STARMER: ‘MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER THAT WE ARE UNITED’: Three days after French President Emmanuel Macron attempted to find common ground on Ukraine with President Donald Trump in a White House visit, it’s U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s turn to give it a go.
Starmer, who is expected to draw on the “special relationship” between the two nations, will be pressing the case that “there can be no negotiations about Ukraine, without Ukraine” and will recognize the need for Europe to “step up for the good of collective European security” according to remarks released by his office. “The world is becoming ever more dangerous, and it is more important than ever that we are united with our allies,” Starmer said.
While recognizing the need for Europe to provide security guarantees for any potential ceasefire or peace deal, Starmer told reporters on his plane en route to Washington that U.S. support is still required as a backstop, according to the BBC. “The security guarantee has to be sufficient to deter Putin from coming again,” Starmer said.
But in yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, Trump appeared to flatly rule that out, telling reporters, “I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much. We’re going to have Europe do that because it’s — we’re talking about Europe — their next-door neighbor.”
Starmer will also be underscoring his Tuesday announcement that the U.K. plans to increase defense spending by the largest amount since the Cold War, with an increase to 2.5% of GDP by April 2027, with an ultimate goal of 3%.
Trump has stated he believes European nations need to spend at least 5% of their GDP on defense, a level of spending no ally, not even the United States, is currently meeting.
Starmer and Trump are scheduled to meet at 12:15 p.m., discuss the issue over lunch, and hold a joint news conference at 2 p.m.
ZELENSKY NEXT UP: Tomorrow it’s Volodymyr Zelensky’s turn to mount a charm offensive to mend fences with Trump, who has blamed the Ukrainian president for failing to make an early deal with Vladimir Putin to prevent or end the war back in 2022, and who has called Zelensky a “dictator without elections.”
Zelensky is hoping his willingness to sign a revised framework agreement to cut in the U.S. on profits from the future sale of rare earth minerals will help right the relationship with Trump, which has soured as Trump has adopted Putin’s framing of the conflict.
The revised agreement removed the most objectionable provisions, including a lopsided deal that would have obligated Ukraine to put $500 billion of proceeds into a fund controlled by the United States as “payback” for less than $100 billion in U.S. military and economic aid over the past three years.
The new version envisions a fund co-owned by the two countries but lacks a specific U.S. security guarantee. Instead, it expresses support for “Ukraine’s efforts to obtain security guarantees” from other countries, according to the deal’s text, which has been viewed by the Wall Street Journal. Many of the key details are left to be worked out later.
“Peace and security guarantees are the key to ensuring that Russia can no longer destroy the lives of other nations,” Zelensky posted on X. “For me and for all of us in the world, it’s important that U.S. support is not stopped. Strength is needed on the path to peace.”
TRUMP: UKRAINE GETS ‘AUTOMATIC SECURITY’: Trump’s pitch to Zelensky is that by being business partners with the United States and with U.S. companies involved in monetizing Ukraine’s mineral wealth, Ukraine gets a form of security just because of the U.S. presence.
“President Zelensky is coming to sign the deal, and it’s a great thing,” Trump said yesterday. “It’s a great deal for Ukraine too, because they get us over there, and we’re going to be working over there. We’ll be on the land, and you know, in that way, it’s this sort of automatic security, because nobody’s going to be messing around with our people when we’re there.”
“But Europe will be watching it very closely,” Trump added. “I know that U.K. has said, and France has said that they want to put, they volunteer to put so-called peacekeepers on the site, and I think that’s a good thing.”
Trump continued to cite wildly inflated numbers for U.S. aid to Ukraine and argued that the grants made by the Biden administration should have been loans. “The previous administration put us in a very bad position, but we have been able to make a deal where we’re going to get our money back, and we’re going to get a lot of money in the future,” Trump said. “And I think that’s appropriate because we have taxpayers that shouldn’t be footing the bill.”
“So it’s all been worked out. We’re happy about it. And I think that, very importantly, we’re going to be able to make a deal,” Trump added. “Most importantly, by far, we’re going to make a deal with Russia and Ukraine to stop killing people.”
