While the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of the military in domestic law enforcement, Trump argued that it doesn’t apply if he’s using active-duty troops to repel an invasion. “It doesn’t, it doesn’t stop the military if it’s an invasion of our country, and I consider it an invasion of our country,” Trump said. “I’ll only do what the law allows, but I will go up to the maximum level of what the law allows. And I think in many cases, the sheriffs and law enforcement is going to need help. We’ll also get National Guard. We’ll get National Guard, and we’ll go as far as I’m allowed to go, according to the laws of our country.”

Trump vowed to get other countries to accept deported immigrants to avoid the need for large deportation camps to hold people or families that are in the U.S. without legal status. “I’ll get them into every country, I’ll get them into every country, or we won’t do business with those countries,” he said, but, when pressed, admitted “there might be” a need to set up camps for detained migrants.

“Whatever it takes to get them out. I don’t care. Honestly, whatever it takes to get them out,” he said. “Again, I’ll do it absolutely within the confines of the law, but if it needs new camps, I hope we’re not going to need too many because I want to get them out, and I don’t want them sitting in camp for the next 20 years.”

TRUMP TEMPERS EXPECTATIONS WITH LESS THAN 40 DAYS UNTIL INAUGURATION

UKRAINE: ‘YOU CAN’T REACH AN AGREEMENT IF YOU ABANDON’: Trump says he has a negotiation strategy to broker a deal between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, it can only work if he doesn’t publicly say too much about it. “When I start, I think I have a very good plan to help, but when I start exposing that plan, it becomes almost a worthless plan.”

Trump said the Biden administration’s decision to allow Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied, long-range ATACMS missiles to strike deeper into Russia was “a very big mistake.”

“I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia. Why are we doing that? We’re just escalating this war and making it worse,” he said. “I think it’s a foolish decision. But I would imagine people are waiting until I get in before anything happens. I would imagine. I think that would be very smart to do that.”

In an interview that aired Sunday, Trump told NBC he would “probably” cut U.S. aid to Ukraine after he takes office, but he told Time he would not abandon Ukraine entirely. “I want to reach an agreement, and the only way you’re going to reach an agreement is not to abandon,” he said. “You can’t reach an agreement if you abandon, in my opinion.”

Asked if he had spoken to Putin since the November 5 election, Trump wouldn’t say, “I can’t tell you. It’s just inappropriate.”

TRUMP ‘VEHEMENTLY’ DISAGREES WITH BIDEN ALLOWING UKRAINIAN STRIKES DEEP IN RUSSIAN TERRITORY

IRAN: ‘ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN’: The Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning that Trump is weighing options for stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, including possible “preventive airstrikes” that would be designed to “stop short” of igniting an all-out war. Asked by Time about the chances of war with Iran, Trump replied, “Anything can happen. Anything can happen. It’s a very volatile situation.”

The Wall Street Journal, citing two people familiar with their recent phone calls, reported that Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he is “concerned about an Iranian nuclear breakout on his watch” and is “signaling he is looking for proposals to prevent that outcome.”

“Do you trust Netanyahu?” Time asked him. “I don’t trust anybody,” he replied.

JAN. 6 PARDONS: IN THE ‘FIRST NINE MINUTES’: Trump said he will review the cases of rioters convicted of crimes during the Jan. 6, 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol, as one of his first official acts. “I’ll be looking at J6 early on, maybe the first nine minutes,” he said. “We’re going to look at each individual case, and we’re going to do it very quickly, and it’s going to start in the first hour that I get into office. And a vast majority of them should not be in jail.”

More than 1,000 defendants have pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial of charges, including misdemeanor trespassing offenses, assaulting police officers, and seditious conspiracy. “These people have been treated really, really badly. Yeah, it’s an important issue for me. They’ve suffered greatly, and in many cases, they should not have suffered.”

“I’m going to do case-by-case, and if they were non-violent … the answer is I will be doing that,” Trump said while saying he might not pardon rioters who “really were out of control.”

