January 20, 2026
Are Defense Firms Showering Their Shareholders with Too Much Money?
In early January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order threatening bans on defense contractors paying dividends or buying their stock back. CNAS program director Stacie Pettyjohn joined NPR to discuss the Trump Administration’s frustrations with the weapons supply chain and whether this reflects the state tightening its grip on the industry that arms the U.S. military.
Listen to the full podcast on NPR.
More from CNAS
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CNAS Insights | America Isn’t Ready for a Drone War
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This week, U.S. personnel near El Paso, Texas, tested a high-energy laser as part of their mission to shoot down cartel drones along the southern border. The resulting confusi...
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Commentary
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Trump’s NATO DilemmaThis article was originally published in Foreign Affairs. Last November, Matthew Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, startled a gathering of European officials at the Berl...
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Opposites Attract (and Execute)
Commentary
Introduction The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in recent months has signaled interest in bringing new entrants into the defense industrial base (DIB), including venture-bac...
By Veronica Daigle & Grace Newsom
