The President's Daily Brief
December 17th, 2025: A Major Power Shift Is Coming To The U.S. Military & Putin Says No Deal
17 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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This month is absolutely flying by. 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. First up, a power shift at the Pentagon. Behind closed doors, senior defense officials are preparing a plan to downgrade major military commands and redraw the balance of power among America's top generals.
Later in the show, as anticipated, Moscow is digging in. Huh, you mean they're not interested in peace? Vladimir Putin is once again rejecting any compromise on occupied Ukrainian territories, reinforcing Russia's hardline stance as diplomatic efforts, albeit without Russian input, grind on. Plus, Beijing tightens its grip on Hong Kong.
A national security court convicts pro-democracy figure Jimmy Lai, even as President Trump urges clemency. And in today's Back of the Brief, President Trump signs an executive order declaring illicit fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction, citing the drug's growing national security threat. But first, today's PDB Spotlight.
New reporting from the Washington Post suggests that the Pentagon is quietly preparing for one of the most dramatic military reorganizations in decades. On the surface, it looks like an internal restructuring, a shuffle of the military bureaucracy, but taken as a whole, this plan points to something much bigger, a fundamental reassessment of how the U.S.
uses military power and how much of the world it intends to manage at once. According to the reporting, senior defense officials are drafting a proposal that would downgrade or merge several of the military's major commands, reduce the number of four-star generals, and consolidate authority at the very top of the Pentagon.
Commands that have long operated with a high degree of regional autonomy, particularly in Europe and Africa and the Middle East, would see their influence reduced. Now, this is not just about efficiency or cost savings. It's about control, priorities, and strategic focus.
For decades, the US military has been organized around a region-by-region model, with powerful commanders responsible for specific parts of the world—Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Pacific— Those four-star commanders often functioned as semi-independent power centers, deeply engaged with allies, managing crises and shaping U.S. posture on the ground.
That made sense in the post-Cold War era, when Washington saw itself as the global security manager, trying to keep multiple regions stable all at the same time. What this new plan suggests is a departure from that mindset."
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Chapter 2: What major changes are being proposed for the U.S. military leadership?
Under that worldview, Europe is expected to take greater responsibility for its own defense. Longstanding commitments in the Middle East are questioned. Africa is no longer treated as a theater, requiring a permanent heavyweight U.S. military footprint.
Instead, the focus shifts to flexibility, maintaining the ability to surge when necessary, rather than maintaining expansive command structures everywhere, all the time. That's the theory anyway, but there are obvious trade-offs. Critics inside the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill worry that consolidating commands could dilute regional expertise and weaken U.S.
relationships with allies who rely on consistent high-level military engagement. Think about a NATO ally sitting on Russia's doorstep or a Middle Eastern partner coordinating missile defense with U.S. forces. Those relationships are built on regular high-level military engagement, constant liaison. Critics argue that consolidating commands risks weakening those key liaison relationships.
And of course, there's a potential impact on intelligence gathering. And by potential, I mean there would be an impact on intelligence gathering. These commands aren't just warfighting headquarters. They're major intelligence hubs, integrating military intelligence, signals collection, and partner nation reporting into a continuous regional picture.
But whether this proposal moves forward in its current form or not, the signal is clear. The U.S. is rethinking how much of the world it tries to manage simultaneously, and how much authority it gives military leaders to do it. Now that's a major recalibration.
If this plan is ultimately implemented, this would mark a significant evolution in America's military posture, one that reflects a changing view of where U.S.
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Chapter 3: Why is Vladimir Putin rejecting compromises regarding Ukraine?
interests begin, where they end, and how much the country is willing to commit to maintaining order far from home. All right. Coming up next, Vladimir Putin once again rejects compromise on occupied Ukrainian territory. And Beijing tightens control over Hong Kong following the conviction of pro-democracy figure Jimmy Lai. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here.
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Chapter 4: How is the Chinese Communist Party consolidating power in Hong Kong?
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Well, this may come as a shock to almost no one, but Russian President Putin is showing no signs of backing off of his long-standing maximalist demands, making clear that the Kremlin will not hand back any part of the Ukrainian territories that it currently occupies or hopes to occupy. Now, I don't know who could have seen that coming. Who could have possibly read those tea leaves?
Chapter 5: What executive order did President Trump sign regarding fentanyl?
