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Trump Defense Policy Tag

As President Donald Trump's first term comes to a close, his administration is stepping up pressure on the China's Military establishment. The White House has added four more China-based companies to the list of "Communist Chinese military companies," making them off-bounds for American investors and financial institutions. 

The media attacks on Trump have followed a pattern for years: A bombshell media report implicating Trump in wrongdoing, often dropped just before a weekend, which creates a media feeding frenzy for 2-4 days before it is completely disproven or seriously cast into doubt. As that crisis news cycle peters out, another bombshell is dropped, rinse and repeat.

The United States and Poland have signed a landmark defense agreement on Saturday aimed at increasing U.S. troop presence in the country. Under the agreement, a thousand U.S. troops in Germany will be moved to Poland, raising their total strength to 5,500. The deal was inked by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak in Warsaw.

U.S. President Donald Trump has angered many German politicians and media commentators with his decision to withdraw nearly 12,000 troops from Germany. Defense Secretary Mark Esper laid out the plan on Wednesday.

Under the proposed pull-out, close to 6,400 troops will return to the U.S. and another 5,400 redeployed within Europe. 

The House Committee on Armed Services revealed an outline of its defense budget proposal on Monday. The contents of the plan set up a possible stalemate with the Senate and President Donald Trump. The proposal trims $17 billion from the $750 billion Trump requested for defense. The Senate defense bill sits right at $750 billion. I have a feeling the portion that does not allow any Pentagon funding towards a border wall will cause the most problems with Trump.

Germany won't be meeting its NATO spending target this year, the country's finance ministry disclosed. "Defense spending is projected to fall well short of NATO's 2 percent target," German state broadcaster DW News reported Wednesday.

Weeks after getting the European Union's approval for a gas pipeline across the Baltic Sea, Russia is moving ahead with its plans to construct a new Black Sea pipeline into Western Europe. Moscow intends to extend the existing Turk Stream pipeline that links Russia and Turkey to supply Western Europe with gas, German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported.

Following up on his initiating Space Force, President Donald Trump has launched a new missile defense plan.
Unveiling a revamped missile defense plan, President Donald Trump said Thursday that the United States is prepared to make use of space as a potential battleground. "My upcoming budget will invest in a space-based missile defense layer," Trump said in remarks at the Pentagon, and it is "ultimately going to be a very, very big part of our defense – and, obviously, of our offense."

Earlier this week, Kemberlee blogged that Mattis was resigning at the end of February.  You can read his resignation letter here. The timeline has been changed by President Trump, however, and now Mattis will be leaving his position as Defense Secretary as of January 1, 2019.  The current Deputy Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan, will become Acting Secretary on January 1st.