Draft U.S. National Defense Policy Reportedly Focused on Domestic and Regional Missions

Sept. 8—A draft of the Trump Administration’s National Defense Strategy has reportedly landed on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s desk. According to Politico’s unnamed sources, it “places domestic and regional missions above countering adversaries such as Beijing and Moscow.” This, Politico [who is a part of the NATO propaganda machine] says, is a major shift from recent Democrat and Republican administrations, including President Donald Trump’s first term in office, when he referred to Beijing as America’s greatest rival. Furthermore, it would likely inflame China hawks in both parties who view the country’s leadership as a danger to U.S. security.

“This is going to be a major shift for the U.S. and its allies on multiple continents,” said a source, briefed on the draft document. “The old, trusted U.S. promises are being questioned.” Politico notes that the shift is already occurring, citing, among other things, the militarization of the southern border with Mexico, the deployment of National Guard troops into Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and the deployment of naval forces into the Caribbean. It is also occurring as Trump spokesman challenge NATO's assumptions about the Russian threat to Europe, which might drag the U.S. into war that Europe creates. Trump has personally questioned the validity of the Article 5 commitment to involve NATO in the defense of any member—especially if NATO members provoke war with Russia, as has happened in Ukraine.

The new strategy would largely overturn the focus of the first Trump administration’s 2018 National Defense Strategy, which placed deterring China at the forefront of the Pentagon’s efforts, Politico goes on. The shift “doesn’t seem aligned with President Trump’s hawkish views on China at all,” said an unnamed Republican foreign policy expert briefed on the report, although Trump has never said that he sees China as a military threat but rather an economic competitor. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been at the forefront of efforts to prevent China from expanding its economic influence in the South and Central America, with Politico claims, reflects the changed policy focus.

 Politico points out that the strategy also seems at odds with the views those of Deputy Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, who is in charge of producing the report. Despite his long track record as a China hawk, Colby aligns with Vice President J.D. Vance on the desire to disentangle the U.S. from foreign commitments, Politico claims. Notable, also, is that Colby played a crucial role in the composition of the 2018 document. Colby has strongly supported Trump's efforts to disengage from NATO's losing proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, and improving diplomatic and other relations with Russia.

Colby’s policy team is also responsible for a forthcoming global posture review, which outlines where U.S. forces are stationed around the globe, and a theater air and missile defense review, which takes stock of U.S. and allies’ air defenses and makes recommendations for where to locate American systems. Though it has yet to come out, the global posture review is already causing tremors among NATO. Other sources say that Trump currently has a disjointed view on these matters but has nonetheless freaked NATO out by questioning its post-Soviet Union mission, saying that it needs to create enemies to oppose.