National Defense
Trump's vision statement on national defense
Timeline
| 2016.08.08 | Fifty senior GOP national security officials say Trump would be 'the most reckless president in American history' nytimes.com |
| 2016.09.07 | Trump delivers military readiness speech in Pennsylvania, PA donaldjtrump.com |
| 2016.09.07 | Trump proposes key policies in military readiness speech. donaldjtrump.com |
| 2016.12.01 | Trump nominates retired Marine General James Mattis for secretary of defense washingtonpost.com (See also James Mattis) |
| 2016.12.07 | Trump picks retired Marine General John Kelly for Secretary of Homeland Security. pbs.org (See also John Kelly, Department of Homeland Security) |
| 2016.12.22 | Trump tweets "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes" twitter.com (See also Nuclear Weapons) |
| 2016.12.27 | Trump taps former Bush official Bossert as adviser on homeland security, counterterrorism, and cybersecurity. cnn.com (See also Department of Homeland Security) |
| 2017.01.11 | Mattis breaks with Trump on Russia, says Putin is trying to 'break' NATO pbs.org (See also James Mattis, Russia) |
| 2017.01.16 | Mattis clashes with Trump transition team over Pentagon staff appointments chicagotribune.com (See also James Mattis, Department of Defense) |
| 2017.01.25 | During an ABC News Interview, Trump says that waterboarding works and that he will rely on his team's guidance to do everything "legally." twitter.com (See also Constitutional Issues) |
| 2017.02.02 | Kevin Harrington, former managing director and head of research for hedge fund Thiel Macro, is appointed to NSC staff as deputy assistant to the president for strategic planning. sfchronicle.com |
| 2017.02.02 | Trump's team made Yemen raid decisions over dinner, suggesting a risky casual attitude in use of force. pbs.org (See also Foreign Policy, Yemen) |
| 2017.02.14 | Trump promises to expand US nuclear arsenal. telegraph.co.uk (See also First 100 Days, Nuclear Weapons) Donald Trump has promised a new era of American nuclear dominance with an expanded arsenal of atomic weapons in his first comments on the subject since taking office. |
| 2017.02.16 | Vice-admiral Robert Harward turns down the position of National Security Advisor at the Trump White House. latimes.com (See also National Security, Rejected or Withdrawn Appointments) |
| 2017.02.18 | Pence tries to reassure concerned European leaders, while also warning they must spend more on NATO. nytimes.com (See also Nationalism, Europe, Mike Pence) |
| 2018.01.02 | Donald Trump again raised the prospect of nuclear war with North Korea, boasting in playground terms that he commands a “much bigger” and “more powerful” arsenal of devastating weapons than the outlier government in Asia. nytimes.com (See also Unpresidential Behavior, North Korea, Nuclear Weapons) |
| 2018.01.02 | NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, slumping morale and unpopular reorganization, as several hundred hackers, engineers and data scientists have left the agency, leaving a significant impact on national security. washingtonpost.com (See also Trump Effect, Assaults on Government) |
| 2018.01.09 | The Trump administration plans to loosen constraints on the use of nuclear weapons and develop a new low-yield nuclear warhead for US Trident missiles. theguardian.com (See also Nuclear Weapons, Russia, North Korea, China) |
| 2018.01.11 | After watching a report on Fox & Friends, Donald Trump caught Republican leadership by surprise with a tweet about FISA renewal, horrifying GOP leadership, given that it was the opposite of the party position... which was followed up by another tweet reversing his stance on the issue. axios.com (See also Reversals) Per a source close to Republican leaders: “I have decided that the only way to stay sane in Trump’s Washington is to ignore everything he says.“ |
Assessments
- 2016.12.23 "Trump's Nuclear Weapons Tweet, Translated and Explained" (New York Times)
"'This is such a North Korean statement in its flavor,' Mr. Pollack said of Mr. Trump’s Twitter post. But, he quickly added, 'this could just be the Obama statement in Trump speak.' It is that uncertainty, he and Mr. Narang warned, as much as or possibly more than any policy change, that could force nuclear competitors to react in ways that add serious risk to a world that already has plenty."