The President's Daily Brief
February 21st, 2025: U.S. Green Berets Deploy To Mexico & Russia Pushes NATO Withdrawal
Fri, 21 Feb 2025
In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: U.S. Army Green Berets are in Mexico, training the country’s Naval Infantry Marines—what this rare mission says about deepening security ties between Washington and Mexico City. Russia is demanding NATO withdraw from Eastern Europe as a condition for peace talks with the U.S. What’s behind this latest push, and how are European allies responding? Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth orders the Pentagon to slash billions from its budget over the next five years. What programs are on the chopping block, and what does it mean for U.S. military readiness? And in today’s Back of the Brief: President Trump signs an executive order cutting off taxpayer-funded support for illegal immigration. We break down what’s in it and what happens next. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: Why are U.S. Green Berets training Mexican Marines?
It's Friday, 21 February. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. We'll start today's show with the deployment of U.S. Army Green Beret in Mexico, where they're training the country's Marines. Now, the Mexican Marines are probably the most trusted and respected element of the Mexican military and law enforcement.
The move shows a deepening security cooperation—at least, that's how it appears— between Washington and Mexico City. Later in the show, Russia is demanding, oh, they're demanding, that NATO pull back from Eastern Europe. That's one of its conditions for peace talks with the U.S. We'll tell you what's behind the latest threats.
I mean, aside from Putin's hubris and the belief that he's negotiating with the U.S. apparently from a position of strength. Plus, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is ordering the Pentagon to cut billions from its budget over the next five years.
And in today's Back of the Brief, President Trump signs an executive order slamming the brakes on taxpayer-funded programs that support illegal immigration. But first, today's PDB Spotlight.
Chapter 2: What does the deployment of U.S. Green Berets in Mexico signify?
Today, we're kicking things off with a story that might not have grabbed headlines this week, but it's a big one when it comes to the growing trend of America's military involvement in the fight against Mexican drug cartels. Earlier this week, a group of U.S. Army Green Beret arrived in Mexico at the request of Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum. Their mission? To train Mexico's Marines.
And this wasn't just a random decision. The arrival of the Green Beret had the full backing of Mexico's Senate, which unanimously approved the move. Eleven Green Beret from the 7th Special Forces Group will be in Mexico from 17 February through the end of March, training the Mexican Navy's Marine infantry on combat tactics, both conventional and unconventional.
They've arrived fully armed, but their role, at least now, is strictly advisory. Now, this is nothing new for the 7th Special Forces Group. These Green Berets have a long history of operations in Latin America, having participated in missions in Panama, Peru, and Ecuador. While it's a training mission for now, it does reflect the increasing militarization of efforts by the U.S.
to tackle the drug cartels. The U.S. Special Operations Command described the mission as part of, quote, normal routine preplanned military training, end quote, with the Mexican Marines as part of the longstanding defense cooperation between the two countries. Now, while the Special Ops Command is framing this as routine, the backdrop on which it's occurring is, frankly, anything but.
While the Green Berets are only there to train, some voices inside the Mexican government are calling for more direct military involvement. Senator Lili Tellez from Mexico's Conservative National Action Party has argued that Mexico should go beyond welcoming U.S. advisers. She suggests that Mexico should invite U.S. military forces to assist in fighting organized crime on Mexican soil.
The push for deeper cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico comes at a time of heightened tension. Just as the Green Beret were arriving, Mexican officials confirmed that U.S. military reconnaissance planes were spotted flying around Mexico's Baja California Peninsula and off the coast of Sinaloa. That's a well-known stronghold, of course, of the Sinaloa cartel.
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Chapter 3: How is the U.S. addressing Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations?
The officials have not confirmed the nature of the flights, but it's clear that they were monitoring cartel activity. Mexico's defense secretary, Ricardo Tavira, noted that the planes remained in international airspace. Still, it raises some interesting questions about just how far the U.S. will go in its operations against the cartels.
All of this, the Green Beret arrival, the reconnaissance flights, comes just as the U.S. State Department officially declared the Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. While this might seem like a symbolic move, it's much more than that.