Russia's deputy foreign minister says Moscow will refuse any compromise, and intends to retain control of five Ukrainian regions, these being Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson. Now, aside from annexed Crimea and most of Luhansk, Russian forces don't fully control any of the other regions they're claiming, nor do they hold the regional capitals of Zaporizhia or Kherson.
But that hard line has been echoed across the Kremlin as diplomatic talks between the U.S. and Kiev have soldiered on. As European leaders reiterate long-term security commitments to Kyiv, Moscow responded by demanding security guarantees of its own. What? Making clear it sees no reason to soften its position simply because talks between the U.S. and Ukraine continue.
Kremlin mouthpiece Dmitry Peskov underscored that stance, warning Russia would not tolerate a scenario in which, as he put it, "...Kyiv signs peace agreements, then begins to sabotage them." Clearly, the invading country has a total of zero self-awareness. To be fair, though, introspection and self-awareness have never been trademarks of a communist regime.
In the same breath, Peskov repeated a familiar set of false claims, including the allegation that a NATO representative had, quote, infiltrated the Ukrainian government and somehow triggered the war. Peskov then removed his tinfoil hat and stepped away from the podium. Still, that refusal to bend extended to a proposed Christmas truce.
Chairman Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested that Russia pause its attacks over the holiday as a possible opening toward broader negotiations. Ukraine agreed, with President Zelensky saying Kyiv would support a temporary halt, but Moscow dismissed that idea outright.
Despite this, Peskov maintains that Russia does want peace, oh, definitely, but not a truce that would give Ukraine what he called a, quote, breathing space to prepare for continued fighting. The Kremlin also is clearly lacking a sense of irony.
Instead, he said, the Kremlin intends to, quote, achieve our goals and secure our interests, signaling that Ukraine should brace for continued strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure through Christmas. All of this unfolds as U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators wrapped up an intense round of talks in Berlin.
Discussions this week focused on the latest iteration of a 20-point peace framework drafted by President Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Zelensky described those meetings as marking, quote, significant progress, noting they were the first time that he had held direct talks with Trump's team.
According to the Ukrainian president, American negotiators have now heard Kyiv and Europe's core positions and are preparing to take them back to Moscow. Zelensky said he expects to finalize his portion of the negotiation framework very soon, after which the U.S. will consult with Russia, brief President Trump directly, and potentially host another round of Ukraine talks this weekend.
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Chapter 6: What implications does the Pentagon's reorganization have for U.S. military strategy?
Lai has long been one of the most outspoken figures in Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement He's a self-made businessman who founded Apple Daily, which, for those of you unfamiliar, is a fiercely anti-Chinese Communist Party tabloid that openly backed the 2019 protests As a result of his CCP criticisms, Beijing claimed Lai played a key role in orchestrating those protests.
That's a charge that his supporters reject. That visibility made him an obvious target when Beijing imposed its sweeping national security law back in 2020, turning legal dissent into criminal conduct almost overnight.
On Monday, the judge found Lai guilty on two counts of colluding with foreign forces, pointing to his efforts to meet with foreign officials, including American leaders, and his advocacy for Chinese sanctions. He was also convicted of sedition under a colonial-era law, which is a statute that had largely faded from use but has been revived as Beijing expands its grip over Hong Kong.
Reaction to the ruling was deeply critical, which of course will have no impact on the Chinese regime. Human rights groups, press freedom advocates, and pro-democracy organizations described the verdict as another serious blow to what remains of Hong Kong's civil liberties. Governments across Europe and Asia echoed those concerns with both Taiwan and the UK, calling directly for Lai's release.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper condemned his conviction as, quote, politically motivated persecution, end quote. Well, congratulations, Yvette. You're today's PDB Statement of the Obvious award winner.
Meanwhile, the Committee of Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, in an effort to challenge Yvette for the statement of the Obvious Award, said that the ruling shows that the territory's courts, quote, have been compromised and politicized in the past five years, end quote. Of course, Beijing welcomed the outcome. Really?
China's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office praised the verdict, branding Lai a, quote, lackey of external forces and accusing him of endangering national security. And so, with the verdict now in place, the consequences for Lai are grim. The 78-year-old potentially faces life in prison.
His next court hearing is scheduled for the 12th of January, and his defense team has not yet said whether it will appeal. Before the verdict, Lai served two consecutive 14-month prison sentences on other protest-related charges.
His family says he has spent more than 1,800 days in solitary confinement and that his health has declined significantly, suffering from heart palpitations and advanced diabetes amid Hong Kong's harsh prison conditions.
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