Trump’s Close-Knit National Security Team Moves Fast As New Threats Emerge

PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEF (PDB) – Moves fast and maybe breaks things. Trump has entrusted only a handful of his closest advisers to tackle his most important foreign policy priorities from Russia to the Middle East.

Even as their portfolio expands — including possible strikes on Venezuela — the group remains small.

It’s a mark of the president’s unyielding belief in his inner circle, made up of old friends, family, and confidants, and underscores his deep distrust of the broader national security and State Department apparatus that has served as the backbone of foreign relations for decades.

The group includes Trump’s long-time real estate friend Steve Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

Witkoff petitioned Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, to help negotiate an Israel-Hamas peace deal in part because of his role in shaping the Abraham Accords during Trump’s first term.

Witkoff and Kushner, who Trump sees as his best dealmakers, worked together to craft the 28-point peace plan for Ukraine and Russia that was released last month and ultimately rejected. Vance and Rubio briefed the Hill as the plan came together.

Trump calls this close coterie on a whim, meetings occur on an ad hoc basis, and decisions are made fast. “It all is just up to the president” on which principal does what, the official added.

There’s little hierarchy, other than Trump at the top, and no restrictions on who gets access to the president. “Trump wants peace deals and he wants the credit,” said one former administration official granted anonymity to discuss the dynamic. “The details he’s less worried about.”

Meanwhile, Trump hails ‘historic’ peace deal between DR Congo and Rwanda.

And Thailand suspends the Cambodia ceasefire deal, testing the Trump-brokered truce.

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – Here’s a roundup of today’s other top defense news from conservative national security expert PAUL CRESPO.

THE PDB – Not the President’s Daily Briefing, but almost as good – PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEF:    

NATIONAL SECURITY

Trump’s administration set forth a new national security strategy that paints European allies as weak and aims to reassert U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere.

Unpacking a Trump Twist of the National Security Strategy.

Ten takeaways from Trump’s new national security strategy. It is not just the latest public articulation of principles, ambitions, and priorities around which the U.S. organizes its foreign policy. Instead, it reads like a manifesto for a radically different U.S. project.

U.S. intelligence community should monitor global supply chains as part of sweeping goal to decouple the nation’s economy from foreign adversaries and advance U.S. economic interests, says administration’s newly published National Security Strategy.

HOMELAND DEFENSE

General running Golden Dome missile defense program, pushed back on criticism that the initiative is unfolding behind a curtain of secrecy, while companies are being asked to invest in advanced technologies with limited insight into program goals. He says industry is ‘well informed’ despite criticism.

HOMELAND SECURITY

VA directed its top leaders to identify any noncitizens employed by or affiliated with the agency for further investigation.

DEFENSE POLITICS

Sprawling defense legislation set for vote this week would place new restrictions on reducing troop levels in Europe, a bipartisan rebuke of Trump administration moves that lawmakers fear would limit U.S. commitments on the continent.

Nearly 20 GOP lawmakers who served in the military have introduced a resolution condemning their Democrat colleagues for making a video urging troops to disobey “illegal” orders.

VENEZUELA-NARCO THREAT

The Army stood up the new Western Hemisphere Command, consolidating three major commands under a single headquarters as part of sweeping restructuring.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth defended strikes on a drug cartel, saying President Trump has the power to take military action “as he sees fit” to defend the nation. (RELATED: Inside Maduro’s Narco-State: The Hybrid Regime Blurring The Line Between War And Crime)

CHINA THREAT

China’s trade surplus climbs past $1 trillion for the first time.

China fired three flares from an island toward a Philippine plane undertaking a routine patrol in the disputed South China Sea, but the aircraft proceeded with its surveillance mission undamaged or hindered.

Japan and Australia urged calm after Chinese military aircraft locked weapons firing radar on a Japanese fighter, a month after the Japanese leader’s recent remarks on defending Taiwan that stoked fury in Beijing.

RUSSIA THREAT

Several unidentified drones flew over France’s Ile Longue naval base, home of the country’s fleet of strategic nuclear missile submarines.

UKRAINE WAR

Ukrainian F-16 Vipers appear armed with laser-guided 70mm Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II (APKWS II) rockets for counter-drone use.

As Kyiv’s sea drones force Kremlin to retreat from Russia’s once-dominant Black Sea, Ukraine examines ways to launch more complex attacks.

NATO EUROPEAN DEFENSE

Europe-led NATO: U.S. wants Europe to take over majority of NATO’s conventional defense capabilities, from intelligence to missiles, by 2027, a tight deadline that struck some European officials as unrealistic.

Nordics to Norfolk: NATO trio Finland, Sweden, and Denmark shift to US-based command focused on Atlantic, Arctic High North.

German arms maker Rheinmetall shares have nearly tripled since Trump’s military spending demands on Europe, making its CEO the face of Europe’s rearmament.

Germany will move to a voluntary conscription model and begin mandatory physical checks for all male citizens coming of age.

French longer-range alternative to HIMARS. European missile house MBDA has, for the first time, shown an example of its Thundart surface-to-surface rocket, the result of a rapid development program as France looks to significantly expand the range of its land-based strike forces.

The UK’s Royal Air Force has hailed the performance of its Boeing P-8A maritime patrol aircraft after completing its biggest international deployment to date with the plane. (RELATED: NATO Deploying Undersea Drones To Counter Russian Hybrid Warfare)

Norway to spend $6.4 billion for two additional submarines on top of four already ordered from Germany’s TKMS and acquire a long-range precision strike capability for its Army.

MIDDLE EAST THREATS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel and Hamas are “very shortly expected to move into the second phase of the ceasefire,” after Hamas returns the remains of the last hostage held in Gaza.

SPACE THREATS

Space Force and SPACECOM need cross-domain support to gain superiority. For decades, the Pentagon has viewed space as a “supporting” domain to enable operations on land, sea, and air. But a new report argues that the time has come to consider how ops in those domains can now support space.

US MILITARY

Navy’s record-breaking recruiting numbers translated to the service’s highest production of basic training graduates in a decade.

Autonomous surface vessels will become part of a global command and control network used by the Navy and other U.S. military services due to a new partnership between HavocAI and SAIC, effectively making the vessels an integrated part of U.S. naval surface power.

The Navy has chosen LST-100 from Dutch shipbuilder Damen to be the basis of a new class of Medium Landing Ships, or LSMs.

END of PDB

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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