Paul McLeary

US builds up military presence in Middle East The Pentagon is routing another aircraft carrier to the region and sending additional aircraft to Europe as the conflict between Israel and Iran escalates.

Confirmed that USS Nimitz left the South China Sea and is heading for the Middle East - making TWO U.S. carrier strike groups there once it joins the USS Vinson. Also, a wave of US refueling aircraft just left for Europe.

Lots of hardware moving.

www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

US moves warships closer to Israel The move comes as Israel braces for a retaliatory attack from Iran.

The US is "using its air defenses in the region" to assist Israel in engaging Iranian missiles targeting Israel, per US defense official. www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

The vicious rivalries tearing apart Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon A feud between the secretary's advisers and his chief of staff created backbiting and distrust that has erupted into the open.

A must-read deep dive into the chaos inside the highest offices inside the Pentagon: www.politico.com/news/2025/04...

Former Pentagon official warns department's dysfunction could topple Hegseth “The last month has been a full-blown meltdown at the Pentagon,” John Ullyot, the former top Defense Department spokesperson, wrote in a POLITICO Magazine opinion piece.

The Pentagon is in "total chaos" and Pete Hegseth is unlikely to remain in his role, according to its former top spokesperson, who painted a scene of dysfunction, backstabbing and missteps at the highest levels of the department.

"The building is in disarray." www.politico.com/news/2025/04...

BREAKING: The DC Circuit has *rejected* DOJ's effort to lift Judge Boasberg's block on Alien Enemies Act deportations.

Ruling is 2-1, with Judge Walker dissenting. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Hegseth slips up during an international trip — again Every international trip the Pentagon chief has taken has been clouded by controversy.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is spiraling through yet another overseas trip eclipsed by a controversy largely of his own doing.

www.politico.com/news/2025/03...

‘It is highly classified’: Hegseth leaked sensitive attack details, former officials say Hegseth and the White House have denied sharing classified information or war plans.

“The information that you have fighter aircraft launching off of an aircraft carrier, flying over enemy territory and impending combat operation is the most sensitive information we have” said Sen. Mark Kelly, a former Navy pilot.

www.politico.com/news/2025/03...

Musk won’t hear classified war plans in Pentagon visit A meeting about China’s threat with the Defense Secretary and a U.S. commander in the Indo-Pacific, even if unclassified, shows the billionaire’s extraordinary level of access.

Elon Musk Musk was briefed on China by Indo-Pacom chief Adm. Samuel Paparo and SecDef Pete Hegseth this morning, showing "the extraordinary level of access Musk, a defense contractor with billions of dollars in government contracts, holds over the administration." www.politico.com/news/2025/03...

Trump drastically cutting back annual human rights report Sections on women’s rights and the security of LGBTQ+ people are among those being axed.

SCOOP: The Trump team is taking a hatchet to the State Department's annual — and world-renowned — human rights report. www.politico.com/news/2025/03...

The @DeptofDefense appears to have shuttered its @DoDMinerva research program, which funded studies designed to help policymakers in the military. The Web site is down, and several academics tell me they received project termination letters.

subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025...

MAGA hat drama could taint Trump’s top military adviser pick The president said Dan Caine once offered to kill for him and slapped a signature red hat on his head, a violation of military rules.

The first big challenge for Donald Trump’s top military adviser pick isn’t the Ukraine-Russia war or even his lack of qualifications. It’s the legend about a red MAGA hat.

www.politico.com/news/2025/02...

Trump signals more firings of military leaders Senior officers involved in the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan are “going to be largely gone,” he said.

Trump and his defense secretary today said they're looking to relieve any military officer or civilian involved in the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal

www.politico.com/news/2025/02...

'Roadblocks' or supports? Military lawyers question Hegseth’s firings. The Pentagon chief said he doesn’t want lawyers who are “roadblocks” to decisions he or military commanders make.

Last year, now-SecDef Hegseth wrote “should we follow the Geneva conventions ... Aren’t we just better off in winning our wars according to our own rules?”

And now he fired the Pentagons top military legal advisors

www.politico.com/news/2025/02...

'Roadblocks' or supports? Military lawyers question Hegseth’s firings. The Pentagon chief said he doesn’t want lawyers who are “roadblocks” to decisions he or military commanders make.

Pete Hegseth’s firing of top Pentagon legal staff has alarmed military lawyers: “It will keep the lawyer out of the rooms where the decisions are made.”
www.politico.com/news/2025/02...

Don't let this slip by: Trump is also firing the senior judicial officers for the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

They're the services' top lawyers.

