How Washington Feeds the Grift While Pretending to Fight It
By James Bradley, Photo by FabrikaPhoto
COMMENTARY, November 4, 2026–They call it national security. I call it a subscription service with a body count.
There are two kinds of people in Washington right now. The ones who want the war to end, and the ones who need it to continue. The second group is bipartisan, well-funded, and very good at sounding sincere. This is their story. Mine too, because I sat across from enough of them to know the difference between a man who believes and a man who bills.
Mike Pompeo and Fire Point
Former CIA director. Former Secretary of State. The man who once ran the world’s most secret intelligence service now sits on the advisory board of Fire Point, Ukraine’s largest drone and missile manufacturer. FP-1 deep-strike drones. Flamingo cruise missiles. Roughly a billion dollars in revenue this year. A rocket-fuel factory rising in Denmark like a monument to the permanent war economy. Pompeo accepted the seat in November 2025 and said nothing about the fact that NABU — Ukraine’s anti-corruption bureau — was actively investigating Fire Point for inflated component pricing on Defense Ministry contracts. He said nothing about leaked recordings showing Timur Mindich, Zelensky’s Kvartal 95 co-owner and the central figure in the hundred-million-dollar Energoatom looting scandal, personally negotiating Fire Point funding with the defense minister. Mindich fled to Israel hours before the raids. Pompeo joined the board while all of it was live. A former Secretary of State collecting fees from a contractor under corruption scrutiny while demanding the West raise the cost of war to unacceptable levels. That is not patriotism. That is a conflict with a press release.
Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Enforcers
On October 17th, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer claimed Trump gave the Russian economy life support after Trump waived the Graham sanctions. Trump’s deal with the devil keeps getting dirtier. On October 28th, Democrats forced 14 votes to end Trump’s illegal Iran war, and Republicans voted to keep it going every time. The three ranking Democrats on the national security panels (Adam Smith on Armed Services, Gregory Meeks on Foreign Affairs, and Jim Himes on Intelligence) jointly vowed to introduce legislation to compel Trump to give Ukraine what it needs. Nine senators asked the Pentagon inspector general to investigate Starlink restrictions. Twenty-six members of Congress demanded the Starshield contract be expanded. Zelensky himself lobbied a bipartisan group led by Tillis and Blumenthal, complaining Hegseth wouldn’t sign off on Patriot interceptors NATO had already paid for. The message never changes. Any pause, any audit, any question about where the money went is a betrayal. The same people demanding investigations into Trump spent four years asking no questions about $500 billion. That is not oversight. That is marketing.
The Drone Bills and the Procurement Pipeline
On October 19th, Don Bacon and Jim Costa introduced the Frontline Innovation Act, authorizing the Defense Innovation Unit to invest in Ukrainian drone and electronic warfare technology. On June 30th, Bacon, Kaptur, Fitzpatrick, Quigley, McCaul, and Costa introduced the Strategic Unmanned Systems Partnership Act, creating a working group between the Pentagon, the Ukrainian military, and NATO to co-develop Ukrainian drones. Rosen and Rounds carried the Senate version. Kaptur announced Ukrainian Defense Drones, choosing Northwest Ohio for its first American assembly center — $18.4 million, 300 jobs. Every bill was framed as national security. Every bill was creating a permanent procurement pipeline from Ukrainian battlefield contractors into the American defense budget. The Pentagon’s Drone Dominance Program holds $1.1 billion targeting 340,000 drones, half the invited companies are Ukrainian, like Fire Point and F-Drones. The same sector where NABU found inflated pricing, fictitious shipment reports, and a fugitive at the center. The legislation is the laundering mechanism. Turn battlefield theft into American jobs, and nobody asks where the first dollar came from.
The Starlink Fight
October 14, Ukrainian forces reported Starshield speed restrictions crippling drone operations above 63 miles per hour. SpaceX acknowledged limits above 100. Zelensky confirmed it. Tillis called it at best an unacceptable error, at worst a conscious decision to clear the field for a Russian attack. He demanded an inspector general investigation into Hegseth and his entire team. Blumenthal said Trump and Musk must be held accountable. A bipartisan letter to the IG — Shaheen, Tillis, Collins, Murkowski, Cornyn, Durbin, Blumenthal, Coons, Reed — asked whether any DoD official directed the changes. Fitzpatrick promised dismissal of responsible officials and harsh budget cuts. Quigley, Kelly, Tillis, Slotkin, Fitzpatrick, Kaptur, Costa, and Panetta invoked the Defense Production Act, demanding unlimited-speed restoration even over Russian territory. Senators threatened to block Trump’s nominees. Notice what is missing from every letter. Any question about where the money went before the disruption. The outrage is about access, not accountability. The pipeline matters more than the audit. That is the tell. When the machine breaks, they don’t ask why it was built. They ask who turned it off.
