MATTIS THE ‘MINIMIZER’: It would appear there is no problem so big that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis can’t dismiss as no big deal. In a brief engagement with reporters outside the Pentagon yesterday as he awaited the arrival of the visiting Romanian defense minister, Mattis batted away questions about a range of concern as nothing to worry about. Take the testimony by the soon-to-be new U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Robert Abrams that the suspension of fall exercises with South Korea has resulted in a slight degradation of readiness.

“If you emphasize the word ‘slight,’ certainly if you're not training today then you could say there's a slight degradation,” Mattis said. “Is it notable? Is it material? I think that's why he put the word slight in there. So there's nothing significant to it.” Mattis would not say whether he will recommend resuming major exercises in the spring. “I'll give my advice to the president. As you all know, you take risk in war, we also take risk in peace. We do not believe the risk right now is anything other than negligible.”

Mattis took a similar tack about the rising tensions with China, which prompted Beijing to deny permission for the USS Wasp to make a port call in Hong Kong, and has put military-to-military relations on ice. “I don't think that we're seeing a fundamental shift in anything,” Mattis said. “We're just going through one of those periodic points where we've got to learn to manage our differences.”

Asked about the threat from Iran, given national security adviser John Bolton’s “hell to pay” warning, Mattis said nothing much has changed. “Every time I go to the Middle East in private discussions, in policy discussions … Iran looms large,” Mattis said. “So are they a concern? They're a concern to anyone who wants stability, anyone who wants some kind of prosperity in the Middle East.”

POMPEO TO PYONGYANG: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be traveling to North Korea next month to arrange Trump’s second summit with dictator Kim Jong Un. Pompeo met with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho yesterday morning, a meeting that was scheduled after South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s recent trip to Pyongyang.

At his freewheeling post-U.N. session news conference yesterday, Trump credited his election for averting certain war with North Korea. “You were going to have a war — if I wasn't elected, you'd be in a war. And President Obama essentially said the same thing; he was ready to go to war. You would have had a war and you would have lost millions, not thousands, you would have lost millions of people.”

And Trump again expressed his fondness for Kim, who just a year ago he was describing as a suicidal rocket man. “We have a very good relationship. He likes me. I like him. We get along,” Trump said. “He wrote me two of the most beautiful letters. When I showed one of the letters, just one, to Prime Minister [Shinzo] Abe, he said this is actually a groundbreaking letter. This is an incredible — this is a historic letter. And it is a historic letter. It's a beautiful piece of art.”

Trump’s assessment: “I think we're going to make a deal. Will we make a deal? I don't really know. But I think we're going to.”

U.S. ALLIES WILL GET THE PROTECTION THEY PAY FOR: Trump continues to frame U.S. military alliances in transactional terms, in which other countries are essentially customers of America’s military might and should therefore pay according to their means

“If they're a poor country and they needed protection and people were going to die, I'm all for protecting them. I don't want 10 cents,” Trump said at yesterday’s news conference. “But when wealthy countries that have massive trade surpluses with us, massive, and then on top of that, we're paying for their military or we're paying for a lot of their military. That doesn't work.”

Trump said he again complained to U.S. allies about footing the bill to protect them, while getting no reimbursement for the cost to U.S. taxpayers. “I said it to South Korea. We have 32,000 soldiers in South Korea. They are very wealthy. These are great countries. These are very wealthy countries. I said, ‘Why aren't you reimbursing us for our cause?’”

Trump said he raised the same question with a number of countries over the past few days including Japan, which he called a “very wealthy country.”

“I said listen, you're a very rich country. We protect you. Without our protection, you would have real problems. You would have real problems. I said you should reimburse us for this protection. Why are we protecting you? And you want to know what they said? After about two minutes of talking, they agreed with me,” Trump said.

RAYTHEON WINS POLAND PATRIOT CONTRACT: The U.S. Army has awarded Raytheon a contract worth more than $1.5 billion to produce a Patriot missile defense system for Poland, the company announced. It will help the NATO ally defend against ballistic and cruise missiles as well as advanced aircraft and drones amid increasing tensions with Russia. Six other European nations — Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, Romania and Sweden — already possess Patriot systems.

