Natasha Bertrand
CNN national security correspondent. Send tips/pics of your dog(s) to Natasha.bertrand@cnn.com
cnn.com/profiles/natasha-be…
- New: National Guard units could soon be deputized to help border patrol agents as they conduct arrests of undocumented migrants across the country. The units would be on state orders, not federal, and serve as a “force multiplier.” www.cnn.com/2025/05/13/p...
- News: The Pentagon has ordered all military academies to identify and remove books that deal with issues such as race, gender ideology, and other “divisive concepts,” per new memo. The dept is also standing up an entire committee to help with this. www.cnn.com/2025/05/09/p...
- New: Migrants sat on a bus for hours on Wednesday waiting to board a C-17 en route to Libya. But at the end of the day, the flight was canceled and they were returned to detention. The C-17 instead flew to Guantanamo the next day, carrying only US troops. www.cnn.com/2025/05/09/p...
- Breaking: Another F/A-18 fighter jet from the Truman aircraft carrier has been lost in the Red Sea, the second jet lost from the carrier in just over a week, per 4 people familiar w/the incident. 2 aviators ejected and were recovered by helo with minor injuries. www.cnn.com/2025/05/06/p...
- "Three sources familiar with the situation said Hegseth misinterpreted discussions with the president about Ukraine policy..." www.reuters.com/world/us/ord...
- NEW: The Trump admin has been examining whether it can label some suspected cartel and gang members inside the US as “enemy combatants” as a way to detain them more easily and limit due process. DoD lawyers are concerned; legal experts say it’s baseless. www.cnn.com/2025/05/02/p...
- UPDATE: A US official said that initial reports from the scene indicated that the Truman made a hard turn to evade Houthi fire, which contributed to the fighter jet falling overboard. www.cnn.com/2025/04/28/p...
- An F/A-18E fighter jet and tow tractor fell overboard the USS Harry Truman today and has sunk in the Red Sea...per the Navy:
- NEW: Despite Trump and Hegseth claims that the USMIL operation against the Houthis has been a major success, the group continues to successfully shoot down multi-million-dollar US drones--7 in a month--hindering the US’ ability to move into “phase two” of the operation www.cnn.com/2025/04/25/p...
- Last month, after news broke that Hegseth was using Signal to discuss sensitive military operations, one of his closest military aides made an unusual inquiry to DoD's chief information officer: Would they grant an exception so Hegseth could keep using Signal freely? www.cnn.com/2025/04/24/p...
- New detail from our story tonight on how Hegseth last month asked for Elon Musk to be read in on more than two dozen special access programs related to China, prompting pushback from DoD ethics lawyers. www.cnn.com/2025/04/22/p...
- Confirmed: Hegseth shared detailed military plans in second Signal chat that included his wife and brother www.cnn.com/2025/04/20/p...
- As Sunday deadline looms for recommendation to Trump re invoking Insurrection Act, CNN has learned DoD and DHS will NOT recommend that Trump invoke it—for now. This would’ve allowed troops to help arrest migrants. www.cnn.com/2025/04/18/p...
- New: The US Naval Academy canceled a lecture that author Ryan Holiday was scheduled to give to students last week after he refused to remove slides from his presentation that criticized the academy’s decision to remove 381 books from its main library. www.cnn.com/2025/04/19/p...
- A third top Pentagon official, Colin Carroll, chief of staff to the deputy secretary of defense, has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation www.cnn.com/2025/04/16/p...
- Harvard says it won’t accept a deal with the White House after the admin threatened to cut off $9B in federal funding: “The University will not negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights.” t.co/MA0RQuE5as
- The total cost of the US military’s operation against the Houthis is nearing $1 billion in ~3 weeks. But Houthis still Houthi-ing...earlier this week, they shot down another US MQ-9 Reaper drone—the second one shot down since the new offensive began last month. www.cnn.com/2025/04/04/p...
- DoD's office of the inspector general announces that it is opening a review of SecDef Hegseth's use of Signal to discuss military strikes against the Houthis media.defense.gov/2025/Apr/03/...
- Gen Dan Caine says he has never worn a MAGA hat when asked about it at his confirmation hearing to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “I’ve never worn any political merchandise,” Caine says. Trump has claimed Caine said he “loved” Trump and would “kill for you” while donning a MAGA hat in 2018.
- Trump’s southern border military mission cost over $300 million in first 6 weeks, officials tell us. If continues at the same pace, it would put the military on track to spend more than $2 billion in the first year of operations. www.cnn.com/2025/03/29/p...
- The information Hegseth disclosed on Signal was classified at the time he wrote it, especially because the operation had not even started yet, officials tell us. “It is safe to say that anybody in uniform would be court martialed for this,” a defense official said. www.cnn.com/politics/liv...
- Jaw dropping. The Atlantic's Jeff Goldberg says he got an inside look into a sensitive policy discussion regarding the Houthis between Mike Waltz, Pete Hegseth, JD Vance, etc because he was accidentally invited to a Signal chat they used to discuss ops planning. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
- Greenland’s PM called the upcoming visit there by Usha Vance and Mike Waltz “highly aggressive.” “What is the national security adviser doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us,” Mute Egede said. www.cnn.com/2025/03/24/w...
