Defense & Aerospace Report Podcast [Feb 27, ’26 Washington Roundtable]

Feb 27, 2026

Guest

Dov Zakheim

Guest

Dr. Dov Zakheim, former Pentagon comptroller and CSIS senior fellow, offers defense budgeting and Middle East security perspective. Jim Townsend, ex-DoD Europe chief now at CNAS, assesses NATO and European reactions. Michael Herson, defense industry adviser, discusses congressional politics and budgets. Dr. Patrick Cronin, Indo-Pacific strategist at Hudson, covers China, Korea, and supply-chain risks. They debate tariffs, Iran posture, force strain, Ukraine aid, and rare-earths moves.

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INSIGHT

State Of The Union Was Theater Not Policy

The State of the Union was long on theater and short on substance, repeating contested claims on tariffs, investments, and bonuses.
Herson highlights damaged approval ratings and demographic weaknesses that undercut the speech's political impact.

INSIGHT

Omission Of Ukraine Stood Out As A Signal

The speech largely omitted Ukraine, signaling lower public prioritization and causing concern among European partners about U.S. attention to the war.
Jim Townsend notes the 'dog that didn't bark' as meaningful absent U.S. reassurances.

INSIGHT

Asia Feels Forgotten By A Theatrical Foreign Policy

Indo-Pacific observers see a theater-versus-policy mismatch: long speeches with little Asia substance leave regional allies feeling sidelined.
Patrick Cronin says Asian partners feel forgotten because foreign policy became theater not detailed policy.

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On this week’s Defense & Aerospace Report Washington Roundtable, Dr. Patrick Cronin of the Hudson Institute think tank, Michael Herson of American Defense International, former DoD Europe chief Jim Townsend of the Center for a New American Security, and Pentagon comptroller Dr. Dov Zakheim of the Center for Strategic and International Studies join Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian to discuss President Trump’s new tariffs after the Supreme Court’s ruling last week and Republican efforts to adopt new tariff legislation; takeaways from the president’s longest ever state of the union address; efforts to restore full Department of Homeland Security funding and update on Reconciliation 2.0; whether the president will get the $1.5 trillion defense budget he wants for 2027 as consensus settles on a more modest boost of around $1.1 trillion to $1.2 trillion; US-Iran talks continue in Geneva as Washington masses more forces in the region and prepares to evacuate US personnel from Israel to press Tehran into a nuclear deal; tensions between the president and military leadership as Trump says his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, thinks a war with Iran would be easy as news reports indicate military leaders are concerned about the impact of a protracted and unpredictable conflict on weapons stocks, equipment and personnel; Ukraine’s allies shape another 106 billion euro aid package that Hungary has threatened to derail; as former US Army Europe chief retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges tells reporters his train was attacked, one of five suspected Russian attacks on Europe that day; the Pentagon’s threat to seize Anthropic’s Claude AI model and blacklist the company unless it allows its technology to be used for autonomous weapons and mass surveillance; after two months as Joint Staff Director Vice Adm. Fred Kacher will leave his job and return to the Navy; Beijing again cuts rare earth shipments to Japan; Kim Jong Un teases a summit with Trump amid US-Korea strategy strains; an escalating conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan; Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel; and Washington’s decision to open a pop-up consulate for Israeli settlers in the West Bank town of Efrat.