IRAN AND SYRIA: In his appearance before the House Armed Services Committee yesterday, Assistant Defense Secretary Robert Karem carefully threaded the needle between Bolton’s articulation of U.S. policy in Syria — namely that it includes staying until Iran leaves — and Mattis’ insistence that the U.S. is solely about defeating ISIS.

The U.S. troop presence in Syria is aimed at defeating the Islamic State but is also “useful in countering Iran,” Karem testified. “It is of course the case that our presence in Syria, our military presence has residual benefits, benefits for our diplomats who are trying to seek a negotiated end to the conflict and residual benefits because it can help deter activities from other adversaries.”

The testimony came after Bolton was quoted by the Associated Press as saying, “We’re not going to leave as long as Iranian troops are outside Iranian borders and that includes Iranian proxies and militias.” Karem called Bolton’s statement an “analytical judgment” that is separate from the Pentagon’s mission. “It is clearly a high priority of the United States to counter Iran’s malign activities throughout the region, including in Syria. I would disaggregate however our overall U.S. policy objectives from our military activities,” he said.

IRAN AND THE AUMF: Karem also told House lawmakers a 9/11-era war authorization would not cover operations against Iran. Bolton “said that the presence, the military presence will last in Syria until Iran withdraws its forces. That to me sounds like an operation against Iran, which you’ve just stated is not allowed under the authorization for the use of military force,” said Rep. Seth Moulton, the top Democrat on the panel. “I think if we were conducting operations against Iran that would be the case, but we are not,” Karem responded.

$79M DRONE LOSS: An Air Force RQ-4B Global Hawk drone that crashed in California in June 2017 cost the service $79 million, according to an investigation released Wednesday. The drone was flying between bases and under the control of Northrop Grumman contractors when its navigation systems malfunctioned, causing a nosedive. It broke apart in midair and left a debris field in a national forest.

CHINA’S ELECTION MEDDLING: In his opening statement as he chaired yesterday’s U.N. Security Council session, Trump veered off the agenda topic of nuclear proliferation to hurl a broadside at China for allegedly meddling in upcoming midterm elections.

At a background briefing for reporters, senior White House officials fleshed out the charges. “Some examples of the ways that China is actively interfering in our political system include hurting farmers and works in states and districts that voted for the president because he stood up to the ways that China has taken advantage of our country economically,” the official said.

The charges drew an immediate in-person denial from China’s top diplomat. “We do not and will not interfere in any country’s domestic affairs,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during a United Nations Security Council session. “We refuse to accept any unwarranted accusations against China.”

‘STRONG’ OPTIONS ON VENEZUELA: Trump says he’s willing to try "all options" in regard to bringing peace and stability to Venezuela, including a meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

“All options are on the table. Every one. The strong ones, and the less than strong ones. Every option — and you know what I mean by strong,” Trump told reporters Wednesday morning.

KILLING WITH KINDNESS: At the Pentagon, Mattis was asked if he had been tasked to draw up war plans for Venezuela. Mattis deadpanned, “Well, in fact, we do [have] one. It's called a hospital ship that we're sending down.”

Last month, Mattis announced he was deploying the hospital ship USNS Comfort to Colombia to help provide medical care to the flood of Venezuelans refugees pouring over to escape the collapse of the economy and the breakdown of basic services.

THE RUNDOWN

Washington Examiner: Trump says he might not be friends with Xi Jinping anymore

Wall Street Journal: U.S. Pulling Some Missile-Defense Systems Out of Mideast

Air Force Magazine: AFA Says It’s Too Soon to Create New Service for Space

Bloomberg: Northrop's B-2 Bomber Upgrade to Evade Enemies May Run Late

Defense News: Despite KC-46 problems, US Air Force optimistic about Boeing’s Huey replacement

Foreign Policy: A Silicon Valley Start-Up That Loves the Pentagon

USNI News: U.S. Aircraft Carrier Deployments at 25 Year Low as Navy Struggles to Reset Force

Defense One: Ukraine is Building a Mosquito Navy to Fend Off Russia, With US Help

The Hill: House lawmakers introduce bill to end US support in Yemen civil war

Daily Beast: Revealed: What Erik Prince and Moscow’s Money Man Discussed in That Infamous Seychelles Meeting

Business Insider: The story of Wojtek, the 440-pound bear that fought the Nazis in World War II, is being made into a movie