Closing summary
This brings us to an end of our live coverage of another day in the life of the second Trump administration. We will be back on Thursday, but in the meantime, here is an overview of the day’s events:
Donald Trump, citing legally dubious national security provision, imposed 25% tariffs on cars and car parts made outside the United States, effective on 2 April.
Canada’s leader, Mark Carney, called Trump’s new auto tariffs “a direct attack” on Canadian autoworkers and pledged to “defend our workers”.
Trump suggested that he might give China “a little reduction in tariffs” if the country approves a deal to sell the US arm of TikTok to an American company.
Ireland braced for a hit to its economy after Trump mentioned that tariffs on Irish pharmaceuticals would be coming soon.
As some Republican lawmakers joined Democrats in calling for accountability over top administration officials using an insecure Signal group chat to discuss military attacks on Yemen, Trump tried to dismiss calls for an inquiry as “a witch hunt”, a strategy which has, previously, worked out for him.
A review of the travel schedule for Michael Waltz, the national security adviser who created the Signal group chat, shows that he was in Saudi Arabia on the day that he accidentally invited the journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to connect on Signal. If Waltz was on his personal phone when he did that, as seems likely, experts have pointed out that foreign spies could have compromised his device and followed the Signal chat in real time.
Democrats called on defense secretary Pete Hegseth to resign following the Signal group chat scandal.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio said the accidental inclusion of the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief in the Signal group chat was a “big mistake” but said that that “none of the information on there at any point threatened the operation or the lives of our service members.” That seems to be contradicted by a giant image of the texts from Hegseth, the defense secretary, who had described the exact timing of attacks, and weapons systems involved, two hours before they took place.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Elon Musk’s team is investigating how the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief was added to the group chat.
Updated
The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) published its environmental assessment of an Australian company’s proposed lithium mining project in south-eastern Oregon on Wednesday, and is giving the public just four days to read the 103-page assessment and submit comments.
As Oregon Public Broadcasting reports, the Trump administration appears to be fast-tracking the proposed mine, in keeping with executive orders signed by the president calling on federal agencies like the Department of the Interior, which manages the BLM, to speed up reviews of extraction projects like mining, drilling and logging.
According to OPB: “The agency’s assessment outlines the full scope of Jindalee Resources’ plans to search the area for lithium, a highly valuable metal used in batteries. Under its subsidiary, HiTech Minerals, Jindalee aims to bore up to 800 feet into the earth across 7,200 acres in Malheur County, near the Oregon-Nevada border.”
Updated
Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, wrote to the FBI director, Kash Patel, on Wednesday to formally request an investigation of the Signal leak.
Warner, the vice chairperson of the Senate select committee on intelligence, asked Patel to confirm that the FBI will open an investigation into the Signal group chat senior Trump administration officials used to discuss airstrikes on Houthi leaders in Yemen.
“Department of Defense policies dictate that information concerning military plans, such as contained in the messages sent by the Secretary of Defense, is classified, and no reasonable process would allow for communication of this information over a commercial messaging application before U.S. pilots had completed and safely returned from their mission,” Warner wrote.
His letter concluded:
In other contexts, the FBI has acted promptly to open an investigation when information of a similar nature has been mishandled. As you have now had two days to consider the details of this matter, can you confirm the following:
1. Will you commit to opening an investigation of this matter, if you have not already done so?
2. Will you collect the devices involved, whether government-issued or otherwise?
3. Will you scan those devices for malware or other indications of unauthorized access?
Updated
Alarm in Ireland over Trump's threat that 'tariffs on pharmaceuticals' are coming
While much of the world is reacting to Donald Trump’s imposition of 25% tariffs on imported cars and car parts on Wednesday, his threat to follow that with tariffs on pharmaceuticals is front-page news in Ireland.
The main story on the home page of the Irish Times right now is a report focused on what Trump’s “on-off obsession with tariffs” might mean for the Irish pharmaceutical industry.
“We’re going to be doing tariffs on pharmaceuticals in order to bring our pharmaceutical industry back,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “We don’t make anything here, for, in terms of drugs, medical drugs, different types of drugs that you need, medicines. It’s in other countries – largely made in China, a lot of it made in Ireland. Ireland was very smart. We love Ireland, but we are going to have that,” he added, in reference to upcoming tariffs.
There was similar alarm, in the form of siren emojis, from Irish reporters who accompanied the country’s premier, Micheál Martin, to an Oval Office meeting in advance of St Patrick’s Day this month.
In response to one Irish journalist’s question about potential tariffs on the European Union, Trump said: “The EU was set up to take advantage of the United States.”
