The Grump Strategists move back into their renovated bunker deep in the Brindabellas and assess the finely managed Albanese-Trump meeting. Full marks to PM Albanese and Ambassador Rudd for stage managing and delivering the meeting. The critical minerals deal has been celebrated as historic, and was a delightfully cheap distraction from tricky questions about Australian defence spending. But the bigger issues the meeting surfaced cut to the core of Indo Pacific security and Australian assumptions about a joint allied strategy focused on China. Meanwhile, back in sunny Canberra, Estimates hearings in the Parliament give some pearls about SSN-AUKUS design maturity, defence recruiting and the Aust-PNG Defence Treaty.