President Trump has ordered the Pentagon to substantially scale back the annual joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea. The announcement came only hours before the 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise was scheduled to begin, leaving military officials with the unenviable task of adjusting a major operation after the troops had already…
Who Controls the Strait of Hormuz?
President Trump has taken the contest over the Strait of Hormuz beyond blockades, shipping lanes, and naval power. Speaking in Garden City, New York, he declared that once the United States finished defeating Iran, he would “pretty soon” designate the strait as American territory. He reinforced the point by noting that the United States controls…
Steam or Electromagnetism? The Navy’s Carrier-Catapult Debate
President Trump has ordered the Pentagon to prepare a plan for replacing the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, better known as EMALS, with traditional steam catapults aboard the future USS Doris Miller. The same directive calls for replacing the carrier’s electromagnetic weapons elevators with hydraulic systems. Despite some of the broader headlines, Trump hasn’t ordered sailors…
Hoekstra & the Strains in U.S.–Canada Relations
The diplomatic temperature between the United States and Canada was already running warm before a growing number of Canadians decided that Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador in Ottawa, should be shown the door. An official House of Commons petition, opened July 21 and sponsored by Green Party MP Elizabeth May, has collected more than 105,000…
Reconsidering America’s Childhood Vaccine Recommendations
Childhood vaccines have somehow become one more subject that Americans are expected to discuss while wearing political jerseys. Question the government too aggressively, and one side calls you an anti-science crank. Defend established vaccines too confidently, and the other side assumes you receive handwritten Christmas cards from pharmaceutical executives. Such is the calm, reasonable state…
Trump’s Iran Warning and the Fight Over the Strait of Hormuz
President Trump has issued Iran a blunt warning: Every time Iranian forces attack a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, the United States will destroy an Iranian bridge or power plant, including potentially those in or near Tehran. The threat comes amid renewed American airstrikes, continued Iranian attacks on commercial shipping, and the collapse of…
Trump’s New Canada Tariffs and the Debate Over Fair Trade
The latest chapter in the increasingly tense U.S.-Canada relationship involves trade barriers, dairy quotas, provincial liquor bans, automobile policy, and, hovering strangely in the background, wildfire smoke. President Trump has signed three proclamations imposing additional 50 percent tariffs on a range of Canadian imports beginning August 19. The duties will affect nearly $20 billion in…
Trump’s Election Commission Shake-Up
President Trump’s decision to remove the remaining leadership of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission has opened yet another front in the seemingly endless battle over how American elections should be administered and who should be trusted to administer them. Trump fired Democratic commissioners Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland, while Republican commissioner Christy McCormick resigned after…
A Housing Bill, an Election Bill, and a Missing Signature
President Trump has declined to sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act because the Senate failed to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility—or SAVE America—Act. Trump is allowing the housing legislation to become law without his signature. Under the Constitution, a bill automatically becomes law when the president neither signs nor vetoes it within…
Trump, Ukraine, and the Delayed Drone Deal
The Trump administration’s hesitation over a major drone deal with Ukraine comes down to a simple question: Is America willing to learn from the country currently fighting the most drone-intensive war on earth? Ukraine wants a broad framework deal that would combine its hard-earned battlefield drone experience with American technology, money, manufacturing capacity, and artificial…