TRUMP NAMED TIME’S 2024 PERSON OF THE YEAR

Good Friday 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: BLINKEN IN TURKEY: Secretary of State Antony Blinken met today with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he seeks to solidify support from Middle Eastern nations for a peaceful political transition in Syria. “I’ve had many calls over the last days with partners of the region, and everyone’s agreed on the need to have a unified approach to advance many of our shared interests,” Blinken told reporters yesterday as he left Jordan after talks with King Abdullah.

“I think to succeed and to emerge from the past dominated by Assad, any transitional government has to adhere to certain basic principles. It should be inclusive, non-sectarian. It’s got to uphold and protect the rights of all Syrians, including minorities, including women. It has to make sure that it’s preserving institutions of the state, delivering services,” Blinken said. “We have to make sure that any interim government also makes sure that Syria is not used as a base for terrorism, extremism, and pose a threat to its neighbors or ally with groups like ISIS. It needs to also ensure that any chemical weapons are secured and destroyed.”

RUTTE: ‘DANGER IS MOVING TOWARDS US AT FULL SPEED’: In his first major address since taking over as NATO’s Secretary-General, Mark Rutte delivered an impassioned plea for NATO allies to spend more on defense and issued a call to arms, warning that war could soon come to Europe. “We should be profoundly concerned,” he said. “I know I am.” 

“From Brussels, it takes one day to drive to Ukraine. One day — That’s how close the Russian bombs are falling. It’s how close the Iranian drones are flying. And not very much further, the North Korean soldiers are fighting,” Rutte said. “How many more wake-up calls do we need?”

“This all points in one clear direction: Russia is preparing for long-term confrontation, with Ukraine, and with us.”

The speech was titled “To Prevent War, NATO Must Spend More,” and Rutte hammered the need for NATO’s 32 members to significantly up their game to prepare for what’s coming. “There is no imminent military threat,” he said. “It’s tomorrow I’m worried about. We are not ready for what is coming our way in four to five years … It is time to shift to a wartime mindset. And turbo-charge our defence production and defence spending.”

And it’s not just Russia he’s worried about. “China is substantially building up its forces, including its nuclear weapons – with no transparency and no limitations. From 200 warheads in 2020, China is expected to have more than 1,000 nuclear weapons by 2030,” he said. “China is bullying Taiwan, and pursuing access to our critical infrastructure in ways that could cripple our societies.”

“We need to be clear-eyed about China’s ambitions.”

TRUMP TO INHERIT A PENTAGON BUDGET REPUBLICANS WORRY IS NOT UP TO THE TASK OF DETERRING CHINA

DRONE SIGHTINGS GET CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER: Every day, the number of unexplained drone sightings is increasing, and the mystery about their origin and intent grows more puzzling. Drones that appear to be bright orbs or seemingly morph into the shape of aircraft are being reported and recorded on video not just in the northeast, but as far south as Plantation, Florida.

Meanwhile, the White House says there’s nothing to see here. “Using very sophisticated electronic detection technologies provided by federal authorities, we have not been able to — and neither have state or local law enforcement authorities — corroborate any of the reported visual sightings,” John Kirby, national security communications adviser, insisted at yesterday’s White House briefing. “To the contrary, upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully.”

“We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat, or have a foreign nexus,” he said.

The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI put out a joint statement yesterday saying that they “take seriously the threat that can be posed by unmanned aircraft systems” and that they are supporting law enforcement and other agencies as they continue to investigate the reports. “To be clear, they have uncovered no such malicious activity or intent at this stage.”

There’s been so many sightings reported that I’m sure some of them are manned aircraft,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) said on CNN. “But based on the videos that I’ve been sent and obviously the ones you’ve probably seen and the calls I’ve received from some of the families I represent … there are definitely a lot of drones out there.”

“I’m not concerned about any imminent threat to public safety,” Gottheimer said. “But you know, as you just saw with the video that was played, people are really concerned about what they’re seeing.”

“I think it’s time that these federal agencies that are responsible for this come clean and say what they know to the public,” he added. “The public has a right to know what all these drones are.”

