Trump team to weigh national security picks

NEWS AND ANALYSIS:

President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in Tuesday’s presidential contest sets in motion the selection of key officials for a forthcoming administration through a transition team headed by some of his family and key supporters, including selections for a number of key senior national security positions.

Among those doing the vetting will be Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.

The official transition team co-chairs are billionaire businessman Howard Lutnick, chief executive officer of the financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald, and Linda McMahon, former administrator of the Small Business Administration under Mr. Trump and a former sports entertainment executive.

The selections are expected to be conducted in secret through a process that involves vetting potential nominees to make sure they are competent and devoid of skeletons in their closets.

The process is also expected to set in motion fierce jockeying by potential candidates vying for high-level positions.

Ms. McMahon and Mr. Lutnick said in a joint statement Wednesday that the transition team is preparing for the next administration.

“In the days and weeks ahead, President Trump will be selecting personnel to serve our nation under his leadership and enact policies that make the life of Americans affordable, safe, and secure,” they said.

Mr. Trump made several key choices as president that ended badly, including oil executive Rex Tillerson as secretary of state; Mr. Tillerson would end up being fired by the president in a tweet. His former chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, made a series of damaging claims against Mr. Trump that were not backed up by other officials.

For the plum posts of secretary of state and secretary of defense in the next administration, Mr. Trump is said by people close to his campaign to be considering former administration loyalists.

Robert O’Brien, Mr. Trump’s last national security adviser, is said to be a favorite for the State Department post, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is among those who could be picked for the key post of defense secretary.

Mr. Pompeo, a West Point graduate, told Fox News he would be “honored to serve” in a second Trump administration.

Sen. Tom Cotton, an Army Ranger combat veteran, is also said to be on the short list for defense secretary, and Ric Grenell, former acting director of national intelligence, is also among the candidates for secretary of state.

Mr. Trump has said his “America First” foreign and defense policies will be aimed at ending the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East while deterring China from attacking Taiwan. The former president has said he can end the war in Ukraine before he is inaugurated in January.

Mr. Trump, a former real estate mogul, placed a heavy emphasis on economic and trade policies in his first administration.

Key policy positions outlined by his presidential campaign included increasing trade tariffs on China and rebuilding the U.S. military.

According to people close to the Trump team, Mr. Cotton initially sought the State Department post but is now said to be seeking another Cabinet post. Sen. Bill Hagerty, Tennessee Republican, is said to be seeking the Secretary of State position.

Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe is another candidate for defense secretary.

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg is a leading choice for White House national security adviser. Rep. Michael Waltz, Florida Republican, is seeking a national-security post and is said to be favored by Mr. Trump.

China congratulates Trump

The Chinese government has issued a formal note of congratulations to former President Donald Trump on his election to a second term on Tuesday.

“We respect the choice of the American people and congratulate Mr. Trump on being elected as president of the United States,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said through the state news agency Xinhua. Earlier, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said China’s policy toward the United States will be “consistent.”

“We will continue to view and handle our bilateral relations under the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation,” Ms. Mao told reporters.

Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly called Mr. Trump personally on Wednesday to congratulate him.

Chinese state media, however, continued policies critical of the United States and called for the president-elect to stop trying to pressure  Beijing. The Chinese Communist Party-affiliated outlet China Daily stated prior to the final election results that the United States had to end hard-line policies toward Beijing in seeking improved relations.

The commentary said American “China hawks” had soured ties and imposed “irresponsible practices,” such as restricting access to high-tech goods and imposing tariffs.

“The new U.S. administration, therefore, should give up the illusion of having a consensual China policy, and reflect on the costs of undermining Sino-U.S. relations over the past eight years — and honestly tell the American people the truth about China,” said the commentary by Fu Suixin and Ni Feng, both with the party-controlled Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

In Taiwan, President Lai Ching-te also congratulated Mr. Trump. “I’m confident that the longstanding [Taiwan-U.S.] partnership, built on shared values and interests, will continue to serve as a cornerstone for regional stability and lead to greater prosperity for us all,” he said on X.

