For the first time since taking office in January, President Trump has reportedly authorized unspecified U.S. weapons transfers to Ukraine under the Presidential Drawdown Authority, which takes from U.S. stockpiles, Reuters reported Thursday. The possible arms transfer is expected to total around $300 million.
Trump also told NBC he will deliver a “major statement” regarding Russia on Monday, the same day his Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, is expected to begin a weeklong visit to the country, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty reports.
About those U.S. weapons, Trump told NBC in a phone interview Thursday, “The weapons that are going out are going to NATO, and then NATO is going to be giving those weapons [to Ukraine], and NATO is paying for those weapons.”
According to Reuters, “The package could include defensive Patriot missiles and offensive medium-range rockets, but a decision on the exact equipment has not been made.”
Why it matters: “The Trump administration has so far only sent weapons authorized by former President Joe Biden,” Reuters notes.
Small CODEL to Kyiv: Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Blumenthal visited Ukrainian officials on Thursday, President Volodymir Zelenskyy tweeted afterward. The three men “discussed the continued supply of weapons from the United States and joint weapons production,” the president wrote. “We are ready for different formats, including purchasing a large defense package from the United States, jointly with Europe, to protect lives,” he added.
Developing: Blumenthal and Graham are co-sponsoring a bill to add more sanctions and tariffs on countries allegedly supporting Russia’s ongoing Ukraine invasion, including “a 500 percent tariff on imported goods from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium, and other products,” as Blumenthal announced in May.
“Our current priority is bolstering air defense,” Zelenskyy said Friday following another night of Russian drone strikes, which injured at least nine people in Kharkiv, Zelenskyy said separately on social media.
As Russia increases its long-range missile production, NATO will need to do the same as quickly as possible, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. John Rafferty told Reuters during an interview this week in Germany. “The Russian army is bigger today than it was when they started the war in Ukraine. And we know that they’re going to continue to invest in long-range rockets and missiles and sophisticated air defences. So more alliance capability is really, really important,” Rafferty said.
Relatedly, “Trump defense deal with NATO is a big, beautiful win for America,” the president’s secretary of state said Thursday in a commentary published in USA Today.
Rubio also said since January, Russia has “lost 100,000 soldiers—dead, not injured, dead. And on the Ukrainian side, the numbers are less but still very significant,” the state secretary said Thursday during an ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Malaysia.
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Welcome to this Friday edition of The D Brief, a newsletter dedicated to developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1914, the U.S. Navy launched its first oil-powered battleship, USS Nevada (BB-36).
China
How China’s new rare-earth export controls target the Pentagon, and the world. By replacing export ceilings with a flexible licensing scheme, Beijing has equipped itself with a more potent and WTO-proof means of strategic coercion, write Tye Graham and Peter W. Singer in the latest edition of Defense One’s The China Intelligence column.
The pivot is designed to increase Beijing’s leverage over Pentagon supply chains, as official statements and state-linked commentators make clear—and it may become a signature tool of great power competition. Read on, here.
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Trump 2.0
Expect layoffs soon, State tells staff. Widespread layoffs will be taking place “soon” under plans that had been held up by court order, then cleared by a Supreme Court decision, the State Department told employees on Thursday evening. The cuts are part of a reorganization that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced to eliminate or consolidate hundreds of offices, Deputy Secretary for Management Michael Rigas said in an email to staff, which will include a “targeted reduction in domestic workforce.” GovExec has more, here.
Related: DHS intelligence office halts staff cuts after stakeholder backlash. Nextgov: “The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis has briefly paused plans to terminate most of its employees following pushback from law enforcement associations and Jewish community groups, according to two people familiar with the matter.” Read on, here.
DHS is asking local police to broaden their definition of “violent tactics” during protests to include “mundane acts like riding a bike or livestreaming a police encounter,” WIRED reported Thursday.
Citing the text of DHS “threat bulletins” issued during last month’s #NoKings demonstrations, “Protesters on bicycles, skateboards, or even ‘on foot’ are framed as potential ‘scouts’ conducting reconnaissance or searching for ‘items to be used as weapons.’ Livestreaming is listed alongside ‘doxxing’ as a ‘tactic’ for ‘threatening’ police. [And] Online posters are cast as ideological recruiters—or as participants in ‘surveillance sharing,’” WIRED’s Dell Cameron writes.
Reax: “The DHS report repeatedly conflates basic protest, organizing, and journalism with terroristic violence, thereby justifying ever more authoritarian measures by law enforcement,” Ryan Shapiro, executive director of the open-government nonprofit group Property of the People, told Cameron. “It should be sobering, if unsurprising, that the Trump regime’s response to mass criticism of its police-state tactics is to escalate those tactics.”
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Update: DOGE cuts vacated a key post that could have linked the National Weather Service with public safety personnel in the Texas city of Kerrville this past weekend, where more than 100 people died and at least 160 are still missing following flash floods in central Texas. The missing official took an unplanned early retirement amid pressure from Trump and Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” and the employee was not replaced, former NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad told CNN on Tuesday.
Also: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem slowed FEMA’s response in an effort to take charge of expenses over $100,000, CNN reported Wednesday. She waited more than 72 hours to authorize FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue teams as local rescue crews combed the area for survivors and bodies. But with a death toll already over 100, “Officials within FEMA warn that if the disaster had spanned a larger area and multiple states, the confusion and delays could have been even more severe,” CNN’s Gabe Cohen and Michael Williams wrote.
DHS response: “The old processes are being replaced because they failed Americans in real emergencies for decades,” spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to CNN.
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Technology is making it harder for spies to hide. Can the CIA up its game for the new reality? The Washington Post’s David Ignatius put the question to current and former member of the intelligence community; the outlook is…mixed. Read, here.
More German F-35s: will they or won’t they?
- Politico, yesterday: “The German government is considering purchasing 15 additional F-35 fighter jets, several people familiar with the matter told POLITICO, which would increase the planned fleet of the American-made jet from 35 to 50.”
- Reuters, today: “Germany has no plans to buy additional F-35 fighter jets, defence ministry says.”
Lastly this week: “A British F35 fighter jet stranded in India may finally fly back home after inspiring memes,” AP reports.
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