RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2025/03/the-president-can-act-unilaterally-to-defend-america-abroad/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_

The Trump administration’s actions against the Houthis are legally grounded in the U.S. Constitution and fully permissible under international law.

While President Trump has made many legally controversial decisions during his first two months as president, his recent decision to order large-scale attacks on Houthi forces in Yemen is not one of them. To be sure, critics such as former congressman Justin Amash have argued that this attack requires prior congressional approval, and Iran has already called it a violation of the U.N. Charter. But most of Trump’s opponents are focusing their attacks elsewhere.

While Trump might be tempted therefore to simply ignore those critics, the Yemen crisis is a golden opportunity for his administration to advance and strengthen an important precedent in U.S. constitutional and international law that fits comfortably with his America First agenda. Where a foreign state is unwilling or unable to take appropriate action to stop attacks on U.S. maritime commerce, the president of the United States has the authority to attack that state, or the bad actors in that state, in retaliation for their attacks and to destroy their ability to conduct future attacks. It is not impossible that President Trump will soon face similar threats to U.S. maritime commerce in other strategic waterways such as the Persian Gulf or the Taiwan Strait, so it is crucial for the Trump administration to explain why its actions are legally grounded in the U.S. Constitution and fully permissible under international law in case it needs to take similar action to defend U.S maritime commerce in those, or other, crucial waterways.

First, even the strongest defenders of congressional supremacy in war powers have long endorsed the president’s inherent authority to use force to defend America abroad, whether or not Congress has authorized it. At the Constitutional Convention, James Madison’s notes indicated that the president should have the power to “repel sudden attacks.” This defensive power has evolved over the centuries to embrace repelling attacks on Americans, and Americans’ maritime commerce, outside the U.S. as well.

https://amgreatness.com/2025/03/21/how-president-trump-can-deploy-a-missile-defense-shield-to-defend-america-in-only-three-years/

During President Trump’s address to Congress last month, he announced a crucial new initiative to defend the U.S. homeland—the Golden Dome, a next-generation missile defense shield to be “all made in the USA.”

Trump noted that President Reagan had wanted to build such a system, but the technology was not yet available. He said that we now have the technology. Israel has such a system, and the United States should have one too.

President Trump signed an executive order on January 27 stating that the threat of attack by ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles and other advanced aerial attacks is “the most catastrophic threat facing the United States.” The executive order directed the Secretary of Defense to prepare a plan within 60 days to develop a next-generation missile defense shield to defend our country from this threat.

The reaction to Trump’s call to develop a Golden Dome missile shield has been positive but cautious. Gen. Michael Guetlein, vice chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force, said this project “will require a whole-of-government effort on par with the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb.” Other U.S. military officials raised concerns about legal, technical, and cultural hurdles, as well as the need to develop new and novel technologies.

Even with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency’s government reform efforts, it is hard to see how U.S. defense firms can deploy a Golden Dome missile shield in less than 10 years. Deploying a Golden Dome before President Trump leaves office is probably impossible.

However, there is a way that President Trump can defend our nation against missile attacks now and in the future. He can immediately start deploying Israel’s highly successful Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 missile interceptor systems and implement a longer-term project to build a next-generation Golden Dome missile defense system for the next decade.

The Arrow system is one of the most sophisticated air defense systems in the world. It is designed to intercept medium- and long-range missiles. The Arrow system employs an advanced radar system that detects incoming projectiles and destroys them with hypersonic interceptors.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/there-are-no-lone-wolves-ayaan-hirsi-ali-dismantles-the-new-popular-narrative-on-islamic-terrorism/

Author and public intellectual Ayaan Hirsi Ali is warning about the threat that Islamist activist organizations pose to the U.S. and the broader Western world.

Speaking at National Review Institute’s Ideas Summit on Thursday, Ali pushed back on the popular “lone wolf” narrative used to explain recent acts of Islamist terror, like that perpetrated on Bourbon Street in New Orleans earlier this year, arguing instead that terrorism is one tactic used by a global Islamist network that is pursuing a broader, unrecognized strategy.

That network, Ali argued, advances its goals by infiltrating American institutions and spreading its propaganda through ostensibly nonviolent Islamist activist organizations, which provide cover for violent terrorists.

“There are no lone wolves,” Ali declared.

