Trump information as we speak: President slaps 25 p.c tariff on all non-U.S. vehicles as commerce conflict escalates
Donald 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 after the administration denied classified information was compromised.
Trump said 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 strike times and other details in the chat and is facing calls for his resignation from Democrats. The White House is pushing back by claiming there is a difference between “attack plans” and “war plans,” as well as blaming the media.
As the Signal scandal continued to roil Washington, Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on Wednesday on all imports of fully-assembled vehicles.
After firing chaos, Trump offers timeline on DOGE cuts
Trump said he will be satisfied with the agency’s work — led by Elon Musk — within the next few months during a cabinet meeting Monday.
“We’re getting down to a point we think probably over the next two or three months, we’ll be pretty much satisfied with the people that are working hard and want to be members of the administration and our country,” Trump said.
“Our country was riddled with fat, and we’re getting rid of the fat,” he added.
Katie Hawkinson reports from Washington, D.C.
‘Big Balls’ gave tech support to criminal group, report says
Elon Musk’s teen protege, known online as “Big Balls,” provided tech support to a criminal gang that cyberstalked an FBI agent two years before working at the Department of Government Efficiency, a new report alleges.
James Liddell reports.
Dave Portnoy declares that ‘somebody’s got to go down’ over Signalgate
“There’s nothing’s being made up here,” Portnoy declared. “Somebody’s got to go down for this!”
Justin Baragona has the story.
Here’s how Fox News reacted to this morning’s publication of group chat texts
Calling the White House’s bluff, The Atlantic released the messages Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent to a Signal chat group — which inadvertently included Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg — detailing the attack plans on Houthi targets in Yemen.
Immediately and unsurprisingly, the denizens of President Donald Trump’s favorite morning talk show dismissed the bombshell revelation as a nothingburger, insisting that Goldberg had “overpromised” when he first reported that Hegseth had shared “war plans” in an unclassified text chain that included a journalist who was randomly added to it.
Justin Baragona reports.
ICYMI: Entire Signal chat about Yemen attacks published
Newly published texts reveal a minute-to-minute breakdown of “war plans,” weapons and targets in Yemen as Trump administration officials and military leaders discussed the operation with a journalist privy to the entire conversation.
The messages from Hegseth, sent on the day of the attack, March 15, contain a detailed timeline of when U.S. forces would strike Houthi targets in Yemen.
Rhian Lubin reports.
Trump shares clip of CNN touting his favorability ratings, despite ‘fake news’ name-calling
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office last week, the president said that both CNN and MSNBC may be “turned off,” calling their journalism “dishonest” and stating their ratings are doing “horribly.”
On Wednesday morning, Trump took to Truth Social to share a video from the very outlet he attempted to discredit in the midst of the fallout over the Signal text leak.
James Liddell reports.
Noem looks to scrap FEMA and eliminate funding for emergency prep and long-term rebuilding
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees the agency, discussed the administration’s plans during a Tuesday meeting with FEMA officials and Corey Lewandowski, E&E News reports.
Read on…
Democrats mock Republican hysteria over PBS and NPR in DOGE committee hearing
Republicans on a congressional subcommittee supporting Elon Musk’s so-called DOGE efforts dragged NPR and PBS leadership to a public hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to accuse the publicly supported outlets of turning into “radical, left-wing echo chambers” with “anti-American” bias.
Democrats reacted accordingly, as Alex Woodward reports.
Trump admin security breach raises concerns among some military spouses and veterans
When Alyssa Myatt’s husband served on an aircraft carrier last year, she and other U.S. Navy spouses had to follow strict security protocols that meant driving to the ship’s home port just to learn that its deployment was being extended.
“It was not information that they would send in an email or share over the phone,” Myatt said. “They wouldn’t even stream it. You had to physically come and be present in a location with them to hear the information.”
Now Myatt is among some military spouses and veterans questioning the White House’s own adherence to security safeguards after President Donald Trump’s national security adviser added a journalist to a group chat about striking Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Read on…
Source: independent.co.uk
