Trump threatens to pull out of NATO Presented by Northrop Grumman

With Eleanor Mueller and Connor O’Brien

TODAY: Trump arrives in England after a contentious NATO Summit in Brussels — Senate considers Pentagon general counsel nominee — Wittman stumps with AEI for more Navy resources


TOP NEWS: Trump threatens to pull out of NATO — Korea ‘war games’ cost less than a fighter jet — Turkish minister defends S-400 buy

FROM POLITICO: Latvian defense attache talks higher defense spending — NDAA conferees hash out the issues — Senate names ‘minibus’ conferees — Pentagon nears final call for cloud contract bids

HAPPY THURSDAY AND WELCOME TO MORNING DEFENSE, where we're always on the lookout for tips, pitches and feedback. Email us at [email protected], and follow on Twitter @greg_hellman, @morningdefense and @politicopro.

NATO SUMMIT REPORT — TRUMP THREATENS TO PULL OUT OF NATO, reports POLITICO's David M. Herszenhorn: “U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to break with NATO and conduct American security unilaterally — if allies do not immediately meet higher military spending targets, NATO officials and diplomats said.

“Trump warned of ‘grave consequences’ if allies do not immediately meet higher spending targets, derailing a morning meeting of NATO leaders with the leaders of Georgia and Ukraine on the second day of a NATO leaders’ summit on Thursday. One NATO official said Trump wants a plan from alliance members by January on how to reach the spending target.

“Some officials urged caution in interpreting Trump’s remarks, but say allies clearly heard a threat. Word of Trump’s threat set off a wild game of telephone at NATO headquarters as officials and reporters tried to sort out what exactly Trump told fellow leaders. Two common versions, according to officials briefed, were if allies don’t pay up, the U.S. ‘will do our own thing’ or ‘go it alone.’”

And, at the end of the two-day NATO Summit, Trump declares the U.S. commitment to the alliance is “very strong,” via POLITICO’s Louis Nelson.

— FROM ‘SAD’ TO ‘TREMENDOUS’ AND BACK AGAIN: The president has switched his tone on Germany several times since arriving in Brussels. In a pair of morning tweets, he continued his criticisms.

“Germany just started paying Russia, the country they want protection from, Billions of Dollars for their Energy needs coming out of a new pipeline from Russia. Not acceptable! All NATO Nations must meet their 2% commitment, and that must ultimately go to 4%!” Trump wrote.

“Donald Trump threw a tantrum at breakfast — railing against Germany — but by afternoon he seemed to have gotten it out of his system,” David wrote on Wednesday.

In an almost surreal turn, Trump appeared with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday and told reporters that relations with Germany were “tremendous.”

Earlier, top White House aides pursed their lips and glanced away while Trump railed against Germany, adds The Washington Post.

— MOVING THE GOALPOSTS: “President Donald Trump suggested Wednesday that NATO nations double the amount of their gross domestic product that they spend on defense, furthering his long-running complaint that the U.S. carries too much of the organization’s mutual defense burden,” via POLITICO’s Louis Nelson.

“Many experts consider the 4 percent figure impractical, and say that a serious effort to enforce it could break up the alliance. But Trump's comments, made behind closed doors at a meeting of NATO leaders, do not appear to represent an official U.S. position. Instead they seem more likely a negotiation tactic from a president pressuring European nations to pay more for a collective defense pact that Trump feels is too dependent on Washington's largesse.”

— MACEDONIA’S INVITE: “NATO has invited Macedonia to start membership talks, a step toward adding its 30th member despite Russia’s objection and a show of unity at a time of growing discord between the Trump administration and Europe,” reports The Associated Press.

“Macedonia was given a pathway to membership on condition that it finally iron out its years-long standoff over its name with Greece, which took a big step forward with their deal last month that could rename the country North Macedonia.”

Stay up to date on the summit’s latest developments with POLITICO’s live blog here.

POLITICO ON THE BEAT — LATVIAN DEFENSE ATTACHE TALKS HIGHER DEFENSE SPENDING, in a POLITICO Pro Q&A with your Morning D correspondent: “President Donald Trump has been relentlessly chiding most NATO allies for not spending enough on defense. But the Baltic states, facing a resurgent Russia, are nearing the key benchmark of spending 2 percent of their gross domestic products on defense.

“And that includes Latvia, which plans to spend approximately €576 million in 2018 and to sustain its spending increase as it builds air defense and other capabilities, explains its defense attaché in Washington, Col. Dzintars Roga.”

And on Wednesday, Latvia joined other countries in signing onto a new Baltic-focused regional command, reports Defense News.

ON THE HILL — HOUSE PASSES PRO-NATO RESOLUTION: The House adopted by voice vote a resolution Wednesday expressing support for NATO. Specifically, it called for maintaining sanctions against Russia and keeping the door open for countries wishing to join the alliance.

House Speaker Paul Ryan says NATO is “indispensable,” but that the president was right to point out that Germany and other allies need to stick to their commitment to increase spending on defense, via Reuters.

NDAA CONFEREES HASH OUT THE ISSUES: The conference committee tasked with hammering out the differences in the House and Senate versions of the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act met for the first time Wednesday, with members laying out a vast array of issues they want included in a the final bill.

The so-called Big Four House and Senate Armed Services leaders reiterated their bullishness that a final NDAA will be wrapped up by the end of July. If lawmakers miss that self-imposed deadline, the NDAA won’t pass until at least September with the House on recess for all of August.

Sparring over JSTARS: During the meeting, conferees sparred over competing provisions on the JSTARS recapitalization program and the Air Force’s proposed follow-on to the plane, the Advanced Battle Management System, according to several attendees.

