HAPPENING TODAY: President Trump is scheduled to lunch today with Vice President Mike Pence and Mattis. Also on the White House schedule, the president and first lady Melania Trump host a reception for Gold Star families. Melania’s low profile since her surgery for a benign kidney condition has raised questions in the press, but in her last tweet five days ago she insisted that she was just fine. “I see the media is working overtime speculating where I am & what I'm doing. Rest assured, I'm here at the @WhiteHouse w my family, feeling great, & working hard on behalf of children & the American people!”

CHINA’S COERCION: Mattis will no doubt brief the president on his interactions at the Shangri-La conference, where he had particularly sharp words for China. He focused on its militarization of man-made islands in the South China Sea, where the U.S. says China has deployed anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missiles, electronic jammers, and landed a nuclear-capable bomber on Woody Island.

“Despite China's claims to the contrary, the placement of these weapons systems is tied directly to military use for the purposes of intimidation and coercion,” Mattis said. “China's militarization of the Spratlys is also in direct contradiction to President Xi's 2015 public assurances in the White House Rose Garden that they would not do this.”

Mattis said, however, the U.S. is not asking other countries to take sides in the dispute, because “a friend does not demand you choose among them.” The U.S. “will continue to pursue a constructive, results-oriented relationship with China,” cooperating “whenever possible.”

A COKE AND A SMILE: Mattis later told reporters the Chinese delegates didn’t seem to take it personally. “I saw them at lunch yesterday, which would have been after I spoke, and we enjoyed our Coca-Cola together, and we talked,” Mattis said. “Nothing adversarial at all.” Mattis is scheduled to visit China soon. Despite the tensions over the South China Seas and Trump’s tariffs, that trip is still on. “I'm still certainly going to China,” he said.

THORNBERRY AT SHANGRI-LA: While Mattis was delivering a strong message to China, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee was also at the retreat for meetings with a string of senior officials from the Indo-Pacific. “The region is also home to some of America’s closest alliances and most promising new partnerships,” said Rep. Mac Thornberry, who was there with a congressional delegation.

Thornberry pushed for the decision by Mattis last week to change the name of U.S. Pacific Command to Indo-Pacific Command as a symbol of a wider U.S. effort to develop allies, and his committee is backing an initiative aimed at a greater U.S. military presence in the region and more joint training. He met with Mattis as well as officials from Singapore, Vietnam, Australia, South Korea, and Japan at Shangri-La.

Mattis, who noted that in the past Sen. John McCain was a fixture at the annual conference, said it was good that a new crop of lawmakers was taking interest. “I think it was Mark Twain who said, travel … it's like an antidote for prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness. You know, you just can't keep a closed mind when you travel, you know,” Mattis told reporters. “So the more we can get the congressmen and women out here, bipartisan, defense and non-defense, I think that says more about a commitment to Asia than just my going.”

RISING CHINA: China is on the verge of surpassing the United States as an economic and military power, a senior Republican senator predicts, in part because of the Communist regime's success in lifting a nation of 1.4 billion people out of poverty.

“Combine that human capital with financial capital, and technology, and they're going to be the powerhouse, globally,” Sen. Ron Johnson told the Washington Examiner last week. “Certainly, regionally. ... We’re having trouble financing a 300-ship Navy. They're not going to have a problem doing that.”

CANADA INSULTED: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he is perplexed and frankly insulted that Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from his country in the name of national security. “The idea that we are somehow a national security threat to the United States is, quite frankly, insulting and unacceptable,” Trudeau said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“You know, our soldiers who had fought and died together on the beaches of World War II, and on the mountains of Afghanistan and have stood shoulder-to-shoulder in some of the most difficult places in the world, that are always there for each other, somehow, this is insulting to that,” Trudeau said. “The idea that the Canadian steel that's in military vehicles in the United States, the Canadian aluminum that makes your fighter jets is somehow now a threat.”

On Fox, Trump’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow dismissed Trudeau’s concerns as a “family quarrel” that will be worked out. “I think he's overreacting. I don't want to get in the middle of that. As a fine friend and ally of the United States, nobody denies that. But the point is, we have to protect ourselves,” Kudlow said on “Fox News Sunday.”