THE RUNDOWN:

Washington Examiner: Chinese citizen arrested for flying drone and taking photos of military base in California

Washington Examiner: White House acknowledges three Chinese nationals granted clemency in hostage exchange deal

Washington Examiner: Trump ‘vehemently’ disagrees with Biden allowing Ukrainian strikes deep in Russian territory

Washington Examiner: American freed from Damascus prison says he’s a Christian pilgrim missing for months

Washington Examiner: Trump invites China’s Xi Jinping to inauguration

AP: Xi is likely to decline Trump’s inauguration invitation, seeing it as too risky to attend

AP: What Americans think about Hegseth, Gabbard and key Trump Cabinet picks: AP-NORC poll

New York Times: Russian Troops Advance to Within 3 Miles of Key Ukrainian Transit Hub

Wall Street Journal: Hamas Concedes on Israeli Troops in Gaza, Raising Hopes for Hostage Deal

Bloomberg: Trump’s 2020 Bid to Speed Pentagon Buying Didn’t Take, GAO Says

AP: Military Service Academies See Drop in Reported Sexual Assaults After Alarming Surge

AP: Elon Musk wants to turn SpaceX’s Starbase site into a Texas city

Air & Space Forces Magazine: Space Force Is Testing AI to Automate Ops—and Eyeing More 

Defense One: Air Force Leveraging AI Flight Experiments to Inform Future Testing Efforts

Air & Space Forces Magazine: Replicator ‘on Track’ to Field Thousands of Cheap Drones Within Months

The War Zone: Army’s Dark Eagle Hypersonic Missile Finally Blasts out of Its Launcher

Breaking Defense: Inside the Test Aircraft for GCAP, the UK’s Next-Gen Fighter

Air & Space Forces Magazine: From Europe to Pacific, Space Commanders Want More Commercial Data 

Defense One: Navy F-35s Can’t Play Well with Others, so the Service Is Betting Big on Sims

Air & Space Forces Magazine: Spectrum Warfare Wing Boss on the Hunt for Tools to Reprogram F-35 and Others Faster

DefenseScoop: Air Force Leveraging AI Flight Experiments to Inform Future Testing Efforts

Defense News: New Antennas for the Satellite Control Network Are Coming Next Year

SpaceNews: Space Force to Test Modular Satellite Technology in Upcoming Mission

Breaking Defense: SPACECOM and Space Force Working to Define ‘Triggers’ for Commercial Reserve Call Up

Air & Space Forces Magazine: KC-135 Crews Get Distinguished Flying Cross for Helping Fend Off Iranian Drones

Aviation Week: US Air Force Stands Up MH-139 Training Unit

The Hill: Opinion: Why Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ won’t work on Iran this time 

The Cipher Brief: Top U.S. Cybersecurity Official: China Attacks on American Infrastructure ‘Tip of the Iceberg’

The Cipher Brief: An Exclusive Chat with Cyber Legend Dan Geer

THE CALENDAR: 

FRIDAY | DECEMBER 13 

8 a.m.2800 South Potomac Ave., Arlington, Va. — Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association 2024 Air Force IT Day, with Venice Goodwine, CIO of the Department of the Air Force; and Maj. Gen. Jeth Rey, director of network C4 services and integration at the Army https://afceanova.swoogo.com/AirForceITDay2024

9 a.m. The National Mall — Events DC “Patriot Games” event, a competition between Army Cadets and Navy Midshipmen with the winner receiving a trophy to be presented on the field during Saturday’s Army-Navy Game https://eventsdc.com/americas-game

2 p.m. — Defense Priorities virtual discussion: “Trump and Ukraine: Prolonging or ending the war,” with Dara Massicot, senior fellow, Russia and Eurasia Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Jennifer Kavanagh, senior fellow and director of military analysis, Defense Priorities; and Max Bergmann, director, Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies https://www.defensepriorities.org/events/trump-and-ukraine-prolonging-or-ending-the-war