The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | November 11th, 2025: U.S. Sends Ground Forces To Panama's Jungle & Trump Meets With Syrian President

Episode Date: November 11, 2025

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin: American troops are back in the jungle. For the first time in decades, U.S. forces are training in Panama’s dense terrain—reviving an old Cold War battleground known as “Green Hell,” and signaling a new chapter in Washington’s focus on Latin America. He was once an al-Qaeda terrorist. Now, he’s walking the halls of the White House. Syria’s President Ahmad al-Sharaa meets with Donald Trump in a historic first. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting ⁠https://PDBPremium.com⁠. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Goldbelly: Impress your friends and family. go to https://GOLDBELLY.com and get 20% off your first order with promo code PDB. BUBS Naturals: Live Better Longer with BUBS Naturals. For A limited time get 20% Off your entire order with code PDB at https://Bubsnaturals.com  Birch Gold: Text PDB to 989898 and get your free info kit on gold Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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he's walking the halls of the White House. Syrian president Ahmed al-Shara meets with President Trump in a historic first. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. And for the first time in more than two decades, American ground forces are back in Panama's jungles. This month, a contingent of U.S. Marines and soldiers wrapped up a brutal three-week training course in Panama's dense sun-forgiving terrain, a place so hostile that American troops once nicknamed it Green Hell. The training, called the Combined Jungle Operations Course, is being run by U.S. Southern Command and the Panamanian Military at a base called Cristobal Colon, once known to American troops as Fort Sherman.

For decades, it was one of the premier jungle warfare schools in the world, before the U.S. handed it back to Panama in 1999. Now it's back in business. The Pentagon says the course teaches everything from survival and navigation to small unit tactics and the thickest terrain on earth. Students learn to forge for food, purify water, build shelters, and fight their way through mud and humidity and near zero visibility.

The first graduating class included 46 troops, 18 U.S. Marines, one army soldier, and 27 Panamanian security personnel. At first glance, this might sound like a simple training exercise, but it's happening against a very different backdrop, one that suggests that something larger is at play. Across Latin America, the U.S. military footprint has been growing. Special operations forces, logistics units, and now conventional troops are appearing in places that they haven't been in years.

And it's not lost on regional observers that Panama sits right between Colombia, home to narco-trafficking networks, and Venezuela, whose regime remains hostile, to say the least, to Washington. So, what's the message here? Well, officially, the Pentagon insists this isn't about preparing for any specific operation. A spokesman told ABC News that the training is, quote, not tied to any potential conflict. Instead, they frame it as part of a broader effort to strengthen regional partnerships and improve readiness for, quote, any environment. But if you zoom out a bit, perhaps this fits a pattern.

Since President Trump returned to office, his administration has emphasized the need to secure the Western Hemisphere. In practice, that's looked like a renewed focus on Latin America. the military buildup in the Caribbean, more intelligence cooperation with regional allies, and new deployments like this one in Panama. For Panama, it's a symbolic return to partnership. For the U.S., it's a signal that Washington isn't seeding its influence in its own backyard, especially as China expands investments across that region, and Russia deepens ties with Caracas and Havana. Now, beyond the symbolic aspects of this, there's also, of course, a practical side.

The U.S. military hasn't really trained in a tropical jungle environment since the late 1990s, and after 9-11, everything shifted to deserts and mountains, Iraq and Afghanistan. But jungle warfare, well, that demands a completely different mindset. The Pentagon says this is just the beginning. The course will expand in the coming months, potentially hosting platoon-sized units and more partner nations. Officials hope it becomes a permanent fixture of the U.S. training rotation, a way to keep American forces ready for any fight in any environment. Still, there are some risks here.

Critics in Latin America are already warning that the U.S. could be reestablishing a military presence under the guise of training, stirring memories of Cold War-era interventions. And in Venezuela, of course, pro-government media outlets have been quick to frame this as a rehearsal for an invasion. Washington insists that's nonsense, but perception matters. the sight of American troops slogging through Panamanian jungle mud is a powerful image. Either way, the message is clear. The U.S. military is refocusing on the hemisphere that it calls home.

All right, coming up next, a former al-Qaeda terrorist at the White House. Syrian President Ahmed al-Shara meets with Trump in a first-ever visit by a Syrian head of state. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. PDB host, and as you may have heard, culinary expert and, world-renowned foodie. Okay, I may be overagging the pudding on those last two descriptions, but I do want to tell you about an amazing company designed for foodies everywhere. Look, have you heard of Goldbelly? It's an amazing business that celebrates the best of America

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Wasn't that delicious? So good. Your bill, ladies? I got it. No, I got it. Seriously, I insist. I insisted first. Oh, don't be silly. You'll be silly. You'll be. Don't be silly. People with the Wells Fargo Active Cash credit card prefer to pay because they earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases. Okay. Rock paper scissors for it. Rock paper scissors, shoot. No! The Wells Fargo Active Cash credit card. Visit Wells Fargo.com slash active cash. Terms apply. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. It's the kind of image no one would have imagined just a year ago, a former jihadist commander shaking hands for the president of the U.S. at the White House.

