his own party in Congress, President Trump made it abundantly clear in his Super Bowl Sunday interview with CBS that he’s determined to pull U.S troops out of Syria, Afghanistan and perhaps elsewhere.

HAPPENING TOMORROW — THE STATE OF THE UNION: It will be quite the scene in the House chamber tomorrow night when President Trump delivers his shutdown-delayed State of the Union address. His political nemesis, Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi D-Calif., will sit over his left shoulder in full camera view.

In his CBS interview, Trump called Pelosi “very rigid” and “very bad for our country.” He again refused to rule out another shutdown, while at the same time indicating he’s leaning toward an emergency declaration Feb. 15 to fund his border wall.

“We have now set the table beautifully because everybody knows what’s going on because of the shutdown. People that didn’t have any idea, they didn’t have a clue as to what was happening, they now know exactly what’s happening.”

DON’T DO IT: Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., reportedly has counseled Trump in private against declaring a national emergency to build his border wall. The Washington Post cites “two Republicans with knowledge of the exchange,” as saying McConnell cautioned Trump that a declaration “could trigger political blowback and divide the GOP.”

McConnell reportedly warned Trump that Congress might pass a resolution of disapproval, which could put Trump in the uncomfortable position of issuing his first veto ever, in the face of opposition from his own party.

TROUBLE IN THE RANKS: The president is already facing substantial push-back from Republicans for his Syria and Afghanistan withdrawal plans. Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Sen. Ron Johnson R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said it would be “unconscionable,” to leave Syria, and abandon the Syrian Kurds, our most effective allies in battling ISIS.

“I can’t tell you how many times I came on shows like this after President Obama decided to bug out of Iraq precipitously and so that ISIS was able to rise from the thoroughly-defeated ashes of al Qaeda in Iraq. And I don’t want to be making the same statement six months from now that we bug out of Syria,” Johnson told host Chris Wallace.

“I think it would just be tragic if we bugged out, left the Kurds, who, by and large, have done the fighting and have defeated the ISIS caliphate, the territorial caliphate in ISIS, if we just abandon them to the mercies — and you know, I use that term loosely — of Russia and Iran and possibly Turkey.”

Johnson was one of 43 Senate Republicans who voted for a measure spearheaded by Majority Leader McConnell that rebuked the Trump’s Syria policy in a bipartisan vote.

“I’m not on the ground there. I don’t know all the military assets. But it’s a very bad sign when [Defense] Secretary [Jim] Mattis resigns, Brett McGurk, our envoy there for the defeat of ISIS, also resigns because they simply can’t carry out this policy,” Johnson said. “These are people that are intimately knowledgeable of the conditions of the ground, of our allies there, and they simply couldn’t in good conscience stay in office.”

HE RESIGNED BECAUSE I FIRED HIM: Trump yesterday again insisted he fired Mattis before he resigned, not after. “I wasn’t happy with his service. And I told him, ‘Give me a letter,’” Trump told CBS. “He resigned because I asked him to resign. He resigned because I was very nice to him.”

“I gave him big budgets, and he didn’t do well in Afghanistan. I was not happy with the job he was doing in Afghanistan.” And Trump said the same thing with Syria, where Mattis opposed the plan to pull out before the defeat of ISIS was complete and local security forces had been fully trained and equipped.

“If you look at Syria, what’s happened in Syria in the last few weeks, you would see that things are going down that were not going down, that things are happening that are very good,” Trump said. “So, I was not happy with him, but I wish him well.”

MORE TROOPS TO SW BORDER: The Pentagon announced yesterday that in response to a request from the Department of Homeland Security last month, it will be dispatching an additional 3,750 additional active duty U.S. troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.

The additional support to Customs and Border Patrol was approved by Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan Jan. 11. “That support includes a mobile surveillance capability through the end of September 2019, as well as the emplacement of approximately 150 miles of concertina wire between ports of entry,” said a Pentagon statement, noting, “This will raise the total Active Duty forces supporting CBP at the border to approximately 4,350.”

The deployment is set to last three months, but the Pentagon said it will “continue to evaluate the force composition required to meet the mission to protect and secure the southern border.”