When the journalist interjected to ask: “Including Ireland? Is Ireland taking advantage of the United States?” Trump replied: “Of course they are.”
“This is this beautiful island”, Trump said, “of five million people, it’s got the entire US pharmaceutical industry in its grasp.”
“The Irish are smart,” Trump said, turning to Martin. “You’re smart people. And you took our pharmaceutical companies”.
Asked about the tariff threat last week, Martin told Bloomberg TV: “American companies in Ireland have benefited enormously from their presence in Ireland. Ireland has added value to those companies, and has given those companies a base to access the European single market, one of the best markets in the world.”
US tariffs on Irish pharmaceuticals, Martin said, “will lead to an increase … in the cost of medicines in America, no doubt about that”.
Updated
Are the new tariffs legal?
A new White House press release lays out the legal authority the president says he is using to justify new tariffs on imported cars.
“Today, President Donald J. Trump signed a proclamation invoking Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to impose a 25% tariff on imports of automobiles and certain automobile parts, addressing a critical threat to U.S. national security,” the statement says.
But according to Jennifer Hillman, a professor at Georgetown Law Center, that legal reasoning may be flawed.
Hillman, a former member of the World Trade Organization’s appellate body who served as general counsel at the Office of the United States Trade Representative during the Clinton administration, noted on social media that Trump had first directed the commerce department to undertake a Section 232 investigation during his first term, in 2019.
That review, which found that imports of cars and car parts did harm US national security, was completed on 17 February 2019. That triggered a 105-day deadline under the law for Trump to act at the time. Because he did not impose tariffs then, Hillman observed on Wednesday, “an updated report to support new tariffs” is required.
Instead, a proclamation posted on the White House website on Wednesday simply points to the 2019 commerce department investigation as justification for the tariffs Trump just announced.
“Today, only about half of the vehicles sold in the United States are manufactured domestically, a decline that jeopardizes our domestic industrial base and national security,” the proclamation in Trump’s name says.
“I am also advised that agreements … such as the revisions to the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), have not yielded sufficient positive outcomes,” the proclamation adds. “The threat to national security posed by imports of automobiles and certain automobile parts remains and has increased.”
Last month, Hillman argued against Trump’s increase in tariffs on China in a debate at the Council for Foreign Relations. Hillman argued: “Tariffs are damaging to the US economy. We have to remember that taxes on Americans that American importers pay, and pass those on in the form of higher costs to American consumers.”
The cost of tariffs, Hillman noted, “fall most heavily on the lower or middle income people, because they spend a much higher percentage of their overall income on buying goods”.
Updated
Canadian leaders denounce new Trump tariffs
Speaking a few minutes ago, Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, called Trump’s new auto tariffs “a direct attack” on the Canadian autoworkers he had addressed earlier in the day in Windsor, Ontario, beside the Ambassador Bridge to Detroit.
Carney called the bridge “a symbol and a reality, up until now, of the tight ties between our two countries – ties of kinship, ties of commerce, ties that are in the process of being broken”.
“We will defend our workers, we will defend our companies, we will defend our country and we will defend it together”, Carney said.
Carney, the leader of Canada’s Liberal party who is campaigning for election largely on opposition to Trump’s threats to Canada, promised an autoworkers union he would create a $2bn “strategic response fund” to boost Canada’s auto sector and protect manufacturing jobs.
“President Trump is at it again,” Ontario’s conservative premier Doug Ford wrote on X. “His 25 per cent tariffs on cars and light trucks will do nothing more than increase costs for hard-working American families. U.S. markets are already on the decline as the president causes more chaos and uncertainty. He’s putting American jobs at risk. I’ve spoken with Prime Minister Carney. We agree Canada needs to stand firm, strong and united. I fully support the federal government preparing retaliatory tariffs to show that we’ll never back down.”
“Putting in peril the jobs of hundreds of thousands of auto workers in order to save the job of the secretary of defence was not on my bingo card today,” Flavio Volpe, the president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association of Canada, commented.
“I have never heard something less clear or based in fact in my life. China could only dream of damaging the American auto industry so quickly and so decisively as what Trump is threatening to do here again,” he added.
Updated
Trump suggests he might give China 'a little reduction in tariffs' to sell TikTok
In response to a reporter’s question about the status of a possible deal to keep TikTok open in the United States, Trump said he is likely to extend the deadline for a deal if an agreement over the social media app is not reached and could offer a cut in tariffs to secure Chinese approval of a sale of the company’s US arm.
“With respect to TikTok, China is going to have to play a role in that, possibly, in the form of an approval, maybe, and I think they’ll do that. Maybe I’ll give them a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done,” Trump said.