DoD AUDIT GAINS TRACTION: The Pentagon’s top-to-bottom audit of how it spends billions of taxpayer dollars is well underway and has “really got traction,” Mattis said. “We've got this big, full-scale audit. It's an army of auditors going through and taking our programs apart,” Mattis told the traveling press. “I just sent a note out to everybody. I just said, we're going to invite the scrutiny. We're going to find the problems.

“I know it's uncomfortable to get inspected. But this is what's necessary to maintain bipartisan support and the budgets we need,” Mattis said. “We are going to clean up every problem that they find.”

OPERATION ROUNDUP INTENSIFIES: It’s been a month since the U.S.-backed forces in Syria restarted their offensive to finish off Islamic State fighters in Syria, dubbed “Operation Roundup.” The operation was not named for the popular herbicide used to eliminate weeds from the garden, but it could have been.

U.S. Central Command, in an end-of-the-month report, says coalition and partner forces completed 225 strikes in May, up from 74 strikes in March and from 183 strikes in April. The increased air activity is a reflection of increase ground activity, which is where the toughest fighting is done.

WHO PICKS UP THE TAB? The U.S. is trying to determine who should pay for Kim’s hotel room for the summit with Trump, a new report says.

North Korea has demanded that a foreign country pay for the North Korean delegation’s bill at The Fullerton, North Korea’s preferred 5-star luxury hotel, the Washington Post reports. A presidential suite at the resort costs more than $6,000 a night.

The U.S. is not opposed to paying for Kim’s hotel room, but is also reportedly weighing asking Singapore to pick up the costs, according to the Post.

MAYBE THEY WILL: The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons is offering to cover the costs for the summit with its Nobel Peace Prize cash earnings, including the cost of the North Korean leader's hotel. In a statement, the group referred to the costs as part of its efforts to promote denuclearization.

“Our movement is committed to the abolition of nuclear weapons and we recognize that this historic summit is a once in a generation opportunity to work for peace and nuclear disarmament,” the Geneva-based group explained.

ANOTHER PUTIN MEETING: The White House is reportedly planning for a possible meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, though the arrangements remain in the early phases.

A senior administration official told the Wall Street Journal that Jon Huntsman, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, has been working to set up the potential summit between the two leaders while in Washington. Details, including the date and location, have yet to be finalized.

OBAMA’S SYRIA HANGOVER: Ben Rhodes, who served as deputy national security adviser to former President Barack Obama, believes his old boss's desire to avoid a "perpetual" cycle of U.S.-led wars in the Middle East was among the reasons he didn't order a military intervention in Syria.

"The hangover from the Iraq War had left us staggering toward military intervention with next to no international support, and a Congress demanding that we go through the same divisive process of seeking authorization that had just failed in London," Rhodes writes in his forthcoming memoir, "The World As It Is.”

Obama has been criticized for drawing a "red line" against the use of chemical weapons by Bashar Assad, but then failing to take action. Rhodes said Obama argued that "a president alone couldn’t keep the United States on a perpetual war footing, moving from one Middle Eastern conflict to the next."

THE RUNDOWN

AP: Taliban reject US commander’s statement on peace talks

Reuters: U.S. Weighs More South China Sea Patrols To Confront 'New Reality' Of China

Bloomberg: Hunt for Trump-Kim Venue Leads to Old Singapore Pirate Hangout

Politico: Merkel endorses idea of joint European defense force

Washington Post: Shipbuilders Set A Course To Lead Navy Program

Fox News: India tests nuclear-capable Agni-5 ballistic missile

Reuters: North Korea's top three military officials replaced, U.S. official says

Defense One: A Radical Pick for the National Security Council

Navy Times: It’s official: The US Navy has a new ship killer missile

Washington Times: Pentagon Prepares For Climate Change, Avoids Political Phrases While Protecting Bases

Reuters: Google To Scrub U.S. Military Deal Protested By Employees - Source

AP: Pentagon to take over security clearance checks

New York Times: In A Trump-Kim Meeting, Headaches Of Seating, Serving And Spending