Trump slaps new 25% tariff on non-U.S. automobiles; threatens E.U. and Canada with greater levies: Live

Despite backing him publicly, the president is reportedly furious with his top security adviser behind the scenes, not just over the Signal fiasco but because it reveals that he, in all likelihood, was in contact with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic because why else would he have his number?

The magazine, you may recall, has been long-hated by Trump since it claimed that he described deceased American soldiers as “suckers and losers.”

Ariana Baio has more.

The secretary of state was refreshingly frank about the security breach yesterday, making remarks in sharp contrast to other Trump administration officials who have downplayed the seriousness of the situation and any culpability.

Mary Papenfuss reports.

Musk and the team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will assist the White House and National Security Council in investigating how a journalist was added to a Signal group chat with national security officials, Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday.

Pardon the cynicism but that seems unlikely to result in recommendations that senior people be fired over the disaster.

Trump himself has so far shown no sign of sacking either Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or the aforementioned Waltz, defending the former in the Oval Office yesterday.

Ariana Baio has more.

Trump’s administration remains under fire over the alarming security breach that saw Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, added by mistake to a Signal group chat in which the president’s most senior security officials discussed upcoming military action.

The magazine published their text exchange in full on Wednesday in response to denials that classified information had been compromised.

Trump has said (publicly at least) that his National Security Adviser Mike Waltz has nothing to apologize for and has attempted to shift the blame towards an unnamed “lower level” White House employee instead, despite Waltz himself saying he takes “full responsibility” for the disaster.

Also swept up in the scandal, centered on an operation targeting Houthi positions in Yemen, are Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance.

Hegseth shared specific strike times and other details in the chat and is facing calls for his resignation from Democrats as the White House pushes back by blaming the media and the opposition for attempting to “sow chaos”.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted yesterday: “If this story proves anything, it proves that Democrats and their propagandists in the mainstream media know how to fabricate, orchestrate, and disseminate a misinformation campaign quite well. And there’s arguably no one in the media who loves manufacturing and pushing hoaxes more than Jeffrey Goldberg.”

John Bowden has the latest.

The president also found time late last night to lash out once more at U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, the justice with whom he sparred over the legality of those El Salvador deportation flights, who was yesterday appointed to oversee a new case brought by American Oversight against the administration over the Signal group chat leak.

Trump accused him of suffering from an acute case of Trump Derangement Syndrome (which is not a real condition) and threatened an investigation into his assignment and the whole “rigged system”

Mike Bedigan has more.

Also on the president’s late-night grievance list were the benign but liberal publicly-funded broadcasters, home to such terrors to democracy as Terry Gross, Ken Burns and Sesame Street, which he insists should be defunded.

Here’s Alex Woodward on Democrats mocking Republican hysteria on the subject at a particularly mad House hearing yesterday.

The president sparked a certain amount of anger yesterday after he claimed to know nothing about four American soldiers who are missing in Lithuania, despite search operations having been underway for hours.

The president was asked Wednesday if he had been briefed about the men, who disappeared during a training exercise outside Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, and were mistakenly initially declared dead.

“No, I haven’t,” Trump replied simply.

His response prompted astonishment on social media and among critics, with some comparing it to the president’s apparent total lack of knowledge of the recent so-called Signalgate security breach (much more on which shortly) in which a journalist was inadvertently given access to a group chat on messaging app Signal about details of a U.S. bombing attack in Yemen earlier this month.

Mike Bedigan has more.

Yes indeed friends, he really did say this – apologies if you happen to be eating your breakfast while reading this.

Speaking at a White House celebration of female achievement on Wednesday, the president declared: “We’re going to have tremendous goodies in the bag for women too, between the fertizilation and all the other things we are talking about, it’s going to be great.

“I am still very proud of it, I will be known as the fertilization president, that’s OK, that’s not bad.”

Good morning!

Donald Trump has announced a 25 percent tariff on all fully-assembled cars imported to the U.S., the latest escalation of his chaotic trade war that is intended to boost American manufacturing but which could hit consumers.

Here’s what he had to say about it in the Oval Office yesterday, apparently not having thought about the consequences for his “first buddy” Elon Musk.

The president was also up late on Truth Social raging about tariffs and threatening to hike them for the EU and Canada if they attempt to bypass the U.S. on imports by collaborating behind his back.

Here’s John Bowden’s report.

Rumeysa Ozturk, a PhD student in the graduate school of arts and sciences at the Massachusetts university, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers outside her off-campus apartment on her way to an Iftar dinner with friends, according to her attorney and activists.

Alex Woodward reports.