RECKLESS PEACEMAKER: MILEAGE MAY VARY – The Institute for Global Affairs — a think tank that measures global risk and public mood — just dropped a survey that gives a snapshot of what Americans think the President’s foreign policy. In the survey, voters gave Trump high marks only when the targets are drug lords, not diplomats. The IGA poll shows a rare +7 percent approval on fighting narco-traffickers, but a nosedive on just about everything else: relations with allies (-23 percent), nuclear risk (-21 percent), and America’s global reputation (-22 percent). Note: the survey was conducted October 6-14 before the president’s recent trip to Asia and before his comments on conducting nuclear tests. Asked to describe Trump’s leadership style, 30 percent of Americans said “reckless,” 28 percent said “destructive,” and only 16 percent called him a “peacemaker.” Meanwhile, three-quarters of the country opposes using military force abroad without congressional approval — suggesting the public likes power projection, just not when it looks like impulse control issues. In what will come as a surprise to no one – the poll results differ broadly by party affiliation. Ninety five percent of Democrats said Trump should not receive a Nobel Peace Prize while 56 percent of Republicans think he should. The survey is not all about the President, however. It also showed that the military was the most trusted foreign policy institution in the US -with broad support from Republican and Democrat respondents alike. Trust in Congress, did badly from all angles, while ICE was viewed warmly by Republicans and got a very chilly reception from Democrats and Independents.
The Dead Drop is now updating throughout the week. There's just too much good gossip in the national security world for a once-a-week drop.
GONE THE WAY OF THE UNICORN – The nation’s premier codebreakers and codemakers at NSA seem to be having a bit of a leadership identity crisis. Seven months after the White House and/or DOD sent the DIRNSA, General Timothy Haugh and his deputy packing, and a month after officials backed away from making the acting director permanent, the Fort Meade crowd is anxiously awaiting a boss — and the stress is starting to show. According to Nextgov, morale inside the agency is sagging as the NSA braces for about 2,000 civilian staff cuts by year’s end. One former senior official described the mood as “rather depressed,” observing that “that’s what happens when your boss disappears, and then some of your lead unicorns also disappear.” NSA has also hit pause on its Legal Honors Program which is understandable because if you are not going to have a boss – who needs all those lawyers hanging around? NSA spokespeople however swear that the organization’s “mission remains unwavering,” which is precisely the sort of thing you say when everything around you is wavering.
CLEANUP ON AISLE P – Turns out the Pentagon’s “Policy” office could use a little … policy. During a Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday for Austin Dahmer, the nominee to become Assistant Secretary for Strategy, Plans and Forces, lawmakers from both parties unloaded on the Department’s internal planning hub, calling it a “Pigpen-like mess” — complete with stonewalling, uncoordinated troop moves, and apparently a permanent dust cloud of confusion. The New York Post summed it up as senators blasting senior officials for letting deployment decisions in Europe and the Middle East bounce around the chain of command like a bad group chat. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) called the office “the worst in the administration”. According to the New York Post, Dahmer blamed some of the criticism of the Pentagon’s policy shop as “fake news” and “inaccurate reporting.” Although he has yet to be confirmed for the job, Dahmer has been performing the duties of the deputy undersecretary for policy – which should have enabled him to address many of the questions that senators on both sides of the aisle seemed unhappy about.
UN-CREDIBLE CREDENTIALS? Regular Dead Drop readers might remember that news organizations from The New York Times to CNN and even Fox News refused to agree to draconian rules from the Pentagon about what they can and can’t report - in order to keep their building press passes. Well now, the Washington Post (which also refused to sign the pledge) is reporting that Laura Loomer has been granted press credentials to cover the Defense Department. In a post on X on Monday, Loomer confirmed the news saying “after a year of breaking the most impactful stories that pertain to our nation’s security and rooting out deceptive and disloyal bad actors from the Department of War, I have joined the Pentagon Press Corps!” In some respects, it is hard to imagine Loomer would agree to only report news that has been pre-approved by DOD – since she has made a habit of digging up what she considers dirt on military officials and posting it - without any evidence - to her social media account. It will be interesting to see if she ever shows up in the Pentagon or if her credentials are just some sort of trophy. Meanwhile, across the Potomac, remember we speculated two weeks ago, that taking a wrecking ball to the East Wing might lead to kicking the White House press corps out of the West Wing? Well, that hasn’t happened (yet) but over the weekend word came out that new rules at the White House forbid credentialed press from going to the White House press secretary’s office without an appointment – something that has been within bounds since at least the Nixon administration.
SLOW BOAT? On Friday October 24, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced on social media that the “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth had ordered the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to leave the Mediterranean and head for the U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility to support “the President’s directive to dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) and counter narco-terrorism.” Armchair admirals started to calculate how quickly FORD and friends would show up off the coast of Venezuela. The carrier strike group was reported to be off the coast of Croatia when the announcement was made but five days later, there were (unconfirmed) reports that it was still in the Med. A week after the Hegseth announcement, the Miami Herald reported that their sources said an attack on military installations could come “at any moment.” Administration officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the reporting “a fake story.” Some folks think the deployment announcement was mostly saber-rattling while others believe the eventual arrival will signal a big next step in regime change. In any case – the Ford is one of the most capable warships ever built despite having electro-magnetic plane launching catapults that for some reason the President hates nearly as much as he hates windmills.
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