“My No. 1 thing is to get that stopped. My No. 2 thing is, I don’t want to have to pay any more money,” Trump said. “Now we’re going to be getting all of that money back, plus a lot more.”
US AND UKRAINE WILL SIGN ‘VERY BIG’ MINERALS DEAL, TRUMP CONFIRMS
Good Thursday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Christopher Tremoglie (@chriswtremo). Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow me on Threads and/or on X @jamiejmcintyre
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HAPPENING TODAY: The Senate Armed Services Committee takes up the nomination of John Phelan to be Navy secretary. The hearing is set for 9:30 a.m.
HEGSETH PLANNING MORE FIRINGS: During President Trump’s first Cabinet meeting yesterday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he is following through on his pledge to “hold accountable” generals and senior officers responsible for the chaotic and some would say disastrous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in August of 2021.
A reporter asked if “all the generals or command staff that were involved with the withdrawal” were being fired or relieved of duty. “Well, that’s a great idea,” Trump responded. “I’m not going to tell this man [Hegseth] what to do, but I will say that if I had his place, I’d fire every single one of them.”
“We’re doing a complete review of every single aspect of what happened with the withdrawal of Afghanistan and planned to have full accountability,” said Hegseth, who was sitting next to Trump. “We’re taking a very different view, obviously, than the previous administration, and there will be full accountability.”
“I don’t see big promotions in that group. I think they’re going to be largely gone,” Trump interjected. “I know the man on my left. I think they’re going to be largely gone … It was so terrible, the way that was handled.”
Hegseth made a point of excluding retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine, Trump’s pick to replace fired Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Charles Q. Brown. “Certainly, General Razin Caine, who was on his way in, was not a part of that. Instead, he was a part of leading the effort against ISIS by untying the hands of warfighters, finishing the job properly, and bringing our troops home.”
HEGSETH: PENTAGON DOING ‘COMPLETE REVIEW’ OF AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL
TRUMP: ‘WE SHOULD GET IT BACK’: Trump continues to argue that he would have completed the withdrawal flawlessly while contradicting himself by saying at the same time that the U.S. would have kept troops in Afghanistan to maintain control of the sprawling Bagram air base.
“We were going to get out, but we were going to keep Bagram, not because of Afghanistan, but because of China, because it’s exactly one hour away from where China makes its nuclear missiles,” Trump said in an exercise of revisionist history. “We were going to keep a small force on Bagram. We’re going to have Bagram Air Base, one of the biggest air bases in the world, one of the biggest runways, one of the most powerful runways.”
“We gave it up, and you know who’s occupying it right now, China,” Trump said.
In fact, when Trump ordered all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan in December 2020, during the last days of his first term, he made no provision for keeping Bagram, nor for repossessing the equipment given to the Afghan army to battle the Taliban, nor for that matter had any plan to evacuate Afghan partners.
But four years later, he’s still smarting about the “beautiful equipment” the U.S. left behind that fell into the hands of the Taliban. “You know that Afghanistan is one of the biggest sellers of military equipment in the world. You know why? They’re selling the equipment that was left,” Trump said. “They’re selling 777,000 rifles, 70,000 armor-plated. Many of them were armor-plated trucks and vehicles … we had 70,000 vehicles there, and we left it for them. I think we should get it back.”
HEGSETH: PENTAGON DOING ‘COMPLETE REVIEW’ OF AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL
DOD CIVILIANS FACE MASS TERMINATIONS: The latest memo from the Office of Management and Budget directs all federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, to eliminate non-critical, duplicative, or positions typically deemed nonessential during a lapse in government funding.
“Pursuant to the President’s direction, agencies should focus on the maximum elimination of functions that are not statutorily mandated while driving the highest-quality, most efficient delivery of their statutorily-required functions,” the memo states.
DOD civilians are not exempt from the reduction in force of or RIF, but “military personnel in the armed forces and all federal uniformed personnel, including the U.S. Coast Guard, the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, and the Commissioned Officer Corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,” are excluded.
Agencies have two weeks to submit plans to eliminate tens of thousands of positions nationwide. Some 80% of federal workers live outside the Washington, D.C. area.
