Kori Schake

3 weeks ago | aei.org | Kori Schake |Tanner Nalley

Today the Senate Armed Services Committee held a confirmation hearing for Lieutenant General Dan Caine, President Trump’s underqualified nominee to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Trump has publicly extolled that when they met, General Caine donned a MAGA hat and effused that he would give his life for Donald Trump. The only question that was going to matter for Caine’s confirmation was “Did you wear it and did you say it?” Senator Wicker asked it in the first round of questioning.

3 weeks ago | aei.org | Kori Schake |Julia Cataneo

As the furor over the Atlantic story boiled, Secretary Hegseth stepped off the plane and flat denied that he had done anything wrong. He impugned the integrity of the journalist even after the White House had acknowledged the veracity of the story. A day later, Secretary Hegseth defended his use of the unclassified commercial platform for real-time operational information by saying “My job, as it said, on top of that, everybody’s seen it now.

4 weeks ago | aei.org | Danielle Pletka |Marc Thiessen |Kori Schake

President Trump is reportedly considering abandoning America’s longstanding role commanding NATO forces as Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), changing the U.S. combatant command structure, and canceling modernization plans for U.S. Forces Japan. While it’s true that Europe needs to step up to the plate on its own defense needs, abandoning the SACEUR position would place U.S. troops under foreign command, give Washington less leverage over our allies, and weaken deterrence.

1 month ago | aei.org | Kori Schake

Last month, the Trump administration carried out a large-scale firing of senior military leaders, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chief of Naval operations, the vice chief of staff of the Air Force, and the top military lawyers from the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

1 month ago | aei.org | Kori Schake |Julia Cataneo

After the demeaning public treatment of Ukraine’s President by the leader of the Free World on Friday—requiring Volodomyr Zelensky to publicly assent to false descriptions of his country’s plight and then criticizing Zelensky for hostility toward Putin before throwing him out of the White House and demanding an apology—Administration hostility to Ukraine is clear. It was a devastating day for the United States of America. A shameful day.