WIPED OUT: Trump gutted the Joint Chiefs Friday night, firing Chairman Gen. CQ Brown - while he was visiting troops in Texas - and SecDef Hegseth said he will also replace Navy Adm. Lisa Franchetti and UASF vice chief Gen. James Slife.

Pentagon prepares to fire thousands of civilian employees in dramatic culling The Department of Defense is preparing to eliminate 8 percent of its civilian workforce

NEW: Pentagon says it is firing 5,400 civilians next week as part of an effort to cull up to 8% of the civilian workforce, while implementing a hiring freeze. 46% of DoD civilians are veterans.
@politico.com

www.politico.com/news/2025/02...

Pentagon prepares to fire thousands of civilian employees in dramatic culling The Department of Defense is preparing to eliminate 8 percent of its civilian workforce

BREAKING: The Pentagon is planning to fire 5,400 civilian employees starting next week as it prepares to eliminate 8 percent of its civilian workforce, the department announced Friday www.politico.com/news/2025/02... @paulmcleary.bsky.social

NEW: Half of all U.S. military flights transporting detained migrants out of the country have gone to Guantanamo Bay over the past month, officials told me. In total, 14 of 28 total flights have brought about 100 detainees to the base. @politico

Four ways of looking at Trump’s Ukraine tirade We’re watching all four to see how they can influence the coming negotiations.

NEW: Army Green Berets have been sent to Mexico to train Mexican Marines, a move which somes as US designated Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations which Musk says, “means they’re eligible for drone strikes.”
www.politico.com/newsletters/...

Trump attacks Zelenskyy as a ‘dictator without elections’ who duped US The president’s remarkable attack on the Ukrainian president is sure to deeply worry international allies and domestic supporters of an American-led global order.

Trump uncorked a new social media attack on Ukraine's leader today that was full of invented numbers and distortions of the truth. www.politico.com/news/2025/02...

Funny story - the US team went on to win 3-1

National Security Daily From the SitRoom to the E-Ring, the inside scoop on defense, national security and foreign policy.

“Half of Europe is asleep, paralyzed into shock and another part is taking security seriously and mobilizing like the Nordic and Baltic countries. But will that be enough?” @apolyakova.bsky.social explains to Robbie Gramer @paulmcleary.bsky.social y & @ebazail.bsky.social at #MSC2025

‘The rules of the game have changed’: Europe fears an unreliable US ally European defense leaders are preparing for a tense gathering with the Trump team.

From the Munich Security Conference: European allies are gathered here this weekend bracing for the answer to a question they’ve been dreading to ask: Can they really count on the United States?

www.politico.com/news/2025/02...

US pledges to speed up arms sales to Europe NATO chief Mark Rutte has long asked Washington to cut red tape on arms deals.

The U.S. on Thursday promised to speed up weapons shipments to Europe, a move that some countries have pressed for years as critical for their defense needs www.politico.eu/article/us-p... @paulmcleary.bsky.social @laukaya.bsky.social

NEW: State Dept. announces $7.3B in potential arms sales to Israel, including:

2,100 Small Diameter Bombs
2,800 500-pound bomb bodies
13,000 Joint Direct Attack Munition Guidance Kits
3,000 Hellfire Air-to-Ground Missiles
and other bomb kits and bomb bodies

U.S. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Rosa DeLauro sent a letter to SecDef Hegseth today asking why he requested "$137,000 in taxpayer-funded upgrades and other associated costs" to the gov house he and his family will live in. Includes a $50K paint job.

wassermanschultz.house.gov/uploadedfile...

US can ramp up sanctions on Putin, Trump’s Ukraine-Russia envoy says “If there’s anybody who understands leverage, it’s President Donald J. Trump,” Keith Kellogg tells the New York Post.

Sanctions on Putin are "only about a 3" out of 10 on how painful theycan be, Trump's Ukraine/Russia czar Keith Kellogg says. “You could really increase the sanctions" on oil production and exports. www.politico.eu/article/dona...

UK takes on leadership of Biden-era Ukraine military aid group Britain will take over Wednesday’s meeting of Kyiv’s allies from the U.S.

NEW: The UK will lead the Ukraine Defense Contact group next week, the first time it hasn't been chaired by the US defense secretary in a big, and possibly permanent shift.

www.politico.eu/article/uk-t...

NEW: Northern Command says 500 soldiers from 10th Mountain Div are heading to the southern border, along w/ 140 "intelligence personnel" to "provide full motion video analysis, counter network analysis, and Spanish language translation to the Border Patrol."