Updated
Trump says he has not been briefed about US soldiers missing in Lithuania
Asked by a reporter if he has been “briefed about the soldiers in Lithuania, who are missing”, the president replied: “No, I haven’t. I haven’t”.
Earlier on Wednesday, the US army said in a statement that the “M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle the four missing US soldiers were operating during a training exercise has been located”.
“The vehicle was discovered submerged in a body of water in a training area,” the statement added. “Search efforts for the soldiers continue.”
The soldiers went missing during a military drill during an exercise at a training ground in Pabradė, a town located less than 10km (6 miles) from the border with Belarus.
Updated
Trump dismisses calls for Signal inquiry as 'a witch-hunt', and claims Hegseth 'had nothing to do with it'
Asked by a reporter how he responds to Republican lawmakers who have called on his administration to take more accountability and not downplay the Signal messages that were revealed today, the president said: “I don’t know about downplaying, the press up-plays it, I think it’s all a witch-hunt, that’s all. I think it’s a witch-hunt. I wasn’t involved with it. I wasn’t there”.
A short time later, when another reporter asked if the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who texted detailed attack plans on the nonsecure group chat, should consider resigning, an agitated Trump replied: “Hegseth is doing a great job. He had nothing to do with this. Hegesth? How do you bring Hegseth into it? He had nothing to do with it. Look, it’s all a witch-hunt … I think Signal could be defective to be honest with you.”
As a giant blow-up of the Signal chat messages displayed in the House on Wednesday shows, Hegseth had a lot to do with it, by texting the precise sequence of planned attacks, and weapons systems deployed, via the messaging app two hours before the strikes in Yemen.
Updated
Trump says auto tariffs are 'permanent'
Asked by a reporter if the tariffs could be lifted before the end of his term of office, Trump said that the new 25% rate on foreign-made cars are “permanent, 100%”.
Updated
Trump signs executive order to impose 25% tariffs on cars made outside US
The president just signed an executive order to put 25% tariffs on cars imported into the United States which, he says, will take effect on 2 April.
Asked by a reporter how he will ensure that a car made largely outside the country is not completed in the US to avoid tariffs, Trump claims that there will be “strong policing” to prevent automakers from dodging tariffs.
The president called the current system, in which cars are made in multiple countries, “ridiculous”.
Updated
Trump announces 25% tariffs on all cars not made in US
“This is the beginning of liberation day in America,” Donald Trump told reporters gathered in the Oval Office now for his remarks on new tariffs on cars made outside the United States. At the start of remarks being streamed live on the White House YouTube channel, the president said that tariffs of 25% will be imposed on all imported cars.
The tariffs will apply to finished cars and trucks that are shipped into the United States, including those made by US auto companies whose automobiles that are made overseas.
Updated
Waltz was in Saudi Arabia the day he invited journalist to connect on Signal
While fears have been raised about the possibility that Steve Witkoff, the president’s envoy to Russia, was vulnerable to hacking because he was in Moscow when he was added to the Signal messaging chat about attacking Yemen (a concern Witkoff dismissed by saying he did not use his personal device on that trip), it has been somewhat overlooked that Mike Waltz, the national security adviser who created the group, was in Saudi Arabia on the day he accidentally invited the journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to connect with him on the messaging app.
In his first report on the incident for the Atlantic, Goldberg wrote: “On Tuesday, March 11, I received a connection request on Signal from a user identified as Michael Waltz.”
Since Goldberg did not specify the time of day that the invitation was sent, it is not certain where Waltz was when he sent the request, which was almost certainly sent from his nonsecure, personal phone. (It has been previously reported that the open-source Signal app cannot be downloaded on to secure government devices, although recent statements from the CIA director suggest that might no longer be true.)
But we do know that Waltz spent much or all of that day in the Saudi city of Jeddah, where he and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, engaged in talks with senior Ukrainian officials over a plan for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine’s war to repel the full-scale Russian invasion that began in 2022.
Since Waltz and Rubio spoke to reporters after 9pm local time in Jeddah that night, to announce that Ukraine had accepted the proposal, we know that Waltz was in a Saudi government-secured facility for most of that day, when, presumably, his personal phone would have been vulnerable to hacking by US adversaries, like Russia or China, and even US allies, including Saudi Arabia and Ukraine.
It is not clear when Waltz left Saudi Arabia, but he was certainly there for most, if not all, of 11 March. Waltz and Rubio met with the Saudi crown prince, Mohamed bin Salman, in Jeddah on the evening 10 March, and Rubio’s itinerary on the state department’s website indicates that the secretary of state did not leave Saudi Arabia until 12 March, when he flew to Ireland and then to Canada.