This new designation opens up a range of military options for the US government, including direct military operations, intelligence sharing, and even targeted strikes against cartel leadership. The US Department of Defense, intelligence agencies, and other military assets may now begin to play a more active role in combating cartel operations.
This could mean increased intelligence sharing, direct military support to Mexican forces, and even more aggressive military action like drone strikes or special operations targeting cartel infrastructure. Now, whether the U.S. actually takes those steps, well, that remains to be seen, of course.
But what's clear is that Washington is now treating the cartels more like insurgent groups or terror organizations, meaning the strategies used to fight al-Qaeda or ISIS could soon be applied south of the U.S. border. All right. Coming up next, Russia demands NATO withdraw from Eastern Europe as part of peace talks. Oh, is that all they want? And U.S.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth orders massive military budget cuts. I'll be right back. Welcome back to the PDB. European allies are growing ever more anxious over President Trump's diplomatic engagement with Russia, which began in earnest on Tuesday with bilateral discussions in the Saudi capital of Riyadh that excluded Kyiv and NATO members.
Now, well, we're learning, thanks to an exclusive report from the Financial Times, that Moscow used the talks to demand the full withdrawal of NATO forces from the alliance's eastern flank, which includes Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. Have I left anyone out?
The revelation about the Kremlin's escalating conditions for peace is stoking fears that the Trump administration could eventually acquiesce to the demands in order to secure a settlement to end Russia's war in Ukraine. Well, yeah, I mean, frankly, you could get a peace deal any day of the week if you just give Putin whatever he wants.
For some background, Russian President Putin has long sought the withdrawal of NATO forces from former Soviet and communist bloc countries, which joined the alliance in the late 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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Chapter 4: What are Russia's demands for NATO withdrawal from Eastern Europe?
were to withdraw its security guarantees, the entire region, well, theoretically could come under the threat of the Kremlin. Now, we should stress that at this time, the odds of the Trump administration attempting to force a NATO withdrawal appear to be slight. According to officials in Romania, the US delegation at Tuesday's Riyadh talks flatly rejected Moscow's demand. Well, that's a good thing.
And leaders in Poland said they have no reason to believe that Trump will move to abandon Poland and their Baltic neighbors. But it is important to understand this from the context of what Putin is demanding.
The chief of staff to Romania's president told the Financial Times that significant doubts remain about how Trump may proceed, particularly given his scathing criticism of Ukrainian President Zelensky, who he described on Wednesday as a, quote, dictator without elections.
He also pointed to public concessions to Russia that the White House had made even before the talks on Tuesday began, such as ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine and promising to normalize ties between Washington and Moscow. The Romanian official said, quote, end quote.
To guard against what they describe as a, quote, worst case scenario, leaders from the UK and France, who are set to visit Washington next week, will reportedly press Trump to stand firm against Moscow's demand. Still, officials said they fear their pleas are not getting through to the White House. An anonymous senior official from the region said, quote, We have extensively briefed D.C.
at various levels, but I'm not sure what is seeping through to Trump. So the risk and concern remains that Russia tricks D.C. into doing something via a push on Ukraine. End quote. Regardless, European leaders are preparing for the worst.
On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron held an emergency meeting with the heads of NATO, the European Commission, and a coalition of 19 EU nations, along with the United Kingdom and Canada. to discuss how to respond to Trump's marginalization of Ukraine and NATO.
The Unofficial Coalition of Nations, described as a, quote, crisis response unit, is now focusing on what kind of security guarantees they could provide to Ukraine if the Trump administration moves to abandon their commitments. While no firm policy initiatives have emerged from the talks, Macron said Wednesday it was unacceptable that the U.S. was negotiating with Russia behind Europe's back.
Macron stressed, quote, Now, if you think about it, It's a fascinating turn of events that European leaders, NATO allies, are seriously worried that the U.S. administration will appease Russian leadership in a desire to secure a peace deal. Putin definitely appears to believe that he has the advantage, that he's negotiating from a position of strength, which frankly should be a cautionary tale.