In what could be shaping up to be a tricky conference issue, House conferees backed their provision to effectively force the Air Force to move ahead with the recapitalization, which the service has sought to kill. But Senate conferees, including Sens. David Perdue (R-Ga.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), stood behind their plans to boost funding for the ABMS while barring the Air Force from retiring any legacy JSTARS.

CFIUS reform: Defense hawks have expressed a keen interest in beefing up the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. as a way of guarding against China accessing sensitive technology, but HASC Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said following the meeting that Armed Services leaders would rely on non-Armed Services conferees to work out the final package and that other congressional leaders could weigh in as well. Members of the two panels that produced CFIUS reform bills — House Financial Services and Senate Banking — were named to the conference committee.

— SENATE NAMES ‘MINIBUS’ CONFEREES, reports our colleague Jennifer Scholtes: The Senate agreed Wednesday afternoon on its team of negotiators to hash out differences between the three-bill spending packages each chamber passed in June. The spending package includes fiscal 2019 funding for the departments of Energy and Veterans Affairs, as well as the legislative branch, military construction and water projects.

HAPPENING TODAY — THE SENATE SET TO CONFIRM DoD GENERAL COUNSEL NOMINEE: The Senate voted 74-25 Wednesday to cut off debate on the nomination of Paul Ney to be Defense Department general counsel. The Pentagon has lacked a permanent general counsel since the Obama administration.

The chamber’s scheduled to vote — and expected to confirm — Ney this afternoon.

— WITTMAN STUMPS WITH AEI FOR A NAVY BUILD-UP: HASC Seapower Subcommittee Chairman Rob Wittman (R-Va.) is set to participate in a panel hosted by the American Enterprise Institute at noon in House Rayburn 2044. The panel will discuss a recent report from the conservative think tank which proposed providing the service more resources to help it reach a 355-ship fleet.

— HOUSE DEBATES INTEL BILL, reports our colleague Martin Matishak: The House Rules Committee Wednesday set the stage for floor debate today on the intelligence authorization bill, H.R. 6732 (115), approving a rule for final consideration of the bill in a 6-4 vote. The measure authorizes spending for the U.S. intelligence community for fiscal years 2018 and 2019.

THE NAVY EXPANDS DESTROYER NAME TO HONOR MCCAIN: The Navy has expanded the name of the USS John S. McCain to honor the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman.

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer participated in a ceremony Wednesday to redesignate the ship, which previously honored both Arizona's senator’s father and grandfather, but now includes all three generations.

FOR YOUR RADAR — MCMASTER GETS A BOOK DEAL: “H.R. McMaster, the lieutenant general who endured a troubled year as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, has a book deal,” reports the AP.

“HarperCollins Publishers told The Associated Press on Wednesday that McMaster’s ‘Battlegrounds’ is scheduled for 2020. The book will cover his 34-year military career and his time in the Trump administration.”

DoD TAGS KOREA WAR GAMES AS CHEAPER THAN A FIGHTER JET: “At the Singapore summit with Kim Jong Un last month, President Donald Trump said he was canceling military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea, because they were provocative to North Korea and ‘tremendously expensive,’” reports the WSJ.

“The cost? According to a new Pentagon analysis prompted by Mr. Trump’s statement, the military exercises known as Freedom Guardian, which would have begun in August, would have set the U.S. military back $14 million.

“It is a fraction of the military’s annual budget of $700 billion, which increased 15.5% for the fiscal year 2018, and is less than the cost of one new fighter plane.”

Additionally, on Thursday, North Korean officials didn't turn up to a meeting with the U.S. military about repatriating the remains of the war dead, reports The Washington Post.

Still, the hunt for Korean War dead will take months to resume, a U.S. official says, via Reuters.

TURKISH MINISTER: RUSSIA’S S-400 ‘THE BEST PROPOSAL’: “Turkey’s foreign minister defended his government’s choice Wednesday to buy the Russian S-400 missile defense system, presenting it as the second-best option only because NATO allies declined to sell Western hardware...

“‘I tried to buy from my allies,’ Çavuşoğlu said. ‘I wanted to buy from the U.S. for the last 10 years; it didn’t work. I couldn’t buy from NATO allies, so Russia gave me the best proposal. And now I’m buying from Russia.’”

INDUSTRY INTEL — DoD NEARS LAST CALL ON CLOUD BIDS, writes Martin: “The Defense Department's top technology officer said the agency is close to putting out a final call for bids on a potentially landmark commercial cloud contract, which Amazon is thought favored to land. ...

“‘We have a bit more work to do before we release,’ Pentagon Chief Information Office Dana Deasy declining to give a specific date.”

SPEED READ

— Defense Secretary Jim Mattis once wanted to rocket Marines into space, foreshadowing Trump's Space Force: USA Today

— Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin may agree to resume stalled arms control talks: Reuters

— Under threat, Iran’s president takes a harder line: WSJ

— Gitmo attorneys challenge lifetime imprisonment without charge: The Washington Post

— Detention and torture in Yemeni prisons are war crimes, Amnesty International says: The Washington Post

— A spate of attacks in eastern Afghanistan marks a push by Islamic State militants: The Washington Post

— Lockheed Martin to double Patriot missile production as orders explode: Defense News

— Which U.S. aerospace and defense sectors excelled in 2017?: Defense News

— Air Force drone and Army tank documents were put up for sale on the dark web: Air Force Times

— The Pentagon wants to automate some classification decisions: Defense One

— Russian special forces just practiced invading an island near Finland: Defense One

— BAE howitzer production is hobbled as the Army readies a $1.3 billion buy: Bloomberg

— The Army will restrict its marketing efforts after an audit finds millions in wasteful spending: AdWeek

— The Air Force is no longer spending $10,000 on toilet seats, officials say: Military.com

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