Updated
Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois released a statement calling for defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s resignation.
“Pete Hegseth is a f*cking liar. This is so clearly classified info he recklessly leaked that could’ve gotten our pilots killed. He needs to resign in disgrace immediately,” reads the statement.
“Hegseth and every other official who was included in this group chat must be subject to an independent investigation. If Republicans won’t join us in holding the Trump Administration accountable, then they are complicit in this dangerous and likely criminal breach of our national security.”
Updated
Pete Hegseth denies texting war plans as Democrats call for his resignation
Secretary of defense Pete Hegseth denied claims that the information he texted other Trump officials in a group chat earlier this month discussed classified war plans.
“Nobody’s texting war plans,” he told reporters in Hawaii. “As a matter of fact, they even changed the title to attack plans, because they know it’s not war plans,” he said.
Updated
Canada’s former spy chief says White House response to Signal leak threatens ‘Five Eyes’ security
Canada’s former spy chief has said the Trump administration’s attempts to downplay the leak of top-secret attack plans is a “very worrying” development, with implications for broader intelligence sharing among US allies.
On Wednesday, the Atlantic magazine published new and detailed messages from a group chat, including plans for US bombings, drone launches and targeting information of the assault, including descriptions of weather conditions. Among the recipients of the messages was a prominent journalist, who was inadvertently added to the group.
“This is very worrying. Canada needs to think about what this means in practical terms: is the United States prepared to protect our secrets, as we are bound to protect theirs?” said Richard Fadden, the former head of Canada’s intelligence agency. “Every country has experienced leaks, of varying severity. The problem with this one is that it’s being generated at the highest levels of the US government – and they haven’t admitted that it’s a problem.”
Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand have for decades shared intelligence in a pact informally known as the Five Eyes. But the leak of classified information is likely to put further strain on the group as it weighs how seriously the current American administration takes the handling of top secret information.
“When we have intelligence leaks, we admit it, we try to sort out what’s happened and we try to fix it. One doesn’t get the impression today that the US cabinet members will admit there’s a problem,” said Fadden, who also served as national security adviser to Canada’s Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper. “They’re just trying to clean it up from a political perspective. That worries me.”
Despite a far more detailed picture of the information leaked to journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, the White House and key figures in the message thread have redoubled efforts to claimed none of the information was classified.
Read the full story by The Guardian’s Leyland Cecco:
Secretary of state Marco Rubio: Signal group chat scandal a 'big mistake'
Secretary of state Marco Rubio said the accidental inclusion of the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg in the Signal group chat was a “big mistake” but said that that “none of the information on there at any point threatened the operation or the lives of our service members.”
Speaking to reporters from Jamaica, Rubio said:
Obviously someone made a mistake, someone made a big mistake and added a journalist. Nothing against journalists but you ain’t supposed to be on that … I contributed to it twice. I identified my point of contact … and then later on, I think 3 hours after the White House’s official announcements have been made, I congratulated the members of the team.
Rubio went on to add:
I’ve been assured by the Pentagon and everyone involved that none of the information that was on there … at any point threatened the operation of the lives of our servicemen and in fact it was a very successful operation … I want everybody to understand why this thing was even set up in the first place and also understand very clearly the mission was successful and at no point was it in danger and that’s coming from the highest ranking officials…
Updated
Another Democrat, the Florida representative Maxwell Alejandro Frost, has criticized the contents of the Signal group chat to which the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added.
Writing on X in response to a screenshot that featured JD Vance’s reply to the US’s bombing in Yemen, Frost said:
“Another disgusting part of all this is the proof of a blatant war crime to which the vice president of the United States responded: Excellent.”
Updated
During a press briefing in Warsaw, Poland, Nato secretary general Mark Rutte was asked if Europeans could still trust the Americans after the Signal leaks.
“Absolutely. Can we trust the Americans? Yes, they are our biggest partner, the biggest allies in Nato. They have freed my country together with Poland and Canada after the Second World War. Yes, absolutely. We can trust the Americans.”
He was later asked about some of the comments made about “free-loading” Europeans.
Rutte said he would not want to offer running commentary as that “would not be appropriate,” but acknowledged two main irritants in the new US administration’s relations with European Nato allies, on fair burden sharing and some caveats in “collective endeavours.”
“We are addressing them because we are spending much more and we are working on, as I said, on the lethality of Nato, which is crucial,” he said.
