Peter Wehner: “The defense secretary appears unable to approach matters of of life and death with even the slightest bit of reverence or humility.”

“I guess.”

— President Trump, when asked by Time if Americans should be concerned about attacks at home as the Iran war continues.

“The Trump administration plans to meet with executives from the biggest U.S. defense contractors at the White House on Friday to discuss ‌accelerating weapons production, as the Pentagon works to replenish supplies after strikes on Iran and several other recent military efforts,” Reuters reports.

President Trump told CNN that the U.S. military is “knocking the crap” out of Iran – but the “big wave” is yet to come.

Said Trump: “We’re knocking the crap out of them. I think it’s going very well. It’s very powerful. We’ve got the greatest military in the world and we’re using it.”

He added: “We haven’t even started hitting them hard. The big wave hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon.” 

“Vice President JD Vance has been left out in the cold by Donald Trump as the United States wages war on Iran,” the Daily Beast reports.

“Vance has made no secret of his skepticism over America’s involvement in foreign wars, and sources say the split has affected his relationship with the president. As everyone else in Trump’s inner circle took on key assignments for the unauthorized strike on Iran, Vance was notably absent.”

Roughly half of Americans say they’re at least very concerned about Iran’s nuclear program, a new AP poll finds.

But 56% have little to no faith in President Trump’s judgment on using force abroad.

“The Trump administration told Congress it won’t share with lawmakers the classified intelligence that led to a whistleblower complaint against U.S. spy chief Tulsi Gabbard, citing presidential claims of executive privilege,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The Department of Homeland Security will temporarily suspend two popular programs that allow some travelers to move more quickly through airport security starting Sunday at 6 a.m. Eastern due to the shutdown of much of the agency, according to a DHS spokesperson,” the Washington Post reports.

“The department is pausing its TSA PreCheck and Global Entry programs — one of several emergency measures the agency said it is taking to redirect staffing more than a week after Congress failed to send more money to the agency. DHS Secretary Kristi L. Noem said in a statement that the agency is ‘making tough but necessary workforce and resource decisions’ and prioritizing the ‘general traveling population’ at airports and ports of entry.”

Washington Post: “Trump administration officials have struggled to figure out how to increase U.S. military spending by a whopping $500 billion in their forthcoming budget, slowing the overall White House spending plan, four people familiar with the matter said.”

“President Donald Trump last month agreed to a roughly 50 percent funding boost sought by Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, in the White House’s annual budget proposal.”

“Since Trump agreed to the higher number, White House aides and defense officials have run into logistical challenges surrounding where to put the money, because the amount is so large, the people said. The White House is more than two weeks behind its statutory deadline to send its budget proposal to Congress, in part because it is unclear how precisely to spend the additional $500 billion, according to the people familiar with the matter.”

“New Secret Service protective detail agents are about to get a wardrobe upgrade, courtesy of taxpayers,” CNN reports.

“The Secret Service will soon offer each agent who graduates from protective detail training two tailored suits, according to sources familiar with the matter and a public contract solicitation. The initiative to have the Secret Service purchase suits happened because Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem disliked how a protective detail was dressed in the suits they bought for themselves, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.”

“DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin denied that account, telling CNN, ‘This does not have to do with optics” but aims to fix inequities for the “men and woman who are just starting their career.’”

Associated Press: “The series of strikes conducted Monday brought the death toll to at least 145 people since the administration began targeting those it calls ‘narcoterrorists’ in small vessels since early September.”

“Like most of the military’s statements on the 42 known strikes, U.S. Southern Command said it targeted alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. It said two vessels carrying four people each were struck in the eastern Pacific Ocean, while a third boat with three people was hit in the Caribbean Sea.”

“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has forced the ouster of a senior military adviser to Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, defense officials said, marking the Pentagon chief’s latest intervention into the service’s internal affairs amid long-simmering tension between two of the Trump administration’s top political appointees,” the Washington Post reports.

President Trump boasted again about a secret U.S. “discombobulator” weapon that can block Russian and Chinese defense systems, as he met the elite troops who captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, the South China Morning Post reports.

Said Trump: “They even talk about the discombobulator, because they never got a shot off.”

He added: “The Russian equipment didn’t work. The Chinese equipment didn’t work. Everyone’s trying to figure out why it didn’t work. Someday you’re going to find out, but it didn’t work.”

“The congressional delegation to Europe’s biggest annual security summit had been expected to be the largest ever this year, with around 50 lawmakers planning to travel to Munich to reassure allies that the United States could still be counted on as a reliable security and trade partner,” the New York Times reports.

“But amid a funding battle that is expected to shutter the Department of Homeland Security this weekend, Speaker Mike Johnson abruptly canceled the official delegation of dozens of House members to the Munich Security Conference, which begins on Friday.”

“It was a discussion last year between two foreign nationals about Iran, not an unusual topic for American spies to study,” the New York Times reports.

“But an intercept of that communication, collected by a foreign spy service and given to the United States, has now become a flashpoint within the intelligence community and between the administration and Congress.”

“The reason is a single name that came up in the discussion: Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law.”

Wall Street Journal: “It couldn’t be determined which country the foreign nationals are from or what they discussed about Kushner. But the connection to Kushner sheds further light on the top-secret whistleblower complaint that bureaucratically stalled within Gabbard’s agency for eight months and was kept locked in a safe until it reached Congress in heavily redacted form last week.”