Senate Veterans Affairs ranking member Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CN) and Sen. Tim Kaine ( D-VA), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, will talk to reporters via webinar this afternoon. They will argue that mass terminations of Department of Defense civilian employees will leave many military veterans jobless, given that the DOD workforce is comprised of 45% veterans.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
THE RUNDOWN:
Washington Examiner: Trump to sign executive order backing Musk and DOGE efforts after first Cabinet meeting
Washington Examiner: US and Ukraine will sign ‘very big’ minerals deal, Trump confirms
Washington Examiner: Hegseth: Pentagon doing ‘complete review’ of Afghanistan withdrawal
Washington Examiner: Taiwan claims China set up ‘live-fire’ training zone off coast
Washington Examiner: Hegseth visits migrant detention center at Guantanamo Bay
Washington Examiner: ‘Five minutes to midnight’ for German centrists, CDU warns as it seeks coalition
Washington Examiner: Tom Homan: ‘We know who leaked’ Aurora ICE raid to Tren de Aragua
Washington Examiner: Texas blames Mexican ‘cartel violence’ after US border rancher killed by IED
Washington Examiner: Trump cracks down on Iran’s ‘shadow fleet’ with new sanctions
Washington Examiner: US votes against UN resolution blaming Russia for Ukraine war
Washington Examiner: European leaders honor third anniversary of war in Ukraine
Washington Examiner: Pentagon spent millions injecting DEI into science and medicine
Washington Examiner: Opinion: Trump’s most consequential national security meeting
Washington Examiner: Editorial: To get peace, Trump must view Putin’s war for what it is
Washington Examiner: Tom Rogan Opinion: Trump undermines America in UN prostration to Russia
Washington Examiner: Tom Rogan Opinion: US attorney for DC targets First Amendment instead of killer gangs
Washington Examiner: Tom Rogan Opinion: Will Trump’s Justice Department restore public trust?
AP: The Trump administration sets the stage for large-scale federal worker layoffs in a new memo
AP: VA pauses billions in cuts lauded by Musk as lawmakers and veterans decry loss of critical care
New York Times: Gabbard Says More Than 100 Intelligence Officers Fired for Chat Messages
Bloomberg: Billionaire Feinberg Says Pentagon Needs an Investor’s Savvy
NBC: Federal Agencies Told to Start Planning for Large-Scale Layoffs in Trump Admin Memo
AP: Pentagon orders new purge of social media sites to dump diversity, inclusion mentions by March 5
Wall Street Journal: Iran Has Enough Highly Enriched Uranium for Six Nuclear Weapons
AP: Israeli official says the army won’t withdraw from a Gaza corridor in potential jolt to truce
Defense News: Army Will Field Its Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon by End of Fiscal Year
Defense One: Looking to Cut Pentagon Costs? Start Here, Watchdog Says
The Telegraph: Ukraine’s crushing victory over Putin in the Black Sea is about to be given away
The War Zone: Ground-Launched and Powered Air-Launched Versions of StormBreaker Glide Bomb Are in Development
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Air Force Wargaming Chief Says New Fighter Makes Air Battle Easier To Win
Air & Space Forces Magazine: USSF Paused AI Adoption in ’23; Now It’s Looking to Automate Ops
SpaceNews: Wargaming the Unknown: The Space Force’s Challenge in Preparing for a War No One Has Fought
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Space Force Spending Too Big Before Proving Laser Comms Works: Watchdog
DefenseScoop: Technologists Flock to Capitol Hill for Meeting with Senate Defense Modernization Caucus Members
The Cipher Brief: Germany’s Election Winner Vows ‘Real Independence’ from US
The Cipher Brief: Missing in Musk’s DOGE Operation: Transparency
Aviation Week: AFSOC Readies for OA-1K Deliveries, Looks at Fleet’s Future
New York Post: Opinion: The Pentagon must cut $50B of waste — put this weapon on the chopping block
THE CALENDAR:
THURSDAY | FEBRUARY 27
8 a.m. 7901 Tysons One Pl., Tysons, Virginia — Potomac Officers Club 5G Summit, with Thomas Rondeau, principal director of FutureG and 5G at the Defense Department; and Erwin Gianchandani, assistant director for technology, innovation and partnerships at the National Science Foundation https://potomacofficersclub.com/events/2025-5g-summit/
9 a.m. — Georgetown University Center for Jewish Civilization virtual discussion: “Syria After Assad: A View from Israel,” with Carmit Valensi, senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and head of the Northern Arena Program; and CJC Director Jonathan Lincoln https://events.georgetown.edu/sfs/event
9:30 a.m. G-50 Dirksen — Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the nomination of John Phelan to be Navy secretary http://www.armed-services.senate.gov
9:30 a.m. — Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies discussion: “Russia’s Military Thinking,” with Andrew Monaghan, senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute https://sais.jhu.edu/campus-events?