Interim Summary
Here’s a look at where the day stands:
Democrats are calling on defense secretary Pete Hegseth to resign following the Signal group chat scandal. One Democrat, Illinois’s representative Raja Krishnamoorthi said: “Classified information is classified for a reason. Sec. Hegseth was openly sharing classified materials on an insecure channel that potentially endangered service members. And then he lied about it. He should resign.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Elon Musk’s team is investigating how the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief was added to the group chat discussing a military strike in Yemen. “As for your original question about who’s leading, looking into the messaging thread: the national security council, the White House counsel’s office, and also, yes, Elon Musk’s team,” she said during a press briefing.
In rare signs of unrest, top Republican senators are calling for an investigation into the Signal leak scandal and demanding answers from the Trump administration, as they raise concerns it will become a “significant political problem” if not addressed properly. “This is what happens when you don’t really have your act together,” the Alaska Republican senator Lisa Murkowski told the Hill.
The US district court judge James Boasberg, whom the government has argued cannot be trusted with sensitive information in the Alien Enemies Act case, has been assigned to oversee a lawsuit alleging that government officials violated federal record-keeping laws when they used a group chat to discuss a planned military strike in Yemen, Politico reports. “Messages in the Signal chat about official government actions, including, but not limited to, national security deliberations, are federal records and must be preserved in accordance with federal statutes, and agency directives, rules, and regulations,” the plaintiffs argue.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, who grilled top security officials during Tuesday’s Senate intelligence committee briefing, appeared on Morning Joe this morning to discuss the recently released text messages published by the Atlantic on Wednesday. “Well it sure answers that the two witnesses I believe lied when they said, ‘Oh, nothing to see here, nothing classified,’” he said.
Republican senator Roger Wicker, chair of the Senate armed services committee, said he and the senator Jack Reed, the committee’s top Democrat, will request an inspector general investigation into the use of Signal by top national security officials to discuss military plans, The Associated Press reports.
Wicker is also calling for a classified Senate briefing from a top national security official and verification that the Atlantic published an accurate transcript of the Signal chat.
This move is notable given the Trump administration’s defiance that no classified information was posted to the Signal chat.
Updated
Elon Musk's team among officials investigating group chat leak, White House confirms
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Elon Musk’s team is investigating how the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief was added to the group chat discussing a military strike in Yemen.
“As for your original question about who’s leading, looking into the messaging thread: the national security council, the White House counsel’s office, and also, yes, Elon Musk’s team,” she said during a press briefing.
“Elon Musk has offered to put his technical experts on this to figure out how this number was inadvertently added to the chat again to take responsibility and ensure this can never happen again,” Leavitt added.
She also said that the Signal messaging app, where senior Trump administration officials accidentally shared military plans in a group containing a journalist, is an approved app.
Leavitt said it is loaded on to government phones at the Pentagon, Department of State and Central Intelligence Agency.
Updated
Trump to announce auto tariffs amid scrutiny over Signal leak
Donald Trump will hold a press conference to announce tariffs on the auto industry today at 4pm, according to the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Wednesday’s press conference will be in the Oval Office.
Updated
National security adviser Michael Waltz said on Fox News that a staffer wasn’t responsible for adding the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief to the group chat and that he “takes full responsibility” for building the group and maintaining coordination.
“Have you ever had somebody’s contact that shows their name and then you have somebody else’s number?,” Waltz said.
“You have somebody else’s number on someone else’s contact, so of course I didn’t see this loser in the group,” he added, referring to the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg.
Updated
The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont offers an analysis of what the latest Signal leak revelations expose:
The disclosure by the Atlantic of further devastating messages from the Signal chat group used by the Trump administration’s most senior security officials has nailed the lie that nothing that threatened the safety of US servicemen and women was shared on the group.
After the vague and evasive assertions by Trump officials at Monday’s Senate intelligence committee hearing, from the White House, and from the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, that no war plans or classified material was shared, readers can make up their own minds.
Despite Hegseth’s angry denial, the exchanges in the leaked group chat did contain details of war planning, shared recklessly by him in advance of the attack on 15 March, on a messaging system and perhaps devices which he and others in the chat could not have been certain were secure.
Most damning is the fact that Hegseth sent details in advance of the F-18s and other aircraft that would take part in the attack, including the timing of their arrival at targets, and other assets that would be deployed.
As Ryan Goodman, a law professor who formerly worked at the Pentagon, put it after the latest release: “The Atlantic has now published the Signal texts with attack plans in response to administration denials. I worked at the Pentagon. If information like this is not classified, nothing is. If Hegseth is claiming he declassified this information, he should be shown the door for having done so.”
