On this week’s Defense & Aerospace Report Washington Roundtable, sponsored by L3Harris, Dr. Patrick Cronin of the Hudson Institute think tank, Michael Herson of American Defense International, former Pentagon Russia chief Dr Evelyn Farkas of the McCain Institute at Arizona State University, and former Pentagon Comptroller Dr. Dov Zakheim of the Center for Strategic and International Studies join Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian to discuss the outlook for the Trump administration’s defense budget request as lawmakers return to DC to work on the National Defense Authorization Act, appropriations as current funding runs out Dec. 11, reconciliation and an Iran war supplemental as the next House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith of Washington says even $1.15 trillion is too much for defense; GOP rebuffs outgoing Kentucky Republican Tom Massie’s drive to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; President Trump’s envoys work with Vladimir Putin to deliver the new European security architecture the Russian leader as long sought as US, Ukraine and Russia talks in Abu Dhabi fail as Moscow maintains its maximalist demands on Ukrainian territory it doesn’t even control; as Jared Kushner and Steve Witkof arrive in Moscow after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Dublin, Washington again downgrades StarLink service to hobble Ukraine; how a Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill will shape the administration’s war on Iran and pro-Russia Ukraine policy; Trump says he won’t go back to war with Iran but maintain the status quo to keep oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz; continuing Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia; Gadi Eisenkot works to form a new Israeli government; Xi Jinping prepares to convene the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Shenzhen where he will host Trump and Putin; the Association of Southeast Asian Nations prepares to meet in Manila; Xi reiterates China’s need to unify with Taiwan; and reverberations from NVIDIA’s decision to fire its founder and CEO Jensen Huang for inappropriate relationships including with a Chinese spy, Alison Huang, and concerns the man who was a top China adviser to Trump may also have skirted US export controls to send advanced chips to the Singapore company owned by Beijing’s agent, Alison Huang, that then passed the chips to China.
