Trump is playing down brain injuries, and vets groups aren’t happy Presented by Northrop Grumman

With Jacqueline Feldscher and Connor O’Brien

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Quick Fix

— Veterans groups are angry after President Donald Trump minimized the impact of brain injuries on troops.

— The Senate Armed Services chairman wants to talk to Trump’s pick to be the Navy secretary about some of his past work.

— The president says Iraq wants to keep U.S. troops.

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War Report

CAUSING HEADACHES: Trump, while speaking to reporters at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, downplayed reports that service members were being treated for possible traumatic brain injuries after an Iranian missile attack this month.

“I heard that they had headaches, and a couple of other things,” he said. “But I would say, and I can report it is not very serious. Not very serious.”

He then compared those injuries to those suffered by victims of roadside bombs

“I've seen people with no legs and with no arms. I've seen people that were horribly, horribly injured in that area ... those bombs put there by Soleimani, who is no longer with us,” he said, referring to Iranian Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike this month. “I consider them to be really bad injuries.”

Veterans advocates, who note the Defense Department has worked to destigmatize brain injuries, weren’t pleased to see Trump treating the issue as no big deal, our colleague Jacqueline Feldscher writes.

"The biggest challenge w TBIs is that they’re unseen! His ignorance was everyone’s ignorance—decades ago," tweeted Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and host of the "Angry Americans" podcast. "But now we know. It’s terribly counterproductive for our Commander in Chief to downplay the devastating impact invisible injuries have had on our generation of veterans."

Maj. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the deputy commander of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, met with reporters Wednesday morning and was asked what message Trump’s remarks send to the force.

“I haven’t seen the president’s remarks, and even if I had, I wouldn’t comment on them,” he said.

Fighting ISIS: You’ll recall that the U.S. announced in early January it was pausing anti-ISIS operations in Iraq in order to prepare for the Iranian threat.

In the weeks since, some counter-ISIS operations have resumed in Iraq, but are not at the level or frequency they were prior to the Iranian missile attack, Grynkewich said.

He also said most training operations are still on hold so troops can focus on protecting themselves from a potential incoming attack, adding that Iraqi forces “have kept their own pressure on ISIS during this time.”

What about the troops? At the economic forum, Trump met with Iraqi President Barham Salih and said the country wants to keep U.S. troops there, Reuters reports.

“We’re talking about a lot of different things and you’ll be hearing whatever we do,” Trump said before the meeting. “But they like what we’re doing and we like them, and we’ve had a very good relationship.”

That flies in the face of recent statements by Iraq’s caretaker prime minister, who has called on the U.S. to provide a timetable for a troop withdrawal. And Iraqis are planning a “million man” demonstration against the U.S. troop presence on Friday, The Associated Press reports.

Patriot movements: The U.S. is expected to deploy Patriot anti-missile batteries to Iraq following Iran’s missile attack, Fox News reports.

The story notes that there’s a shortage of the system across the globe and that batteries are being used in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

On the Hill

INHOFE HAS QUESTIONS: “Senate Armed Services Chairman Jim Inhofe plans to confer with President Donald Trump's pick to be Navy secretary about a report that he may have had a previously undisclosed contractual relationship with the now-defunct political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica,” our own Connor O’Brien reports.

“The Oklahoma Republican said he wasn't yet sure whether the report is problematic for Kenneth Braithwaite, now the U.S. ambassador to Norway. Inhofe added he aims to talk to Braithwaite by phone during a break in Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate to ‘find out what the problem is and what his relationship’ was with Cambridge Analytica.”

"I have not personally talked to him about this. I know him. ... I understand what he has said is that he has not had any kind of a contractual relationship that would affect him or disqualify him for this," Inhofe said. "But I don't know exactly what that means because I haven't heard from him."

The man running the Navy Department in the interim, Thomas Modly, is pressing ahead with plans to build a 355-ship Navy while trying to keep the existing fleet running, Breaking Defense reports.

“I’m very focused on making sure we grow the size of our Navy, but I don’t want to grow a hollow Navy,” the acting secretary said.

“The acting secretary ... has made clear he isn’t interested in merely being a placeholder. He has issued sharply-worded weekly ‘Vector’ memos tackling issues like the troublesome Ford-class carrier ... Navy education, and the quest for a 355-ship fleet.

“One congressional staffer referred to the Modly memos as ‘please don’t fire me’ memos meant for a White House that recently threw one Navy secretary overboard. But others see a U.S. Naval Academy grad eager to push the service forward after what some saw as some drift under [former Secretary Richard] Spencer.”

TALKING AFGHANISTAN: The Senate Armed Services Committee holds a hearing next Tuesday on the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan with former military and Pentagon officials. The witness list includes retired Gen. John Nicholson, former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Nuclear Weapons

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists last adjusted the Doomsday Clock in 2018. | Win McNamee/Getty Images

CLOSING WALLS AND TICKING CLOCKS: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists will announce this morning at 10 whether the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock will move for 2020, signaling the world’s overall situation when it comes to nuclear weapons.

The clock didn’t move in 2019, but in 2018 was moved 30 seconds forward, making it two minutes to midnight.

The event will be live-streamed.

NEW POLL: Four out of five voters say it’s “essential or very important” for a candidate for president to have clear goals for addressing the threat of nuclear weapons, according to a new poll conducted by Hart Research Associates.

The poll, released by the Nuclear Threat Initiative, also found that a majority of voters want to see the nuclear threat addressed, regardless of their political party.

Making Moves

Lauren Ehrsam Gorey is the director of communications for the Commerce Department. She was the director of strategic communications at the National Security Council.

Tim Morrison and David Asher are joining the Hudson Institute as senior fellows. Morrison was a senior director at the NSC and a deputy assistant to Trump. Asher was a senior research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Speed Read

— Esper says ‘no decisions’ have been finalized on AFRICOM changes: Defense News

— Pentagon racks up $35 trillion in accounting changes in one year: Bloomberg

— Amazon asks court to pause Microsoft's work on Pentagon's JEDI contract: Reuters

— Q&A: USA Rare Earth's Pini Althaus and Dan McGroarty: POLITICO Pro

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