In attempting to cover up and diminish their culpability for a shocking breach of operational security – including the fact that two participants in the chat were overseas (including one in Moscow at the time) – the Trump administration has made the scandal immeasurably more serious than it was already.
At the most simple level, the pilots who flew on those strikes should rightly be furious that the most senior civilian defence official placed them in harm’s way.
Read the full analysis here:
Republican senators seek investigation into Signal leak scandal
In rare signs of unrest, top Republican senators are calling for an investigation into the Signal leak scandal and demanding answers from the Trump administration, as they raise concerns it will become a “significant political problem” if not addressed properly.
“This is what happens when you don’t really have your act together,” the Alaska Republican senator Lisa Murkowski told the Hill.
The Trump administration has been facing criticism from Democrats – and now Republicans – after Monday’s embarrassing revelation that a team of senior national security officials accidentally added a journalist to a private group chat on Signal, an encrypted messaging app. The group, which included the vice-president, JD Vance; the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth; the secretary of state, Marco Rubio; and others, discussed sensitive plans to engage in military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
On Wednesday morning the Atlantic posted another tranche of messages that contained details of the attack on Yemen, including descriptions of targets, launch times and even the details of weather during the assault.
Senior national security officials testified before the Senate intelligence committee on Tuesday, where the national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard, and CIA director, John Ratcliffe, were grilled by lawmakers over the scandal. The national security officials said “no classified material” was shared in the chat. Republicans are now calling for investigations as well.
Read the full story by José Olivares here:
Updated
National security officials have wrapped up their testimonies before the House intelligence committee on Wednesday.
A closed session will be held at 2pm ET today.
Updated
Democrats call on defense secretary to resign over group chat scandal
“Classified information is classified for a reason. Sec. Hegseth was openly sharing classified materials on an insecure channel that potentially endangered service members. And then he lied about it. He should resign,” Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois said on X, just moments after questioning intelligence officials at Wednesday’s hearing.
Classified information is classified for a reason.
— Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (@CongressmanRaja) March 26, 2025
Sec. Hegseth was openly sharing classified materials on an insecure channel that potentially endangered service members.
And then he lied about it.
He should resign. https://t.co/ZoMoXSZgoQ
“It is completely outrageous to me that administration officials come before us today with impunity, no acceptance of responsibility,” said Jason Crow of Colorado. He said the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, “must resign immediately. There can be no fixes, there can be no corrections until there is accountability.”
Other Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee rejected assertions by Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe that no classified material was included in the chat. They pointed to chat messages released by the Atlantic on Wednesday as evidence the leak could have jeopardized the mission’s success or endangered US service members’ lives.
Updated
Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Alina Habba, downplayed the controversy over the group chat that mistakenly included the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief.
“Look, it is what it is,” Habba told reporters. “At the end of the day, this is – in my opinion – something that they’re making a big to do about nothing. A reporter that is trying to get clout.
“We stand by Mike Waltz; he’s doing a tremendous job. I think this is a distraction.”
Updated
The Democratic representative Jimmy Gomez of California asked Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, whether the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, was drinking before the group chat discussions regarding war plans in Yemen were published.
“That’s an offensive line of questioning. The answer is, no,” Ratcliffe said. “I just wish in an annual threats hearing, where the American people want to hear about threats, that that’s what we would be talking about.”
Gabbard said: “Secretary Hegseth, in my experience, has continued to operate in the way that President Trump’s confidence in him inspires, which is in the best interest of the American people and our war fighters and ensuring our national security, I think it’s wrong to impugn him, especially at a point where he is not here to defend his own honor.”
Updated
The Republican senator Lindsey Graham defended Donald Trump and other members of his administration over their handling of the fiasco involving top national security officials discussing US military attack plans in Yemen in a group chat that inadvertently included the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg.
“President Trump and his team have admitted that having a journalist in the group text was wrong, will be reviewed and falls in the category of ‘lessons learned’ so that it doesn’t happen again,” Graham said in a statement. “I believe that all the participants in the chat were under the impression they were using an appropriate and secure form of communication. This will also fall into the category of ‘lessons learned’.
“However recent revelations about the content of the texts – while not discussing war plans per se – do in fact detail very sensitive information about a planned and ongoing military operation,” he added.
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Judge targeted by Trump administration over deportations case will oversee group chat lawsuit
The US district court judge James Boasberg, whom the government has argued cannot be trusted with sensitive information in the Alien Enemies Act case, has been assigned to oversee a lawsuit alleging that government officials violated federal record-keeping laws when they used a group chat to discuss a planned military strike in Yemen, Politico reports.
