Paul McLeary
National security reporter for Politico, Buffalo sports fan despite all of it.
- A must-read deep dive into the chaos inside the highest offices inside the Pentagon: www.politico.com/news/2025/04...
- 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...
- “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...
- 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...
- 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...
- 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 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...
- 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...
- 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.
- 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...
- 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
- 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 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
- 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...
- 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...
- 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...
- 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."
- The Army UH-60 helo that hit a commercial plane in DC is from Bravo Co., 12th Aviation Battalion, performing a "training flight" - Heather Chairez, Media Chief, Joint Task Force, National Capitol Region
- NEW: Defense official confirms 3 soldiers on board the Army Black Hawk helicopter that crashed w/ commercial airliner tonight. No high-level officials aboard.
- First picture I've seen of migrants on a US military aircraft being deported. DOD caption reads: "Illegal aliens await takeoff for a removal flight at the Tucson International Airport, Ariz., Jan. 23, 2025."
- This morning, SecDef Pete Hegseth said a priority is acquiring "Iron Dome for America" - assuming this is a catchall for air and missile defense, since the Iron Dom is for short-range missiles so not clear what it would do.
- This line stuck out in @SenMcConnell's statement on Hegseth tonight: There "must be a firewall between servicemembers and politics. The Biden Administration failed at this...But the restoration of ‘warrior culture’ will not come from trading one set of culture warriors for another."
- Trump insists that U.S. control of Greenland is necessary for American security, but between existing bases, new investments by Denmark and a permissive treaty, he already has much of what he wants www.politico.com/newsletters/...
- Trump orders 1,500 active-duty troops to the southern border and sets up massive military airlift to fly 5,000 migrants out of the country, for starters. www.politico.com/news/2025/01...
- NEW: The Pentagon's first act after Trump was sworn in today was to remove the official portrait of former Joint Chiefs chairman retired Gen. Mark Milley www.politico.com/live-updates...
- NEW: Robert Salesses will serve as acting Defense Secretary until Pete Hegseth is confirmed by the Senate -he's serving as the deputy head of the Washington Headquarters Service, the agency’s administrative branch www.politico.com/live-updates...
- Democratic senators Jeanne Shaheen and Kirsten Gillibrand sharply criticized SecDef nominee Pete Hegseth for his views on women in the military during his Tuesday confirmation hearing, bringing up his past public comments on women being unsuited for combat. www.politico.com/live-updates...
- "We know who the aggressor is, we know who the good guy is" in the war un Ukraine, Pete Hegseth tells the Senate Armed Services Committee. Leaves it at that.
- NEW: The Pentagon has asked a federal appeals court to block a military judge’s plan to accept plea deals w/ a 9/11 mastermind and 2 others. DOD asked judges to reinstate SecDef Austin's decision to revoke the plea agreements. www.politico.com/news/2025/01...
- NEW: In November, the US, Canada, and Finland signed an agreement to build a new icebreaker fleet - much of it at US shipyards. Today, Trump said he wants to kick Canada out even tho a Canadian company is looking to invest in the US and throwing the whole thing into question:
- NEW: Laura Cooper, a career civil servant and key player in coordinating U.S. military aid for Ukraine has left the Pentagon just days before Trump takes the White House and puts its own imprint on the war. www.politico.com/newsletters/...
- [Not loaded yet]
- I saw that! It's....weird.
- Overall, 7,800 National Guardsmen will support the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, DoD spokesperson Sabrina Singh says. Also, 500 Guardsmen will support "the counting and certification of electoral votes on January 6," she adds.
- As of today, members of the Trump DoD transition team have met with 79 DoD officials, @DepPentPressSec tells reporters.
- One more for the road: on January 7, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will travel to Ramstein, Germany for the 25th meeting of the Ukraine defense contact group - the last of his term.
- NEW: The US now has over 2,000 troops inside Syria, a massive increase from the 900 troops DOD has been telling us are on the ground there, @PentagonPresSec says
- Pentagon spokesperson says that the new 1,100 US troops in Syria are on 30 to 90 day deployments and have been there "months" - since before Assad fell. And we're only finding out now.
- Asked if SecDef Austin knew that Centcom sent 1,100 more troops to Syria, his spokesman says "I'm confident that the secretary is tracking US forces deployed around the world." Not a yes.
- NEW: North Korea has taken "several hundred" casualties fighting Ukrainians in Russia, a senior military official told reporters Tuesday afternoon. The casualties range from KIA to light wounds, hitting troops from "all ranks" including "to very near to the top."
- NEW: Maxar is out with new images of Russia's Khmeimim airbase showing transport planes loading gear, and Ka-52 attack helos & an S-400 air defense unit being dismantled
- “A lot of us are hoping there’s a revolution coming,” Joe Lonsdale, founder of software company Palantir and startup investor said at a recent defense forum, “where we hold the bureaucracy accountable, where we shock the bureaucracy.” www.politico.com/news/2024/12...
- Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin delivering (his last?) major domestic speech before the inauguration next month. #RNDF
- NEW: Indo-Pacific commander Adm. Samuel Paparo says there's likely "some agreement" for Russia to send North Korea Mig-29s and Su-27s aircraft in payment for sending 12K troops to Russia.
- -->>
- Next year, NATO will ask next year for 49 more brigades; 1,500 more tanks; and 1,000 more pieces of artillery, Andrius Kubilius told the European Parliament today. “We need to take those numbers and transform them into … an industry output plan," he added. More on @politico.eu pro.
- "The demand signal for bombers is greater than any time I've seen in my career" Gen. Thomas Bussiere, commander of @AFGlobalStrike says. "The last 12 months has probably seen the highest level of activity across the globe," in 20 yrs. for B1, B2, B52 bombers.
