President Trump suggested he would be okay ordering U.S. military strikes inside Mexico and Colombia as part of his administration’s ostensible war against fentanyl and cocaine, he told reporters Monday at the White House.
“Would I launch strikes in Mexico to stop drugs? OK with me. Whatever we have to do to stop drugs,” he said inside the Oval Office. “Colombia is—has cocaine factories, where they make cocaine. Would I knock out those factories? I would be proud to do it, personally.” NBC News and Bloomberg have a bit more.
Update: The U.S. Navy’s Caribbean Sea build-up now features at least a dozen ships, including the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, which arrived in the region over the weekend, Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post wrote on social media Monday. Other vessels include the guided missile destroyers Mahan, Bainbridge, Winston S. Churchill, Stockdale and Gravely; the guided missile cruisers Lake Erie and Gettysburg; the amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima; amphibious transport dock ships Fort Lauderdale and San Antonio; and the littoral combat ship Wichita.
Developing: The State Department says it will designate Venezuela's Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization beginning next Monday, CBS News reports. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio allege the cartel is run by Venezuelan dictator and President Nicolás Maduro. CBS reports the group “is not known to be a traditional, hierarchical drug cartel like the Sinaloa or Tren de Aragua,” and that “The term is instead generally used to describe a loose, decentralized network of military and government officials within the Venezuelan state who are alleged to be involved in the illegal drug trade.”
After the announcement, Trump told reporters Sunday evening, “We may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we'll see how that turns out. They would like to talk.” Trump repeated that somewhat on Monday when he said, “At a certain period of time, I'll be talking to [Maduro],” but he did not elaborate.
Related: Maduro said Monday he’s ready to speak “face to face” with anyone in the U.S. “who wants to talk to Venezuela,” Agence France-Presse reported.
And despite its coziness with the Trump administration, Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister told AFP the country would not let the U.S. military use its soil to launch attacks on Venezuela. “The US has NEVER requested use of our territory to launch any attacks against the people of Venezuela,” Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar told AFP in a message, adding, “Trinidad and Tobago will not participate in any act that could harm the Venezuelan people.”
Big-picture consideration: The New York Times explores “The ‘Donroe Doctrine’: Trump’s Bid to Control the Western Hemisphere,” reporting Monday.
Developing: A Tennessee state judge temporarily blocked Trump’s National Guard deployment to Memphis, saying it appears to violate the state's militia law, which instructs local lawmakers to call in such soldiers for matters of public safety.
Background: Memphis is one of several U.S. cities to which Trump has sent the National Guard, departing from norms against deploying troops on U.S. soil,” Reuters explains. “Trump has said they are needed to suppress civil unrest, support immigration enforcement and fight crime. Democrats have accused the Republican president of abusing military powers meant for grave emergencies such as an invasion.”
The judge gave Trump officials five days to file an appeal, declaring Memphis crime rates—while among the top 10 in the nation—still do not constitute the “grave emergency” or “disaster” required to call in the National Guard, according to Tennessee’s state constitution. The Associated Press has a bit more.
Additional reading: “New York Officials to Team Up With Wall Street to Keep National Guard Out,” the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
Welcome to this Tuesday 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. It’s more important than ever to stay informed, so thank you for reading. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1978, the F/A-18 Hornet flew for the first time.
Industry
Happening today: Defense One’s State of Defense Business Acquisition Summit, with several panel discussions and featured guests scheduled between 1–5 pm ET, with a networking lunch beginning at noon.
Location: The River Birch Ballroom at the Westin Washington D.C Downtown (999 9th St NW, Washington, DC 20001).
Guests include Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces. We’ll also hear from top officials at ScaleAI, Shield AI, HII, Anduril, Slingshot Aerospace, Oracle, Lockheed Martin and more. Panels discussions will span autonomy, U.S. munitions stockpiles, the future of the defense industrial base and more.
Registration and additional details, here.
Trump: U.S. will sell F-35s to Saudis, despite Pentagon concerns that the jet’s secrets might leak to China. New York Times: “Mr. Trump’s announcement came on the eve of a White House visit from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, during his first trip to the United States in more than seven years. Prince Mohammed, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, and U.S. officials are expected to discuss a Saudi purchase of 48 of the fighter jets and a potential mutual defense agreement.” Read on, here.
The president’s insistence on the sale comes as his company pursues business deals in Saudi Arabia. Axios has the latest roundup of the Trump family’s pursuit of wealth in foreign lands, which continues to present unprecedented conflicts of interest. Read that, here.
The “mixing of politics and profitmaking during President Trump’s second term has shattered American norms, shocking scholars who study ethics and corruption,” the Times writes in a separate article.
The pilot of an F-22 recently controlled a drone wingman in flight. The pilot used a tablet to control a General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger over the Air Force’s Nevada Test and Training Range, according to Monday statements from General Atomics and Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works; L3Harris was also part of the demonstration. The flight, apparently the first of its kind with an F-22, took place in October. Defense One’s Thomas Novelly has a bit more, here.
Europe
France, Germany are talking about scrapping their plans to jointly build a fighter jet, the Financial Times reported on Monday. Instead, they might focus on a command-and-control system, Reuters writes off the FT report.
Europe hunts for ways to speed up defense innovation, production. Early next year, the EU Commission says it will “air a proposal” for a “pilot initiative that will allow companies to test and refine new technologies, aiming to turn projects into defence products ready for sale quicker,” Reuters reported on Tuesday.
Also in the works: Proposals for “ways for different member countries to recognise each other's certifications for defence technologies, help companies access EU research facilities and encourage EU member governments to allocate at least 10% of arms budgets to emerging and disruptive technologies, according to the draft roadmap.” Read more, here.
Ukraine
France promises Ukraine 100 new Rafale warplanes, plus air defence systems, munitions and drones. On Monday, the presidents of France and Ukraine signed a letter of intent for the transfer of the arms; an actual purchase deal is planned later. The countries aim to finance the deal “with EU programmes and the planned use of frozen Russian assets, which the EU still has to agree,” Reuters reported.
Background: “The announcement comes after a surge of Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks, and Moscow's reports of ground advances in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region,” Reuters wrote, here.
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