Changing The Game: How Trump Is Redefining Pentagon And Veterans Affairs Bureaucracy

PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEF (PDB) – VA Secretary confirmed plans to scale back his department’s workforce by roughly 80,000 staffers, saying the moves are needed to properly balance and reform the massive federal bureaucracy.

The Pentagon has initiated a review of its contracting policies, procedures and personnel to comply with Trump’s DOGE cost-cutting efforts.

Pentagon freezes government credit cards in DOGE cost-savings push. All non-essential official travel reservations for civilians must be canceled.

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

Not the President’s Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEFING – the PDB:    

NATIONAL SECURITY

President Trump expressed uncertainty that NATO would come to America’s defense if the country were attacked, though the alliance did just that after Sept. 11 – the only time the Article 5 guarantee has been invoked.

Who is Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth? Hegseth will advise the president on defense policy and oversee the DOD and its annual budget of approximately $857 billion and roughly 3 million service members and civilians.

A failure by lawmakers to pass a budget for fiscal year 2025 risks delaying the Air Force’s effort to field a new fleet of ‘Doomsday’ jumbo jets that can survive nuclear war.

Air Force and Space Force officials see artificial intelligence (AI) playing important, if not critical roles in the command and control of America’s nuclear deterrent capabilities. (RELATED: Europe Requires Enhanced Nuclear Deterrence To Counter Russia Without US)

The head of US Transportation Command asked a key Senate panel for the authority to buy 10 more used cargo vessels to support US forces overseas in combat.

HOMELAND SECURITY

CIA is terminating some probationary employees as recent intelligence has signaled that foreign adversaries are increasing efforts to recruit disgruntled federal employees in sensitive national security roles.

VP Vance visits southern border; says US is hopeful for positive relationship with Mexico.

PENTAGON WOKE WATCH

References to a World War II Medal of Honor recipient, the Enola Gay aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan and the first women to pass Marine infantry training are among the 26,000 photos and online posts marked for deletion as the Pentagon works to purge DEI content.  SOME ARE OBVIOUSLY MISTAKES.

POLITICS

Elon Musk is telling GOP lawmakers that he is not to blame for the firings of thousands of federal workers, as pushes to downsize the government. Instead, he said that those decisions are left to the various federal agencies.

Trump has signaled he intends to move forward with plans to dismantle the Department of Education, despite mixed signals from his administration.

US POWER OVERSEAS

Tiltrotor will bring the Army off the bench in the Indo-Pacific. Many think “war in the Pacific” and immediately think “US Marine Corps,” and their long and storied history of fighting and operating in the Pacific.

Endurance test looms for ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ that has always put US in charge of NATO forces.

US Army Black Hawk helicopter crashes in Honduras during training mission, five soldiers are safe.

CHINA THREAT

The US Navy began anti-submarine warfare (ASW) exercises in Hawaii and Guam. Meanwhile, a Chinese and a Russian surveillance ship have been conducting separate sails around Japan’s southwest islands and Australia has tasked three frigates to shadow a Chinese Navy task group operating around Australia.

Twelve Chinese nationals — including mercenary hackers, law enforcement officers and employees of a private hacking company — have been charged by US in connection with global cybercrime campaigns targeting dissidents, news organizations, US agencies and universities. (RELATED: China Ramps Up War Preparations, Directly Targeting US Across The Pacific)

It’s time to ditch Virginia subs for AUKUS and go to Plan B. Australia should switch its focus from buying Virginia-class submarines and instead put that money towards advanced Pillar 2 technologies.

RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR

France’s defense minister said the country is sharing intelligence resources with Ukraine, after President Macron floated the idea of expanding the French nuclear deterrent to protect European allies.

US and Ukrainian officials have indicated they will meet in Saudi Arabia next week to discuss a peace framework for ending the Russia-Ukraine war.

Ukraine has taken publicly available AI models, retrained them on its own extensive real-world data from frontline combat, and deployed them on a variety of drones – increasing their odds of hitting Russian targets “three- or four-fold.”

The EU is expanding its space situational awareness program and pushing toward greater use of commercial capabilities, in its push for “strategic autonomy” to free itself from much of its dependency on US space tracking capabilities.

IRAN THREAT/ISRAEL WARS

Worst violence in Syria since Assad fall as dozens killed in clashes.

The US remains puzzled about how many weapons the Houthis have or where they get them all, adding that the terrorists are highly innovative when it comes to developing their arsenal.

Iran’s army and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have been showcasing and testing new defensive and offensive weapons in large-scale military exercises for the past three months.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

Scorned by Trump, Canadian shipbuilders flash their icebreaker skills. Trump’s ambition to build 40 new icebreakers in the U.S. is unrealistic given the current state of the national shipbuilding industry and may require the U.S. to ask for Canada’s help.

‘We are not the 51st anything’: viral Canada ad gets Trump-inspired update.

Trump pulled back from his trade war with Canada and Mexico on Thursday, temporarily delaying tariffs on many goods from the two countries once again.

The British Army is actively developing uncrewed land drones as part of a broader modernization program, with multiple projects underway to enhance future capabilities.

US MILITARY

Air Force aircraft readiness plunges to new low, alarming chief. Barely more than six in 10 aircraft were able to carry out their missions on an average day in fiscal 2024.

The Air Force is extending to 57 hours an exercise at Basic Military Training meant to prepare trainees for Agile Combat Employment (ACE), where Airmen disperse in small teams to small air bases to complicate targeting for adversaries.

Air Force sees historic recruitment surge with delayed entry program.

An aircrew with the Alaska Army Guard pulled off a rare helo-to-train landing during a cold-weather medical exercise for special operations troops, balancing their HH-60M Black Hawk on a narrow flat car.

General Atomics says it’s ready to mass-produce its collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) — up to 18 CCAs per month after first flight this summer.

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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