| THE TOPLINE: President Trump on Monday unveiled his national security strategy, a statutorily mandated document that puts into writing the administration's "America First" principles. The Hill's Katie Bo Williams and Jordan Fabian report: The 55-page document, drafted over the course of a year, places the United States in competition with "revisionist" powers like Russia and China that want to realign the world in their interests while eroding American security and prosperity. "Whether we like it or not, we are engaged in a new era of competition," Trump said during a speech meant to outline the strategy. "We will attempt to build a great partnership with those and other countries," the president said of Moscow and Beijing, as long as it "protects our national interest." Trump's rhetoric, however, diverged from the document's tougher talk on Russia and China at times, raising questions about how significantly the strategy will reshape administration policy. In a break with former administrations, the document does not include the goal of spreading democracy abroad, nor does it consider climate change to be a national security threat, as the Obama administration did. Read more here. A White House spokesman on Monday couldn't say whether President Trump had read the administration's new national security strategy in its entirety. The comment came after CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked national security spokesman Michael Anton if Trump had read all of the 55-page strategy document. “The president has been involved in the drafting of it from the beginning, has been presented with sections of it over the past many months and was briefed on the final document several weeks ago,” Anton replied. “The president himself personally led the presentation of the document to his cabinet only about a week ago.” “But has he read the whole document?” Blitzer pressed. “I can't say that he’s read every line and every word. He certainly had the document . . . and has been briefed on it,” Anton said. Ellen Mitchell has more here. The strategy also calls out Russia for "offensive cyber operations. The Hill's Morgan Chalfant has more on that here. TRUMP FACES HURDLES TO MILITARY BUILDUP: During the speech, Trump also touted a $700 billion defense budget that would kick-start his promised military buildup - but he still has a ways to go before that's a reality. Our story from the weekend on the challenges Trump still faces to building up the military: President Trump faces significant hurdles to fulfilling his promise to bulk up the military even after his signing of a defense policy bill on Tuesday. The first big challenge is to win funding for the policies he is enacting. Unless he can secure an agreement from Congress to appropriate the policies, his new bill won't become a reality. Further ahead, the administration has yet to finish its National Defense Strategy, which experts say is needed to help justify why the military needs more troops, aircraft, ships and other elements of a buildup. "The big obstacle that remains is they need a budget deal, period," said Todd Harrison, a defense budget expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Without something that significantly increases budget caps, there's really no way to build up the military." Read the rest here. FORMER MILITARY MEDICAL OFFICERS CAST DOUBT ON TRUMP'S TRANSGENDER CLAIMS: Three former military surgeons general are calling the Trump administration's claims about the complexity of training 23,000 personnel to process transgender recruits "suspicious." "Beyond former leaders' confirmation that DOD [the Department of Defense] completed most preparatory work by the time of the transition, the administration's claims are suspicious because training recruiters and medical evaluators to process applications from transgender candidates is neither complicated nor time-consuming," the retired officers wrote in a report released Monday by the Palm Center, which promotes the study of LGBT people in the armed forces. The analysis was written by retired Vice Adm. Donald Arthur, surgeon general of the Navy from 2004 to 2007; retired Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock, acting surgeon general of the Army in 2007; and retired Adm. Alan Steinman, the Coast Guard's equivalent of a surgeon general from 1993 to 1997. The Pentagon is set to begin accepting transgender recruits into the military on Jan. 1 after court orders blocking President Trump's transgender ban said DOD must accept recruits by the date that was in place prior to the ban. Read the rest here. SOMALIA AIRSTRIKE KILLS EIGHT MILITANTS: U.S. Africa Command (Africom) announced Monday its latest airstrike in Somalia against al-Shabaab killed eight fighters. The strike happened Friday evening about 30 miles northwest of the southern port city of Kismayo, Africom said in a press release. Africom assessed no civilians killed in the strike, according to the release. The Hill's Mallory Shelbourne has more here. ON TAP FOR TOMORROW: U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker will speak at the Atlantic Council at an event on the prospect of a peacekeeping mission in Donbas at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. http://bit.ly/2yFoCTU The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will consider nominations for the ambassadors to Rwanda and Gabon at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Dirksen 419. http://bit.ly/2jZii5l ICYMI: -- The Hill: Former DC Metro police officer convicted of trying to aid ISIS -- The Hill: Sister of soldier killed in Niger: Pentagon still hasn't answered questions about death -- The Hill: Report: US soldier fought until death in Niger -- The Hill: UK: Shots fired at base used by US Air Force -- The Hill: Opinion: Without human rights, Trump's security strategy won't measure up -- The Hill: Opinion: Trump, give us a national security strategy with some teeth -- The Hill: Opinion: A moral imperative: Trump must enhance US missile defense -- The New York Times: Glowing auras and 'black money': The Pentagon's mysterious U.F.O. program -- Los Angeles Times: Civilian victims of U.S. coalition airstrike in Iraq dig up graves in desperate bid for compensation -- Reuters: Islamic State claims attack on spy agency center in Afghan capital | 
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