But that's exactly what happened on Monday when Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Shara, met President Trump for talks, seen as a turning point in U.S. Syria relations. Not long ago, Al-Shara was one of America's most wanted, an Islamist rebel commander of the terror group known as HTS, an al-Qaeda offshoot, leading the fight and ultimately overthrowing Syrian dictator Assad's regime back in December. Now, he's apparently Washington's ally in Damascus, welcomed to the Oval Office in a moment that underscores just how far Syria has come since Assad's ouster and Syria's bloody civil wars end. As longtime PDB listeners will know, that shift didn't happen overnight.

This is a culmination of months of diplomacy that began when Trump first met al-Shara back in Riyadh in May, where he lifted a $10 million bounty on the interim Syrian president's head, calling Al-Shera, quote, a tough guy, a fighter. That meeting marked the beginning of a, well, let's call it an unlikely partnership. Since then, both the State Department and the UN removed Al-Shera from the sanctions list, citing, quote, the progress demonstrated by Syrian leadership after the departure of Assad. Inside the White House yesterday, the mood was strikingly warm. Trump praised Al-Shera's leadership, saying, quote,

we want to see Syria become a country that's very successful, and I think this leader can do it. I really do. Trump added that he has, quote, confidence that El Shara will be able to do the job, signaling the administration's growing faith in the new Islamist government's stability. The Trump administration first suspended the enforcement of the Caesar Act sanctions back in May, following that initial meeting between Trump and Shara in Riyadh. This week, the Treasury Department extended that suspension another 180 days to decision administration officials say, is meant to give Syria a breathing room as it rebuilds. For background, the Caesar-Syria Civilian Protection Act passed in 2019 was one of the harshest sanctions ever imposed on Damascus, targeting individuals and companies linked to Assad's inner circle. Though a full repeal still requires congressional approval, the temporary waivers effectively reopened Syria's access to international finance and reconstruction aid.

But the law also gives the president the power to suspend enforcement for national security reasons, which is exactly what Trump has done twice now. In an interview with the Washington Post, after he met with Trump, Al-Sheraw framed the easing of sanctions as essential to rebuilding the country. He said, quote, it's clear through the policies of Mr. Trump that he is in favor of stability in Syria. As part of that broader thaw, the Trump administration also announced that Syria will reopen its embassy in Washington, a move that senior administration officials say will enable, quote, a counter-trial. terrorism, security, and economic coordination. It was one of the more clear signs that Syria's

diplomatic isolation is ending, and that Washington now views Damascus not as a problem to contain, but a partner to shape. For Al-Shera, it's a rather remarkable transformation. Once jailed by American forces in Iraq, he spent the past year recasting himself from jihadist to statesmen, trading fatigues for suits, positioning himself as the man who could bring Syria back into the international fold. Now, Sharaw, later Monday, signed the political cooperation declaration with the global coalition to defeat ISIS, making Syria the coalition's 90th member. However, Syria's information minister stressed in a post on X that the agreement, quote, contains no military components, but symbolically, it is a sharp break from Syria's pariah

status under Assad. Trump, when asked by reporters about the optics of working with a former Islamist extremist shrugged off the criticism. He said, quote, people say Shirah had a rough past. We've all had rough pasts, end quote. But one interesting story that I want to bring to your attention about Al-Shara's visit was his meeting with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast. Now, if you don't know, Congressman Mast lost both his legs while serving as a U.S. Army Explosive Ordinance Disposal Technician in Afghanistan back in 2010, a victim of the very types of weapons once used by Al-Shera. and his terrorist organization.

As you can imagine, that made for an interesting meeting. Mast described their exchange as one between, quote, two former soldiers and two former enemies. When he pressed Al-Shera on why that changed, the Syrian president said he hoped to, quote, liberate from the past to stand with the U.S. as an ally, not an adversary. For many in Washington, that moment said more than any press release could. It was a symbol of how far Syria has apparently come since Assad's fall, and how personal diplomacy has become a hallmark of President Trump's foreign policy. Now, if I may, a bit of reality is perhaps warranted here.

The optics, look, are certainly remarkable, a former jihadist member of al-Qaeda, now at the head of Syria's government, meeting in the White House. But inside Syria at this moment, there's still instability, there's distrust, and there's cynicism that Al-Sheraq could develop an inclusive government that respects and protects all the various minorities and religious beliefs in the country. Look, it's good to hope for the best, but it's not wise to build your foreign policy strategy on hope. The next year, and its actions will likely tell us if Shiraz's apparent change of heart and desire for peace and stability is legit, and if he's able to suppress the extremist elements lurking within his government and his country.

And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Tuesday, the 11th of November. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. And to listen to the show ad-free, well, you can do that, and it is very simple. Just become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting PDB premium.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool.

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