“So now you have the nonviolent Islamization process that is overseen by groups like the Muslim Brotherhood that is international and universalist in its approach. And then you have the military offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood like ISIS and al-Qaeda and Hamas engaging in this strategic violence,” she explained.

“That’s a well-thought-through strategy that fits very well into one another, and we underestimate it because we talk about ‘lone wolves.’ We try to chase terrorism across the world. We allow them to establish this great infrastructure for Islamizing, for creating that pipeline through nonviolent means in America and in Europe. We are stupid and they are smart.”

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/03/10/kim-jong-un-tests-trump-with-ballistic-missile-launch-n4937772

U.S. and South Korea began their first major joint military exercise of President Donald Trump’s second term on Monday, and soon after North Korea launched multiple ballistic missiles into the sea.

According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the missiles were fired from the North’s southwestern Hwanghae Province and were classified as close-range. In response, South Korea’s military has heightened its surveillance and is working closely with U.S. forces to monitor the situation.

“We are aware of the DPRK’s multiple ballistic missile launches and are consulting closely with the Republic of Korea and Japan, as well as other regional allies and partners. The United States condemns these actions and calls on the DPRK to refrain from further unlawful and destabilizing acts,” the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement. “While we have assessed that this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel, or territory, or to our allies, we continue to monitor the situation. The U.S. commitments to the defense of the ROK and Japan remain ironclad.”

Fox News Digital has more:

The launches come after South Korean and U.S. forces began their annual Freedom Shield exercise Monday.

“Freedom Shield is an 11-day exercise conducted by the Republic of Korea and the United States consisting of training to reflect the Korea Theater of Operations – a combined, joint, multi-domain, and interagency operating environment,” according to the U.S. Army.

“Field training events throughout FS25 include urban combat operations, field hospital operations, mass casualty treatment and evacuation, field artillery exercises, air assault training, wet gap crossing, air defense artillery asset deployment and validation, and a joint assault exercise with the U.S. Marine Corps,” the Army added.

However, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry is calling the exercises an “aggressive and confrontational war rehearsal.”

https://amgreatness.com/2025/03/09/build-build-build-trumps-strategy-to-make-america-a-maritime-nation-once-again/

On Saturday, July 13, 2024, at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, President Trump arose from being shot at by an assassin’s bullets with his right fist raised high in the air, exhorting the crowd and all of America to “fight, fight, fight.” That iconic image, which has been burned across the minds of all Americans, if not the world, was a prelude to another image that should be equally memorialized, which was his announcement during his address to the joint session of Congress on March 4 of the creation of the Office of Shipbuilding. In many ways this announcement hearkens back to Butler, but this time the refrain is “build, build, build”—build our Navy and shipbuilding industry—Make America a Maritime Nation once again.

The President’s announcement of the creation of the Office of Shipbuilding is a visible reflection of the existential threat that the PRC’s 30-year naval and maritime modernization program represents to America’s national security. Since the 1995-96 Taiwan Strait Crisis, where the U.S. dispatched U.S. Navy aircraft carriers to the Taiwan Strait, the Chinese Communist Party has been executing a maritime modernization program that has transformed the PLA Navy from a coastal defense force into the largest navy on the planet.

This transformation, and change in the balance of power, was empowered by the PRC’s dramatic investment in China’s shipbuilding industry. Reports from the Office of Naval Intelligence reveal that the PRC’s shipbuilding capacity is more than 200 times that of the U.S. President Trump’s announcement of this new Office of Shipbuilding, to be housed within the White House, is a much-needed solution to the past three decades of dereliction of duty to this critical national security industry.

The fact that this office will be housed within the White House is a testament to the importance, and attention to detail, that the President has given to this national security issue. While historical comparisons are never fully complete, this announcement takes on the same importance as the “Two Ocean Navy Act” that was led by Senator Carl Vinson in 1940, which provided the requisite preparations for the U.S. Navy to be equipped to fight and defeat the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War Two after the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Not only does this action provide critical support to America’s national defense, but it also provides Americans a new sector for new jobs. This truly is a “win-win” announcement.

