Overview

• Under Secretary Elbridge Colby’s decision to halt air-defense missile shipments to Ukraine prompted President Trump to publicly reverse course earlier this month.
• His surprise June review of the AUKUS submarine pact took State Department and NSC officials off guard and deepened tensions with the U.K. and Australia.
• Diplomatic counterparts in Japan and Britain have lodged protests over his hard-line demands for higher defense spending and dismissive stance on allied deployments.
• Senior GOP hawks and White House staff express private frustration that his restraint-focused America First posture is undermining U.S. leverage with NATO and Indo-Pacific partners.
• Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell and State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce have defended Colby’s work as essential to President Trump’s America First agenda.