CAPITOL HILL GEARS UP: With the 116th Congress now in full swing, the hearing schedule is filling up again.

Tomorrow U.S. Central Commander Army Gen. Joseph Votel appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee. (9:30 am 216 Hart). Votel’s in overall charge of the missions in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen, so he can expect a lot of questions that could put him at odds with his president and commander in chief.

Wednesday at 10:15 a.m. DNI Dan Coats and DIA Director Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley get a chance to reprise their testimony on worldwide threats, (216 Hart). It will be an opportunity to perhaps clear up the president’s confusion about whether they were misquoted in last week’s testimony.

Thursday it’s Marine Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, commander, of U.S. Africa Command in the SASC hot seat, along with Adm. Craig Faller, commander, U.S. Southern Command. Expect Waldhauser, who oversees Libya, Niger, and Somalia, to get the most pointed questions. (10:15 G50 Dirksen).

SOMALIA WATCH: Friday’s U.S. airstrike in Somalia, the tenth of the year, reportedly killed 13 more al-Shabaab militants according to a release from the U.S. Africa Command. So far this year, AFRICOM assess it has killed 116 al-Shabaab fighters, 103 in the month of January.

That compares to only six reported killed in airstrikes in January 2018.

INF BLOWBACK: House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., and Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., accused President Trump of being “too soft on Russia” and playing into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hands following the administration’s announcement it would pull out of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

“By withdrawing from the INF Treaty instead of making an honest, good-faith effort to collectively punish Russia for its treaty violations and bring it back into compliance, we are playing into President Putin’s hands,” Smith said in a statement. Smith also argued that NATO allies were being “ignored” by pulling out of the treaty, despite the fact that NATO allies issued a statement voicing their total support for the Trump administration’s decision.

PUTIN’S PLEDGE: Upon receiving the official notice from the United States of its intention to withdraw from the 1987 treaty, Putin said Russia would follow suit.

“We will respond quid pro quo,” Putin said Friday. “Our American partners have announced they were suspending their participation in the treaty, and we will do the same. They have announced they will conduct research and development, and we will act accordingly.”

While Putin has ordered the development of new land-based intermediate-range weapons, he also said Russia won’t deploy them in the European part of the country or elsewhere unless the U.S. does so.

BOLTON TALKS VENEZUELA: National Security Adviser John Bolton said there are no imminent plans for a military intervention in Venezuela, but stressed that all options were fair game, in a radio interview Friday with Hugh Hewitt.

Bolton was pressed on whether military intervention by the U.S., Brazil, Colombia, or a mix of the countries was imminent, and he responded, “No, the president said all options are on the table.”

Bolton emphasized that the objective was a peaceful transition of power, and didn’t share any more information after being caught on camera last week holding a notepad with “5,000 troops to Colombia” scrawled on it. “You know, when we say all options are on the table, we want to keep it at that level,” Bolton said. “And going beyond that, I think, would be imprudent, as George H.W. Bush would say.”

DHS DEATHS: Three employees with the Department of Homeland Security died while working over the past three days — unusual in such a short period of time, even for such a large federal agency.

The three DHS personnel who died while on the job include Michel Kozloski of the Coast Guard, Donna Doss of Border Patrol, and an unnamed male officer from the Transportation Security Administration.

THE RUNDOWN

Wall Street Journal: After Mattis, Acting Defense Chief Shanahan Is Trying Out for Permanent Role

Politico: Leaner Space Force woos skeptics in Congress

AP: Russia to pull plug on nuclear arms pact after US does same

Breaking Defense: Navy Rethinks 355-Ship Fleet: CNO Richardson

The New York Times: Is This the Right Way to End a War?

Washington Post: While E.U. tries to bypass U.S. sanctions on Iran, Trump administration amps up pressure

Task and Purpose: ‘Most Modern Submarine In The World’ — Meet The New USS South Dakota

Breaking Defense: Pentagon Studies Post-INF Weapons, Shooting Down Hypersonics

Stars and Stripes: ‘The American dream is real’: Once a desperate refugee, now a US Army general

Military Times: Among troops, vaping is now more popular than cigarettes

Task and Purpose:  An Unusually High Numbers Of Patriots Players Come From Military And Law Enforcement Families