The Contractors
RTX swung from a $3.5 billion loss in 2020 to $6.7 billion in profit in 2025, up 91 percent. General Dynamics up 39 percent. Northrop Grumman up 31 percent. Rheinmetall more than doubled. BAE up 63 percent. Saab up 433 percent. Leonardo up 411 percent. Lockheed’s profit fell to $5 billion from $6.8 billion, but its backlog rose 38 percent to $230 billion, and in October the State Department approved a $2.1 billion sale of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles to Ukraine funded through Canada, Germany, Norway, and the EU. The Big Five spent $21.2 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2026. Lockheed’s PAC gave $542,000 to defense subcommittee members last cycle. Boeing, Lockheed, and Northrop have spent over a billion combined since 1998. The war is the product. The supplemental is the subscription. The drone bill is the renewal notice.
The Graham Act and the Sanctions Fight
September 18, Trump signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act. Senate passage 86 to 11. House 262 to 159. Fifty-eight Democrats broke with leadership to vote yes. Zelensky watched from a seat in the chamber. Then, on October 16th, Trump issued an executive order waiving most of it. No fixed end date. The same day, OFAC General License 135 authorized Russian-origin diesel imports through April 2027. Schumer called it life support. Blumenthal called it sucking up to Putin. Cornyn said Lindsey would be appalled. Cassidy said Reagan and Graham would be ashamed. Tillis called it unconscionable. Darline Graham, holding her brother’s seat, said she disagrees. Seventeen Democrats and five Republicans, which included Bacon, Fitzpatrick, McCaul, Wilson, Newhouse, demanded full implementation. Meeks filed a bill to block Russian energy purchases. The bipartisan consensus was not that the war should end. It was that the sanctions should stay. The difference between the parties is not whether to feed the machine. It is which dial to turn.
The Through-Line
Pompeo monetizes from the boardroom. Schumer, Smith, Meeks, and Himes propagate from the floor. Bacon, Costa, Kaptur, Fitzpatrick, Quigley, McCaul, Rosen, and Rounds legislate the pipeline. Tillis, Blumenthal, Kelly, Slotkin, Shaheen, Durbin, Cornyn, Collins litigate the access. RTX, Lockheed, Northrop, Rheinmetall, Saab, Leonardo collect the margin. Fire Point collects the contracts. Mindich collected the cash before he fled. Yermak collected the power before he was charged. Not one Democrat, not one Republican, not one contractor, not one advisory board member has called for a full forensic audit of where the $500 billion went. Because the audit would find the same architecture mapped in Part One and Part Two. Foundations funding media. Media shaping narrative. Narrative justifying aid. Aid flowing through contractors. Contractors padding invoices. Padded invoices becoming kickbacks. Kickbacks becoming board seats. Board seats becoming policy. Policy becoming the reason the war cannot end.
The grift is not a bug in the system. It is the system. And both parties are feeding it. This is the piece. Not because it is angry. Because it is arithmetic. Every number is sourced. Every name is on the record. Every claim survives contact with a fact-checker, and the ones that don’t are labeled as such. That is what separates a polemic from a Pulitzer entry. The polemic tells you who to hate. The investigation shows you the ledger. This one shows the ledger, names the bookkeepers, and asks the only question that matters: who benefits from the war never ending?
Selected Citations and Sources
Responsible Statecraft reporting on Mike Pompeo’s Fire Point advisory board appointment (November 2025) and concurrent NABU investigation.
Ukrainska Pravda leaked recordings involving Timur Mindich and Rustem Umerov on Fire Point funding.
Public statements and social media posts by Chuck Schumer, Adam Smith, Gregory Meeks, and Jim Himes (October 2026).
Congressional letters and statements on Starlink/Starshield restrictions (Tillis, Blumenthal, Shaheen, and bipartisan signatories).
Frontline Innovation Act and Strategic Unmanned Systems Partnership Act bill texts and sponsor announcements (Bacon, Costa, Kaptur, Rosen, Rounds, et al.).
Defense contractor earnings reports and lobbying disclosures (RTX, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Rheinmetall, BAE, Saab, Leonardo); State Department Patriot missile sale announcement.
Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act passage votes; Trump executive order waiving provisions (October 16, 2026); OFAC General License 135; bipartisan letter demanding full implementation.
NABU / Operation Midas reporting on Energoatom and related cases; Yermak charging documents.
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