Further proof of the President’s commitment to Making America a Maritime Nation came on 27 February during Secretary of the Navy nominee John Phelan’s testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Notably, Mr. Phelan stated, “If confirmed, my focus will be on three priorities: the health, welfare, and training of sailors and marines; strengthening naval capabilities, particularly shipbuilding in the defense industrial base; and fostering an adaptive, accountable, and innovative warfighter culture.”

https://amgreatness.com/2025/03/05/as-ukraine-distracts-china-advances-in-our-own-hemisphere/

With Ukraine as America’s primary foreign distraction, Communist China makes quiet inroads under our southern border.

China is ready to assume indirect leadership of the Organization of American States (OAS), the 34-nation regional entity that the United States created to promote peace, stability, and security in the Americas.

Without the Trump Administration’s quick action, the OAS is poised to elect a Chinese proxy on March 10 to run the organization.

That proxy is Albert Ramdin, the foreign minister of Suriname. Ramdin has gathered the 18 votes necessary to become the next OAS secretary general.

China’s Belt and Road bought influence south of our border

For decades, taking advantage of American neglect, China has slowly made a long march through the Caribbean. OAS was a soft target.

China extended its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to the hemisphere. BRI involves trillions of dollars in logistical infrastructure and development, with other tools to build its own hegemony to displace the U.S.

Almost two-thirds of OAS members have signed on to BRI.

China aims to dominate or replace the institutions that the U.S. created. The OAS was designed after World War II to help the region resist communist expansion by eradicating extreme poverty, fostering economic, social, and cultural development, and devising common defense and security actions.

In the first days after taking office again, President Trump effectively stopped China’s Belt-and-Road expansion at its most strategic chokepoint—the Panama Canal. That sudden clamp suggests more action once Trump’s Western Hemisphere team is in place.

The OAS still holds value for any country seeking to use it. It helped standardize and streamline counterterrorism, counternarcotics, and anti-human trafficking policies to comport with those of the U.S.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/shipbuilding-shipbuilding-shipbuilding-getting-the-navys-priorities-right/

I was very happy to see secretary of the Navy nominee John Phelan tell the Senate in his confirmation hearing that President Trump’s guidance to him is “shipbuilding, shipbuilding, shipbuilding.”

In a similar vein, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth tweeted this week, “It is urgent that the Trump Administration build up the Navy.”

I couldn’t agree more. If the goal is to deter Communist Chinese aggression in the east, there’s no matter more urgent than strengthening and, yes, growing the U.S. Navy as fast as possible.

We need to build more ships, we need to stop retiring older ships, and we need to look at bringing some mothballed hulls back into the fleet.

I commend to everyone Jerry Hendrix and Brent Sadler’s essay in National Review magazine on this very subject, “Restoring Our Maritime Strength,” which lays out a detailed First Hundred Days blueprint for getting the Navy back on track. The two retired Navy captains know of what they speak, and I endorse their thinking to all those interested in rebuilding America’s naval power.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/12/china-mystery-nuclear-battery-submarine-taiwan-war-us-navy/

China’s new nuclear-battery attack submarine – a unique hybrid boat running on batteries like a conventional sub but which recharges them using a tiny nuclear reactor – could be the ultimate near-shore defence sub, and a big problem for US and allied forces in the western Pacific.

The submarine first appeared in commercial satellite imagery of the Wuchang shipyard in Wuhan, China back in April. Five months later, the Type 041 boat reportedly suffered an accident at its moorings – and apparently sank. 

While observers wait for signs Wuchang is repairing that first Type 041 or building new examples of the class, analysts are scrutinising its potential capabilities. Most notably the type seems to have a unique propulsion system – one that sidesteps longstanding engineering challenges in order to deliver a quiet attack submarine for near-shore operations, one that can stay submerged for long periods of time in order to preserve its stealth. The Type 041 is reportedly the first submarine with a tiny nuclear reactor that, while too small to power the entire boat, is big enough to charge the batteries for submerged operations. 

This is a novel approach to the problem of powering a mostly or entirely non-nuclear submarine while it’s underwater. Conventional diesel-electric submarines recharge their batteries using old-fashioned diesel engines. For that, they have to surface or at the least put up a “snort” air intake mast at periscope depth – potentially exposing them to detection and attack. The main alternative is to use nuclear power for propulsion, which produces a very capable boat but is very expensive.

