Defense & Aerospace Report Podcast [Washington Roundtable May 23, ’25]

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 Pentagon Europe chief Jim Townsend of the Center for a New American Security and former Pentagon comptroller Dr. Dov Zakheim of the Center for Strategic and International Studies join Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian to discuss the reconciliation package narrowly passed by the House that has bond markets worried that US debt is poised to grow; President Trump taps the vice chief of space operations, Gen Mike Guetlein, to spearhead the Golden Dome air and missile defense system that will cost some $170 billion to establish over the coming three years; the US Air Force takes possession of a Qatari Boeing 747-8 jet that will be converted by L3Harris into a presidential transport; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a review of the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan; after a two-hour conversation, Vladimir Putin convinced Trump to walk away from Ukraine talks; Iran doubts a deal with the United States labeling Washington’s denuclearization demands as outrageous; the UK and EU agree strike a trade and security deal; the changing face of nuclear deterrence in the Indo-Pacific; the launch of North Korea’s second big destroyer goes badly; two Israeli diplomats are gunned down outside a Jewish museum in Washington; Israeli forces end an 11-week total blockade of aid to Gaza as Bibi Netanyahu launched a massive new offensive to take the entire Palestinian exclave; and Israeli troops fire warning shots at European diplomats in the West Bank.