China to unveil J-35 jet built with stolen U.S. tech

China’s air force announced it is about to unveil its newest stealth jet fighter, the J-35, which U.S. officials say was built with the help of stolen American military technology.

The J-35 will be declassified and shown for the first time at the annual Zhuhai air show scheduled to begin Nov. 12, Chinese military officials announced Tuesday. The aircraft has been in development for more than 10 years.

“For the first time, new equipment such as the medium-weight, stealth multi-role fighter J-35A, the HQ-19 surface-to-air missile and a new type of reconnaissance and strike unmanned aerial vehicle will be on display,” Col. Niu Wenbo, a military spokesman, told CCTV state television. A photo of the J-35 was released but no other details were provided.

It is the second radar-evading stealth jet in the Chinese military arsenal, after the J-20.

Both jets are viewed as an effort by China to match the U.S. military’s F-35 and F-22. The J-35 will also be used on China’s growing fleet of aircraft carriers. Two are deployed, and a third is being built.

The Pentagon’s most recent annual report on the Chinese military said the J-35 and J-20 are the most advanced warplanes among the 1,300 fourth- and fifth-generation fighters China has fielded. 

A defense official said the J-35 is an export-oriented, low-end stealth aircraft that includes technology used in the J-20.

Photo comparisons of the J-35 reveal that the main design features are similar to those of the multi-service U.S. F-35 stealth jet.

Documents disclosed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden a decade ago revealed that the J-20 was built with stolen American technology used in the F-35.

The documents revealed that Chinese military hackers stole more than 50 terabytes of data from U.S. government and defense contractor networks, data that included details of the F-35 stealth radar and engine secrets, as well as details of the F-35’s AN/AAS-37 electro-optical distributed aperture system.

Engine schematics included details on the methods used by the turbine to cool gases, along with leading- and trailing-edge engine treatments and engine heat reduction data, all key elements of stealth design.

The technology was incorporated into the J-20.

Other stolen F-35 features now in both the J-20 and J-35 are said to include an electro-optical targeting system, a “diverterless supersonic inlet,” a thrust-vectoring jet nozzle and a fire-control array radar system.

A Chinese military unit called a Technical Reconnaissance Bureau in Chengdu province conducted the hacking, with the data then passed on to the state-run Aviation Industry Corp. of China, which makes both the J-20 and the J-35. China has deployed an estimated 195 J-20s.

Retired Navy Capt. Carl Schuster, former director of operations at the Pacific Command Joint Intelligence Center, said the new J-35A will likely be used for the Chinese navy.

“The J-35 made its maiden flight in 2021, but as a derivative of an earlier prototype, it may be ready for production by early next year,” he said.

The J-35A is likely outfitted with improved design features and more powerful engines, he said.

Capt. Schuster said both the J-20 and J-35 benefited from China’s massive open source and cyberespionage effort over the past 25 years. “That has enabled Beijing’s aviation industry to advance far beyond the days of reverse-engineering foreign aircraft and systems,” he said.

A Chinese Defense Ministry website said the J-35 was built by the Shenyang Aircraft Design and Research Institute, part of the Aviation Industry Corp.

“The J-35 series is designed to be one platform with multiple variants for both Chinese air and naval forces,” the website said.

Wang Mingzhi, a military analyst, said on the website that the J-20 is a “heavy-duty stealth fighter jet” and the J-35 is a “medium-sized multi-role stealth fighter jet.”

“The primary distinction is that the J-20 focuses on air superiority missions, while the J-35A is versatile, capable of pursuing air superiority and accomplishing a variety of ground and maritime strike missions,” Mr. Wang said. “In future operations, these two aircraft can precisely target at both land and sea objectives in a coordinated manner, thus playing a crucial role for achieving air superiority.”

• Contact Bill Gertz on X @BillGertz.