11 a.m. HVC-210, U.S. Capitol — House Oversight and Government Reform Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee hearing: “How Foreign Aid Lost Its Way.” http://oversight.house.gov
11:30 a.m. 1201 Pennsylvania Ave, NW — Hudson Institute discussion: “The U.S.-EU Relationship,” withEuropean Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas https://www.hudson.org/events/conversation-kaja-kallas
12 p.m. — Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft virtual discussion: “The German Elections and the Future of Europe,” with Wolfgang Streeck, director emeritus, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne; Thomas Fasbender, head of geopolitics at the Berliner Zellung; Molly O’Neal, non-resident fellow, Quincy Institute; and Anatol Lieven, director, Quincy Institute’s Eurasia Program https://quincyinst.org/events/the-german-elections-and-the-future-of-europe/
2 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW — Center for Strategic and International Studies discussion: “Critical Minerals and the Future of the U.S. Economy,” with Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO); and Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) https://www.csis.org/events/launch-event-critical-minerals-and-future-us-economy
2 p.m. 1400 L St. NW — Atlantic Council discussion: “The critical role of operational energy in military readiness and resilience,” with Rebecca Isacowitz, deputy assistant secretary of defense for energy resilience and optimization; and Capt. Newt McKissick, senior military adviser, Defense Innovation Unit Energy Portfolio https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/the-critical-role-of-operational-energy
FRIDAY | FEBRUARY 28
8:30 a.m. 351 Fairfax Dr., Arlington, Virginia — National Defense Industrial Association and George Mason University Center for Government Contracting “Power of Prototyping Symposium,” with Ellen Lord, former undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, delivers remarks https://www.ndia.org/events/2025/2/28/power-of-prototyping
10 a.m. — National Institute for Deterrence Studies virtual seminar: “Assessment and Update of the Posture Commission,” with Madelyn Creedon, former assistant secretary of defense for global strategic affairs, president of Green Marble Group LLC; and Franklin Miller, principal at the Scowcroft Group https://thinkdeterrence.com/events/
10 a.m. 1400 L St. NW — Atlantic Council book discussion: No Country for Love, focusing on Ukraine’s historical struggle against authoritarianism amid Russia’s continued aggression, with author Yaroslav Trofimov, Wall Street Journal chief foreign affairs correspondent https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/book-launch-no-country-for-love
TUESDAY | MARCH 4
9 a.m. 2401 M St., NW — George Washington University Project for Media and National Security Defense Writers Group coffee discussion: “An Exclusive, Advance Preview of the Reagan Institute’s National Security Innovation Base Report Card for 2025,” with Roger Zakheim, director, Ronald Reagan Institute; and Rachel Hoff, policy director, Ronald Reagan Institute RSVP: [email protected].
WEDNESDAY | MARCH 5
10 a.m. 2154 Rayburn — House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing: “Sanctuary cities policies,” with testimony from Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (D); Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D); Denver Mayor Michael Johnston (D); and New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) http://oversight.house.gov
THURSDAY | MARCH 6
6:30 a.m. 2425 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, Virginia — Association of the U.S. Army “Coffee Series” discussion with Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer https://www.ausa.org/events/coffee-series/sma-weimer
WEDNESDAY | MARCH 1212 p.m. — Cato Institute discussion: “The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong’s Greatest Dissident, and China’s Most Feared Critic,” with Mark Clifford, author and president, Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation; Sebastien Lai, son of Jimmy Lai; Mark Simon, former group director, Next Digital Companies; and Ian Vasquez, vice president for international studies, Cato Institute https://www.cato.org/events/troublemaker
