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Ben Wolfgang

Ben Wolfgang

bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com

Ben Wolfgang is a national security correspondent at The Washington Times, a senior member of its Threat Status team, and the host and producer of the award-winning Threat Status Podcast. Ben covers national security, foreign policy, military affairs, the defense industry and the rapidly evolving landscape of military technology.
A Pennsylvania native, he joined The Washington Times in 2011 after serving as a political reporter at The Republican-Herald in Pottsville, Pa. Over the course of his career, Ben has covered the White House, Congress, and four presidential campaigns.
His reporting has earned recognition from some of journalism's most respected organizations, including the Virginia Press Association and the Society of Professional Journalists' Washington, D.C. Chapter, among other honors.
Ben has interviewed heads of state, chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, senior military commanders, cabinet secretaries, senior government officials, and the CEOs of many of the nation's largest and most influential defense companies.
Ben is a frequent guest on broadcast media, with appearances on C-SPAN, the Sirius XM POTUS channel, and other outlets.
He can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Ben Wolfgang

Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan applauds as he listens to Russia's President Vladimir Putin during a ceremony as they have remotely inaugurated the construction of a third nuclear reactor of Akkuyu power plant in Mersin province on the Mediterranean coast, in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, March 10, 2021. Erdogan called it a "symbol of Turkish-Russian cooperation." (Turkish Presidency via AP, Pool)

Turkey joins Russia in condemning Biden’s ‘killer’ comment

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday sided with Russia in its heated diplomatic dispute with the U.S., saying that President Biden's recent claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a killer is "not fitting" of a world leader.

March 19, 2021
Russian President Vladimir Putin leads a cabinet meeting via video conference in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, March 10, 2021. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Joe Biden ‘killer’ remark riles Vladimir Putin, Russia, deepens rift

The already chilly U.S.-Russia relationship descended into a rhetorical and diplomatic deep freeze Thursday, with Russian President Vladimir Putin bristling at President Biden's claim that he is a "killer" and invoking the atomic bombings of Japan, slavery and the murder of Native Americans in a stunning broadside against the White House and America as a whole.

March 18, 2021
Security personnel inspect the site of a bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, March 15, 2021. A bomb targeting a minibus in Afghanistan's capital exploded Monday wounding at least 15 civilians, police said, amid a surge in attacks in Kabul. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Joe Biden says May 1 deadline to pull U.S. troops from Afghanistan is ‘tough’

President Biden on Wednesday offered perhaps the clearest signal to date that U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan past a tentative May 1 deadline and blamed his predecessor for crafting what he described as a shoddy deal with the Taliban that so far has failed to produce a path to a lasting political settlement.

March 17, 2021
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, left, elbow bumps with Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, center, and Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, front, watch after a joint news conference after their two plus two security talks at Iikura Guest House in Tokyo Tuesday, March 16, 2021. Defense and foreign ministers from the U.S. and Japan are meeting to discuss their concern over China's growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region as the Biden administration tries to reaffirm engagement with its key regional allies.(Kazuhiro Nogi/Pool Photo via AP)

U.S. lines up Japan, South Korea ahead of China meeting in Alaska

The Biden administration this week is racing to line up key Asian allies ahead of a high-stakes meeting with top Chinese officials in Alaska on Thursday -- a meeting that analysts say will offer a key window into how the complex geopolitical showdown between Washington and Beijing will play out over the next four years.

March 16, 2021
In this Dec. 6, 2012, photo provided by the U.S. Department of Defense, soldiers assigned to 6th Engineer Battalion use snow shoes during Arctic Light Individual Training on the Bulldog Trail in sub-zero conditions at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. ALIT is the United States Army Alaska's Cold Weather Indoctrination program. It gives all soldiers, regardless of their job, the foundation to successfully work, train, and go to war in some of the harshest environments in the world. (AP Photo/U.S. Air Force, Justin Connaher) **FILE**

Army aims for ‘Arctic dominance’ over Russia

The U.S. Army will stand up a new headquarters in the Arctic, better prepare military units to carry out long-term missions in the icy region, and invest heavily to improve the quality of life for soldiers stationed in Alaska and beyond, the Pentagon said Tuesday in a sweeping new strategy that aims to recapture "Arctic dominance" from Russia.

March 16, 2021
In this March 2, 2017, file photo, Tucker Carlson, host of "Tucker Carlson Tonight," poses for photos in a Fox News Channel studio, in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Pentagon’s Tucker Carlson offensive fuels fears of a politicized military

The Pentagon's slow drift into the political mudslinging of Washington may be accelerating under President Biden, with the military's unusually aggressive attack on a conservative Fox News critic sparking a backlash from conservatives on Capitol Hill and threatening to drag the Defense Department into a broader culture war.

March 15, 2021
Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks on foreign policy at the State Department, Wednesday, March 3, 2021 in Washington. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool via AP)

Antony Blinken eyes pulling Iran, Russia into Afghan talks

The Biden administration's surprise diplomatic push in Afghanistan could serve a dual purpose: to lay the groundwork for a U.S. military presence in the country past a looming May 1 withdrawal deadline, and to create an opening to work with adversaries Iran, China and Russia, each of which has created major geopolitical headaches in the White House's early days.

March 8, 2021
President Biden on committed to working with Congress to replace war-making authorities that have underpinned U.S. military action in the Middle East and beyond for the nearly two decades since the shock of the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Joe Biden moves to limit presidential authority to go to war

President Biden and a bipartisan caucus on Capitol Hill may have just taken the first step toward a deal that has eluded Washington for more than a decade: the establishment of clear, narrow limits on a commander in chief's authority to take the country into war.

March 7, 2021
Pilots from the 69th Bomb Squadron board B-52H Stratofortress bomber "Wham Bam II" in preparation for a flight over the Mideast on March 6, 2021, at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. A pair of B-52 bombers flew over the Mideast on Sunday, March 7, 2021, the latest such mission in the region aimed at warning Iran amid tensions between Washington and Tehran. (U.S. Air Force/Senior Airman Josh W. Strickland via AP)

U.S. deploys B-52 bombers to Middle East in warning to Iran

The U.S. military on Sunday delivered a pair of clear warnings to Iran, with the Air Force dispatching two B-52H "Stratofortress" bombers to the Middle East while Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin vowed to "hold people accountable for their acts" if Americans are targeted.

March 7, 2021
This Dec. 29, 2019, aerial file photo taken from a helicopter shows Ain al-Asad air base in the western Anbar desert, Iraq. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser, File)

Rockets hit airbase in Iraq hosting U.S. troops

A burst of at least 10 rockets targeting the Ain al-Asad airbase early Wednesday resulted in no direct U.S. troop casualties, but the Pentagon later revealed that an American contractor working with the base had suffered a "cardiac episode" and died while taking cover from the attack.

March 3, 2021
This Dec. 10, 2018, file photo, provided by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), shows the launch of the U.S. military's land-based Aegis missile defense testing system, that later intercepted an intermediate-range ballistic missile, from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. (Mark Wright/Missile Defense Agency via AP) **FILE**

Pentagon lays out big tab to keep up with China

The U.S. military must invest heavily in high-tech radar, space-based weapons detection systems, long-range artillery and a host of other 21st-century capabilities to keep at bay an increasingly aggressive China, the Pentagon told congressional leaders this week in a sweeping new funding proposal.

March 2, 2021