Trump Heads To Middle East On Mission With Global Consequences

PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEF (PDB) – Trump’s trip this week to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, includes an agenda for Air Force One replacements, crypto deals, and the Gulf states’ desires for U.S. concessions on nuclear and microchip security restrictions.

Yet lying in the background is a new reality: the Persian Gulf is quickly turning into China’s favorite testbed for the next generation of digital infrastructure.

In Saudi Arabia speech, Trump lifted sanctions on Syria Tuesday and dangled a similar enticement to Iran, offering himself up as a historic peacemaker and outlining a vision for future cooperation in the Middle East based on “commerce, not chaos.”

MEANWHILE – U.S. agrees to sell Saudi Arabia $142 billion arms package, that the White House called “the largest defense cooperation agreement” Washington has ever done.

State Department approves $1.4 billion arms sale to UAE that includes $1.32 billion for CH-47 F Chinook helicopters and $130 million for parts and support for F-16s.

How to impress a US president? Spin up a fighter jet escort for Air Force One. Saudi Arabia didn’t even wait for Trump to land there before it set out to impress him in a sky-high way

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:    

HOMELAND SECURITY

Secretary of State Marco Rubio blacklisted Cuba as a country that did not fully cooperate with U.S. counterterrorism efforts in 2024 and blasted the regime for its refusal to discuss the return of people residing on the island who are charged in the U.S. for various crimes.

POLITICS

Trump’s confirmation that the U.S. may accept a presidential aircraft gifted from Qatar marked the latest escalation in his clash with Boeing, which is years behind on its government contract to build the new Air Force One.

Before Qatar plane controversy, Trump derided foreign gifts — and Qatar. Trump previously attacked foreign and even Qatari donations to the Clinton Foundation. Now he wants to accept the biggest gift of all.

Defense Secretary Hegseth’s plans to slash the number of senior military leaders across the services would cut more than 120 high-ranking officer jobs in the active duty and National Guard, including as many as nine top general slots.

Hegseth plan for a 20 percent reduction in the number of senior officers has a clear intent: streamline senior ranks, flatten bureaucracy, and improve efficiency. As DOD reduces, it should prioritize warfighting effectiveness.

A number of top GOP lawmakers are souring on Trump’s plans to accept a luxury Boeing 747 aircraft as a gift from Qatar — a rare series of rebukes of the president by his allies in Congress.

Senate has formed a new “Golden Dome Caucus” focused on developing what could become one of the nation’s most expensive defense initiatives in history —designed to protect the homeland from an increasingly complex array of aerial threats.

US POWER OVERSEAS

After decades of being organized, trained and equipped for operations in Europe and the Middle East, the Army is sharpening its focus on stopping Chinese aggression in the Pacific.

Army plans to shutter two of its Security Force Assistance Brigades, formations stood up nearly eight years ago to train and advise the militaries of U.S. partners and allies and reassign experienced soldiers.

US Army in Greece has gained new access to an eastern Mediterranean port, giving commanders another hub for projecting power on NATO’s southern flank.

Army’s Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division will join Philippine army forces this summer for an exercise involving a massive movement of troops and equipment over 250 miles by air, sea and land.

CHINA THREAT

China’s 2024 Joint Sword exercises, and more recent Strait Thunder-2025A exercise, awakened the Taiwanese public to the reality that the People’s Liberation Army is not just training, but rehearsing to blockade Taiwan.

Taiwanese troops fired U.S.-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, for the first time this week, sending test rockets into the Pacific Ocean from coastal firing positions.

RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR

Trump administration wants to hear how NATO’s European member countries and Canada plan to boost defense investment to 5% of GDP, new U.S. envoy Matthew Whitaker said.

U.K. Royal Navy and Italian carrier strike groups with other allied ships wrapped up NATO exercise Mediterranean Strike 25 in the Ionian Sea. Meanwhile, the French Navy began their major force-on-force exercise, Polaris 25 in the Atlantic.

Russia responsible for downing of MH17, UN aviation body rules.

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that he will be waiting for Vladimir Putin, in the Turkish capital of Ankara Thursday for face-to-face talks, amid heavy pressure from the U.S. and European leaders to reach a settlement.

In the wake of the success of Ukraine’s drone boat campaign against it, the Russian Navy is developing dedicated regiments to operate uncrewed surface, undersea, air and land systems.

Ukraine has released a video of its Soviet-era S-200 (SA-5 Gammon) long-range surface-to-air missile, an old weapon reinstated only after the Russian invasion in February 2022. Since then, the S-200 has been credited with the high-profile destruction of an A-50 radar plane and a Tu-22M3 bomber.

IRAN THREAT/MIDEAST

Days before a surprise U.S. ceasefire agreement with Houthis, U.S. intelligence started picking up indications the Yemeni terrorists were looking for an exit after seven weeks of relentless U.S. bombings.

F-35’s close call over Yemen raises questions about how it’s used. Houthi rebels in Yemen fired on a U.S. military F-35 during recent operations, and the missile came close enough to the aircraft for the pilot to take evasive action.

Israel says deadly strikes on Gaza hospital targeted underground bunker housing a high-level target.

Israel said it intercepted a Houthis missile that was launched from Yemen.

NORTH KOREA THREAT

South Korean police arrested two Taiwanese (or covert Chinese) men for entering Osan Air Base without authorization during a U.S.-South Korean military open house and filming the event.

SPACE THREAT

A REAL THREAT – Earth’s orbits carry over 100 million debris objects, which have already resulted in nearly 400 debris-generating events, says NASA.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

How India and Pakistan pulled back from the brink with U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

Claims swirl as India and Pakistan assess results of latest conflict. Operations are now on pause after a ceasefire brought escalating hostilities between India and Pakistan to a standstill.

Germany-based Helsing has launched an underwater drone surveillance network powered by AI for the detection of enemy submarines and ships out at sea for months at a time.

Fincantieri CEO has claimed the Italian state-controlled shipbuilding yard can be a catalyst in Trump’s shake-up of U.S. naval shipbuilding.

US MILITARY

Navy’s Strategic Systems Program is working to fast track the improvement and development of three critical nuclear weapons systems.

Marine Corps demonstrated it could develop its own software to remote into and control commercial radars at the Army’s Project Convergence experiment.

Air Force is looking into the air-launching Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones from other airplanes in addition to other ways of reducing dependence on traditional runways.

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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