Adam Smith Asks Trump Official 'How Much Damage' Trade War Has Inflicted On Relations With Allies

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During a House Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) spoke about President Trump's tariffs.

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00:00For that, I yield to the ranking member for his questions.

00:03Sort of building on that last question, Admiral Paparo and General Brunson,

00:07as I mentioned in my opening statement,

00:09what capabilities, just focusing for the moment on what the U.S. could do,

00:14do you most need, do you think would have the most deterrent effect?

00:19I know, obviously, everyone wants more ships, more planes, more everything,

00:22but if you could narrow it down to here are some of the most crucial things

00:26that could help you, just focusing on U.S. needs to deter.

00:31Both of you could give us an answer on that.

00:34Rankin, member, the most critical need to focus on is our counter C5ISR&T capability,

00:39which gives us freedom to maneuver, freedom to operate at lower risk

00:43throughout the area of responsibility.

00:46Secure communications, basically.

00:48The ability to dazzle, deceive, destroy the adversary's ability to see and sense,

00:54and then hardening our own ability to give a high-fidelity common operating picture

01:00to units to unlock their ability to operate tactically.

01:03Yeah.

01:04Any piece of that in particular where you see the greatest need right now,

01:08understanding that I'll ask you this in the classified session as well

01:11and get into more detail.

01:13Posture hearings are different this year.

01:14We haven't got the budget yet, so it's a little weird.

01:16But as we lead up to the budget, hopefully we'll come in about a month,

01:21what would be most important to be in there to meet that need?

01:24Leveraging the United States' ability, having 90% of the spacelift in the world

01:30to bring counter space capability, and then to continue to enhance our cyber capability,

01:37and many others in the form of long-range weapons,

01:40in the form of unmanned and AI systems that affect air denial and sea denial

01:46in enclosed places, such as the Taiwan Strait, augment these.

01:50Yeah.

01:50I'm just going to ask this.

01:53So General Hawk got fired.

01:54He's the head of NSA cyber.

01:56How has that impacted your ability to work with NSA and cyber

01:59on those very critical issues that you just outlined?

02:02I say we're ready to work with whatever competent individual is in place,

02:08and we'll continue to try to enhance that ability.

02:11Did you think General Hawk was a competent individual who you could work with?

02:15Yes.

02:17General Brunson, on the first question about capabilities,

02:20what would you most need in your command?

02:23Sir, as I had the opportunity to mention yesterday in the Hack D closed session,

02:29all my requests are inhabited within the IPL of Indopaycom.

02:34I would tell you that as I look at the more ephemeral domains of cyber, EW, and space,

02:39I'm looking to be engaged in a more fulsome manner.

02:43And I think that that's where we can talk in closed about some of those particular capabilities

02:48that we need to bring to bear on the peninsula.

02:51But to an earlier question that you mentioned, ranking member,

02:56I'd like to say that if we were trying to project strength,

02:59one of the things that we're continuing to work on right now is the assailable flank

03:03that is United Nations Command.

03:07There are 18 total nations there, and so I see the KTO as being a bit wider,

03:11and being able to leverage those other nations in the Republic of Korea and beyond

03:16is a way for us to continue to sort of underpin the things that we're doing on the peninsula with legitimacy.

03:23I'm running out.

03:24That's really important.

03:25I want to get to that, but I want to ask Mr. Note those questions.

03:28So as I mentioned in my opening statement, we are alienating every single partner in the region,

03:31and you made the statement, you know, America first doesn't mean America alone.

03:36I'm puzzled.

03:37What are we doing to enhance relationships?

03:40I think we've all seen on display what we're doing to sort of make those relationships more problematic.

03:45But what is the administration doing to try to strengthen partnerships

03:49when they're launching a trade war against all of our partners?

03:54Ranking member Smith, so as you know, Secretary Hex says,

03:58just came back from his first trip to the Indo-Pacific, where he visited both the Philippines and Japan.

04:04He had a chance to reaffirm our commitment to those important alliances with—

04:09What is that commitment?

04:11I mean, we could all go on vacation to Japan and say how much we love the country.

04:15But what is that commitment?

04:17Because there doesn't seem to be any commitment other than threats and bullying.

04:20It's reaffirming our commitment—our treaty obligations to both the Philippines and Japan.

04:27He announced a number of things that the department is currently doing to work with both the Philippines and Japan

04:33to accelerate and strengthen our relationships in the Philippines, for example.

04:38He made an announcement about bilateral soft—I'm sorry, special operations forces training that we're conducting.

04:45Just one last question.

04:46How much damage do you think the trade war that has just been launched does to all of what you just said?

04:53Ranking member Smith, in all the engagements and the personal engagements I've had,

04:57in all the engagements that I've seen the Secretary has had,

05:02our relationships with our allies and partners in the region are strong and remain strong.

05:07It's—this only started a couple days ago, so we'll see where it goes.

05:11I yield back.

05:12Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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