- “Validation teams” are now being dispatched to mil bases to ensure that troops are complying with Hegseth’s anti DEI directive, and officials also confirmed that a Lt. colonel has been dispatched from the Pentagon to travel to every combatant command to verify compliance www.cnn.com/2025/03/20/p...
- Secretary of Defense Hegseth’s memo ordering all DEI content to be removed from DoD websites was so vague that military units were instructed to simply use keyword searches like “racism,” “ethnicity,” “history” and “first” when searching for articles and photos to remove. www.cnn.com/2025/03/20/p...
- NEW: Articles about the Holocaust, September 11, cancer awareness, sexual assault, and suicide prevention are among the tens of thousands either removed or flagged for removal from Pentagon websites www.cnn.com/2025/03/19/p...
- US district judge Ana Reyes has indefinitely blocked Trump’s ban on transgender service members, writing tonight that the ban “is soaked in animus and dripping with pretext. Its language is unabashedly demeaning…and its conclusions bear no relation to fact.” www.cnn.com/2025/03/18/p...
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- Breaking: Trump is ordering military aid to Ukraine to be paused after his Friday Oval Office spat with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, a White House official told CNN. www.cnn.com/2025/03/03/p...
- Meanwhile… Russia is eyeing talks with the Trump administration about re-establishing a significant diplomatic presence in the US as an opening to rebuild its spy network in the West, current and former US officials say. www.cnn.com/2025/02/28/p...
- Foreign adversaries including Russia and China have recently directed their intelligence services to ramp up recruiting of US federal employees working in national security, targeting those who have been fired or feel they could be soon, officials tell us. www.cnn.com/2025/02/28/p...
- As Hegseth heads to GITMO today, there are currently only about ~17 migrants there. Trump admin said it would be building tents to house ~30,000 migrants, but there haven’t been enough people transferred to justify continuing to build & tents built so far aren't livable. www.cnn.com/2025/02/24/p...
- The Treasury payment system is used to funnel intel community payments, including CIA's, through entities the IC partners with on sensitive programs. Access granted to individuals without training or experience in the systems risked exposing assets, officials said. www.cnn.com/2025/02/24/p...
- DoD is now advising employees to pause response to OPM email. Darin Selnick, acting Undersec for Personnel and Readiness sent this message to the force… 1/2
- A military official who served with Caine said Saturday that, despite Trump’s claims, Razin Caine “doesn’t have a MAGA hat; he’s never put one on.” Our profile of the retired Air Force general who Trump has nominated to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs: www.cnn.com/2025/02/23/p...
- More: In new statement, Hegseth says CNO Franchetti, USAF Vice Chief Slife, and top JAGS will be replaced >>>
- Trump just announced he’s firing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff CQ Brown and replacing him with Lt Gen Dan “Razin” Cane
- NEW: DoD has temporarily paused a plan to carry out mass firings of civilian probationary employees until SecDef Hegseth and the Pentagon’s Office of General Counsel can carry out a more thorough review of the impacts such firings could have on US military readiness www.cnn.com/2025/02/21/p...
- New: More than 50,000 people across the Defense Department could be impacted by the firings of probationary civilian employees as soon as this week, though the official number may be less than that as exemptions are considered. www.cnn.com/politics/liv...
- Secretary of Defense Hegseth could soon move to fire more than half a dozen generals and flag officers, part of an effort to purge the department of senior leaders perceived as either too political or too close to former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. www.cnn.com/2025/02/20/p...
- Hegseth's memo calling for 8% cuts to DoD's budget every year for 5 years "was issued the day before Trump endorsed the House’s budget plan which includes a $100 billion increase in defense spending...Hegseth called for an increase to the defense budget one week ago." www.cnn.com/2025/02/19/p...
- Defense officials are scrambling to create lists of employees who should be exempted from the impending mass firings, particularly those in critical national security roles. Veterans and military spouses may also be exempted, but that is still being determined. www.cnn.com/2025/02/19/p...
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- Very significant: A new Trump executive order issued last night says the president "shall provide authoritative interpretations of law for the executive branch." whitehouse.gov/presidential...
- NEWS: The CIA under President Trump has been covertly flying MQ-9 Reaper drones over Mexico to spy on drug cartels, part of Trump’s dramatic reorientation of national security assets to the US southern border. www.cnn.com/2025/02/18/p...
- “Politically, global war on terror veterans… realize that we were in many instances sent to war on false pretenses and felt like the system that was supposed to provide checks and oversight failed over and over again,” said Democratic Rep Jason Crow, a former Army Ranger. www.cnn.com/2025/02/16/p...
- “Next Putin will try to get the US president standing on Red Square on May 9 this year, not as a respected leader, but as a prop in his own performance, we don’t need that,” Zelensky said. www.cnn.com/2025/02/15/e...
- Fact check: Musk, Trump deceive about a Trump-era Pentagon contract for ‘social deception’ defense www.cnn.com/2025/02/13/p...