“Messages in the Signal chat about official government actions, including, but not limited to, national security deliberations, are federal records and must be preserved in accordance with federal statutes, and agency directives, rules, and regulations,” the plaintiffs argue.
Updated
The Illinois Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi had an aide hold up Signal messages released by the Atlantic that showed the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, shared in the group exact details of the strikes against the Houthis.
“This is classified information. It’s a weapon system as well as sequence of strikes, as well as details about the operations,” Krishnamoorthi said. “This text message is clearly classified information. Secretary Hegseth has disclosed military plans as well as classified information. He needs to resign immediately.”
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi referring to a blown up printout of the Houthi PC small group while questioning Trump intelligence officials in a House Intel hearing: pic.twitter.com/kkhHUoIvuZ
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) March 26, 2025
Updated
Senator who grilled top Trump officials believes they lied when claiming no classified information was discussed
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, who grilled top security officials during Tuesday’s Senate intelligence committee briefing, appeared on Morning Joe this morning to discuss the recently released text messages published by the Atlantic on Wednesday.
“Well it sure answers that the two witnesses I believe lied when they said, ‘Oh, nothing to see here, nothing classified,’” he said.
“You would have to be an idiot not to understand that what Jeffrey [Goldberg] just laid out is at a huge classification level. That if it had fallen into enemy hands and the Houthis had been able to realign their offenses, American lives could be lost,” he added.
Warner and other senators questioned Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, and CIA director John Ratcliffe about the group chat that discussed war plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen. Gabbard said on Tuesday that “there was no classified material” in the Signal chat.
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As he had done before the Senate the day before, CIA director John Ratcliffe insisted he broke no rules and did not share classified information.
“I used an appropriate channel to communicate sensitive information. It was permissible to do so. I didn’t transfer any classified information. And at the end of the day, what is most important is that the mission was a remarkable success is what everyone should be focused on here, because that’s what did happen, not possibly could have happened,” Ratcliffe told the House intelligence committee.
The House intelligence committee’s top Democrat Jim Himes asked Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, why she had told senators on Tuesday that no details of timing, targets or weapons were revealed in the Signal group chat.
The Atlantic this morning published the transcript of the chat, which showed that defense secretary Pete Hegseth shared such details with the chat’s participants ahead of the US military’s airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
“My answer yesterday was based on my recollection, or the lack thereof, on the details that were posted there ... What was shared today reflects the fact that I was not directly involved with that part of the Signal chat and replied at the end, reflecting the effects, the very brief effects that the national security advisor had shared,” Gabbard replied.
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Gabbard repeats claim 'no classified information was shared' in group chat but admits adding journalist was 'mistake'
The director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, said on Wednesday’s hearing that “it was a mistake” that a journalist was inadvertently included in a Signal chat with top national security officials discussing imminent strikes against the Houthis in Yemen. She doubled down on the claim that no classified information was discussed in the chat.
“The president and national adviser Waltz held a press conference with a clear message. It was a mistake that a reporter was inadvertently added to a Signal chat with high-level national security principles having a policy discussion about imminent strikes against the Houthis and the effects of the strike,” she said.
“National security adviser has taken full responsibility for this, and the National Security Council is conducting an in depth review, along with tech, technical experts working to determine how this reporter was inadvertently added to this chat,” she added.
“The conversation was candid and sensitive, but as the president, national security adviser stated, no classified information was shared. There were no sources, methods, locations or war plans that were shared. This was a standard update to the national security cabinet that was provided alongside updates that were given to foreign partners in the region,” Gabbard said.
Gabbard said that the messaging app Signal “comes pre-installed on government devices”.
“Ideally, these conversations occur in person. However, at times, fast-moving coordination of an unclassified nature is necessary, or in person, conversation is not an option.”
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On Wednesday’s hearing, the Democratic representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, the ranking member of the House permanent select committee on intelligence, condemned defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s handling of the alleged inadvertent leak of a chat about war plans on the messaging app Signal.
“There’s only one response to a mistake of this magnitude: you apologize, you own it, and you stop everything until you can figure out what went wrong, and how it might not ever happen again. That’s not what happened,” Himes said.
“The Secretary of Defense responded with a brutal attack on the reporter who did not ask to be on the Signal chain yesterday. Our former colleague Mike Waltz did the same in the White House and then went on Fox to call Jeff Goldberg a loser. What do you think the people who work for you are seeing and learning from that?” he added.
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Signal group chat officials testify before House intelligence committee
CIA director John Ratcliffe, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, FBI director Kash Patel, and other national security officials are testifying on global threats before the House intelligence committee.