Some navies mitigate this vulnerability by installing so-called “air-independent propulsion” systems in their smaller submarines. There are many different types of AIP. Some burn liquid oxygen. Others draw power from fuel cells. The Japanese navy builds attack submarines powered by lithium ion batteries, which can hold much more energy than normal batteries but are regarded as too dangerous to use in subs by most designers.

All AIP systems are complex, delicate and – when badly made – dangerous. 

https://www.thefp.com/p/dei-military-pete-hegseth-trump

A Free Press investigation reveals the extraordinary extent to which our armed forces put diversity over readiness. Pete Hegseth tells us that’s about to change.

Retired Air Force Brigadier General Christopher Walker, 59, spent almost two years as a senior adviser to the Air Force’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the Pentagon, attending dozens of meetings about implementing DEI initiatives. This was an unusual role given Walker’s career path: He had over 400 hours of combat flights and, most recently, had overseen West Virginia’s Air National Guard.

But in 2021, when the Air Force established its Office of Diversity and Inclusion, staffers assumed that Walker would be on board with their belief that DEI was a “warfighting imperative.” Why? Because Walker is black. But that assumption was wrong.

Walker was a mole.

Alarmed by DEI programs that were little more, in his view, than “Soviet indoctrination,” he leaked information to an organization called Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services (STARRS). This group consists of retired military veterans and civilians who oppose woke ideology in the military. They, in turn, alerted lawmakers like Sen. Tom Cotton and Rep. Mike Waltz about what they were hearing from Walker and other active duty service members who opposed the military’s diversity policies.

“No one delved into how I thought,” Walker told The Free Press. “They took one look at me and assumed I believed these things. I learned to listen and had to bite my tongue a lot.”

Walker, who prefers to go by his pilot call sign, Mookie, took notes and mostly kept his head down, so he could keep reporting what was going on. “I thought, If this is allowed to stand, all of the senior people within the [Department of Defense] are going to bring along this propaganda and get rid of anybody who doesn’t go along with it.”

Mookie recalled a private meeting in 2022 attended by generals and other key Pentagon staffers. At the meeting, Alex Wagner, the Air Force assistant secretary, asked the group to brainstorm ways to get the general public to accept drag shows on Air Force bases.

Close to retirement and with nothing to lose, Mookie finally spoke up. “I reminded the group that since the 1980s, the Air Force has not allowed lingerie shows,” he said. “They don’t allow burlesque shows. So why would we allow drag shows?”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21364/communist-china-sputnik

This is no time for complacency. Communist China’s DeepSeek, a breakthrough in inexpensive AI computing that rocked US tech markets this week (tech investor Marc Andreesen called it a “Sputnik moment”) is really a wake-up to the Trump administration. Call to form a Manhattan Project as soon as possible – this week! – to ensure that America stays competitive in what is sure to be the next breakthrough – which China is already developing: unlimited amounts of totally clean energy produced by nuclear fusion in donut-shaped reactors called tokamaks.

US tech markets suffered a severe shock this week, when Communist China unveiled DeepSeek, an AI program founded in 2023 by Chinese hedge fund manager Liang Wenfeng that can sort through masses of some material effectively as well as comparable US programs, but for less money and with less-sophisticated computer chips. DeepSeek professes ignorance about Tiananmen Square — “Let’s talk about something else,” it emits –but is skilled at extrapolating whatever it has been fed. Financial analyst Matt Levine notes:

“[T]here is a sort of general skill like ‘program a computer to take a huge pile of analogous data and predict the most likely next _______,’ where the blank can be filled in with ‘word in the sentence’ or ‘stock that will go up….’ now everyone has a computer that can pick stocks, while there is infinity money in building a computer that can talk. So now the people who got good at building computers that can pick stocks are pivoting to processing natural language.”

The newest frontier appears to be a country’s ability — through government or through government-private partnerships — to produce unlimited amounts of totally clean energy by nuclear fusion in donut-shaped reactors called tokamaks. China’s “artificial sun” is already well on its way to developing unimaginable amounts of nuclear fusion energy that is clean, cheap and endless:

“China’s EAST reactor set a new record by sustaining a plasma loop for 1,066 seconds at temperatures over 180 million degrees Fahrenheit, marking a significant advancement in nuclear fusion research and potential energy production.”