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Chapter 5: How are European allies reacting to Trump's talks with Russia?
Focus on maximizing the West's leverage, forcing the invading army's hand so that they have to sit at the negotiating table from a position of necessity and weakness. It's just a thought, just two cents, which in today's economy is probably worth maybe a quarter of a penny. Shifting stateside, U.S.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is preparing to significantly trim the Pentagon's budget as part of the Trump administration's broader efforts to fundamentally reshape military priorities and eliminate what they view as wasteful spending.
The Defense Secretary issued a memo on Tuesday ordering senior military and Defense Department officials to draw up plans to cut 8% of the budget over each of the next five years, which amounts to some $50 billion each year. Officials have until Monday to deliver their cost-cutting proposals, though we should note that Hegseth listed 17 exceptions to the spending overhaul.
That's according to a report from the New York Times. The carve-outs include spending related to military operations at the U.S.-Mexico border, programs related to drones and submarines, and any operations focused on China.
Spending related to China will reportedly be boosted, as the Trump administration views combating the threat from the Chinese Communist Party as a chief foreign policy priority. Senior officials at the Pentagon said they intend to streamline operations and better align the Department of Defense with President Trump's policy priorities.
On Wednesday, the acting deputy defense secretary said, quote, President Trump's charge to the department is clear to achieve peace through strength. We'll do this by putting forward budgets that revive the warrior ethos, rebuild our military and reestablish deterrence, end quote.
Now, while there are no firm details yet about the nature of the cuts, the Army has already proposed phasing out outdated drones and armored vehicles, while the Navy has suggested decommissioning old frigates and combat ships.
Hegseth has also called for calling what he has described as, quote, excessive bureaucracy, and said he'll work with Elon Musk's team at the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to root out any unnecessary spending.
An obvious target for cuts to the Pentagon, which has the largest discretionary budget of any government department, are likely to be diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, which Trump has vowed to purge from all government departments and agencies.
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Chapter 6: What security measures are European nations considering for Ukraine?
Now, the Pentagon has already been asked to give the White House a list of probationary employees who could potentially be laid off. According to sources who spoke to the New York Times, officials at Doge have also suggested moving full-time Pentagon employees to contract positions in order to make it easier to fire them.
In addition to cuts, the effort will also involve shifting existing funds to programs that Trump favors. For example, the DOD has already boosted spending on beefing up security at the southern border, deploying thousands of active duty troops to help stem the flow of migrants and illegal drugs. They've also already accelerated military flights to deport migrants back to their country of origin.
But regarding any proposed cuts, the White House will likely face significant opposition from Congress, setting up a showdown with lawmakers who have long-shielded defense programs that bring jobs to their districts. Well, yeah, I mean, that's a dangerous place to be between a politician and their pork.
All right, coming up in the back of the brief, President Trump signs an executive order cutting off taxpayer-funded support for illegal immigration. I'll be right back. In today's Back of the Brief, President Trump signed an executive order Wednesday night barring the use of taxpayer dollars to support federal programs benefiting illegal immigrants.
Now, the order mandates that all federal agencies identify and dismantle programs that provide financial aid or benefits to illegal immigrants. In addition, agencies must submit plans for, quote, corrective action to prevent federal funds from supporting sanctuary policies or programs.
The White House emphasized that the Trump administration is committed to safeguarding federal resources for Americans and to protect benefits for veterans and individuals with disabilities. The timing of this order is significant.
It comes amid a surge in illegal immigration in the past four years under the then Biden administration, a trend that the House Homeland Security Committee estimates cost taxpayers in the U.S. approximately $451 billion since January of 2021. $451 billion. The White House fact sheet cites data from the Federation for American Immigration Reform,
which calculates the taxpayers spent a minimum of $182 billion annually on 20 million illegal immigrants, stemming from $67 billion in federal expenses and another $115 billion shouldered by state and local governments.
Further analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies suggests that an influx of 1 million illegal immigrants could cost taxpayers an additional $3 billion per year through welfare programs, despite legal restrictions under the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. However, the order emphasizes a key loophole in these restrictions.
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