The hearing comes about two hours after the Atlantic published the text messages sent in a Signal group chat discussing the US military operation in Yemen.
The chair of the House permanent select committee on intelligence, Rick Crawford of Arkansas, addressed Tuesday’s security hearing, which was blanketed with questions about the use of the Signal messaging app by US officials and whether classified information was discussed in the chat.
“Unfortunately, instead of exploiting the real and existential threats that face our nation, which is the purpose of this hearing, this issue consumed most of their time,” Crawford said.
“While I will address this topic further in my questions, it’s my sincere hope that we use this hearing to discuss the many foreign threats facing our nation. I have deep concerns about the state of our national security,” he added.
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JD Vance says Atlantic overplayed what he and other officials discussed in the Signal chat
In a post on social media platform X, the vice-president, JD Vance, wrote:
It’s very clear Goldberg oversold what he had. But one thing in particular really stands out. Remember when he was attacking Ratcliffe for blowing the cover for a CIA agent? Turns out Ratcliffe was simply naming his chief of staff.
It’s very clear Goldberg oversold what he had. But one thing in particular really stands out.
— JD Vance (@JDVance) March 26, 2025
Remember when he was attacking Ratcliffe for blowing the cover for a CIA agent? Turns out Ratcliffe was simply naming his chief of staff. https://t.co/BUGbX6gZDZ
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Waltz plays down seriousness of leaked texts
Mike Waltz, the national security adviser who invited Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg into a top-secret US military planning group chat, has played down the impact of leaked text messages, which may have compromised national security.
In a post on X, Waltz wrote:
No locations. No sources & methods. NO WAR PLANS. Foreign partners had already been notified that strikes were imminent. BOTTOM LINE: President Trump is protecting America and our interests.
As previously reported, the Atlantic make the point that if hostile entities had received the texts “or someone merely indiscreet and with access to social media”, the Houthis could have prepared “for what was meant to be a surprise attack on their strongholds. The consequences for American pilots could have been catastrophic.”
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Former Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh says that Pete Hegseth put the lives of US military personnel at risk. Writing on X Singh said:
Pete Hegseth put the sequencing of the entire operation & types of aircraft that would be used to conduct these strikes all before the operation took place. He put the lives of our fighter pilots at risk. Details like this are classified. I am absolutely floored.
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The conversation in the Signal texts published today by the Atlantic magazine focused on attacks on the Houthis and included barbs directed at the US’s European allies.
The Atlantic reports that on the day of the attack on 15 March 2025, the discussion veered toward the operational.
The thread released today by the Atlantic begins with Hegseth under the heading “TEAM UPDATE”:
Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch.
Hegseth continued:
1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package) 1345et: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)
The Atlantic make the point that if these texts had been received by hostile entities “or someone merely indiscreet, and with access to social media”, the Houthis could have prepared “for what was meant to be a surprise attack on their strongholds. The consequences for American pilots could have been catastrophic.”
The Hegseth text then continued with details about when the bombs “will definitely drop”:
We are currently clean on OPSEC”–that is, operational security. Godspeed to our Warriors.
Shortly after, the vice-president, JD Vance, texted the group:
I will say a prayer for victory.
Then at 1.48 pm, Waltz sent the following text, which the Atlantic say contained “real-time intelligence about conditions at an attack site”:
VP. Building collapsed. Had multiple positive ID. Pete, Kurilla, the IC, amazing job.
The Atlantic claim that Waltz was referring to Hegseth, Gen Michael E Kurilla, the commander of Central Command, and the intelligence community.
Vance then wrote: “What?” presumably because he didn’t understand.
At 2 pm, Waltz wrote:
Typing too fast. The first target – their top missile guy – we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed.
The Atlantic report that Vance wrote in his reply: “Excellent.” Then 35 minutes later, Ratcliffe, the CIA director, wrote: “A good start,” which prompted Waltz to send a fist emoji, an American flag emoji, and a fire emoji.
Finally, Hegseth posted:
Great job all. More strikes ongoing for hours tonight, and will provide full initial report tomorrow. But on time, on target, and good readouts so far.
The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg says he does not know why he was included in the Signal group chat.
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The Atlantic releases text messages leaked by White House
The Atlantic has decided to release the text messages allegedly inadvertently leaked to them about a US military operation in Yemen.
They included details of US bombings, drone launches and targeting information of the assault, including descriptions of weather conditions.
The Atlantic claim that “statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Trump – combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts – have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions”.
The magazine added that they think there is a “clear public interest” in releasing the texts and then reproduced numerous messages from the chat between the Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, and top intelligence officials.
They included details of US bombings, drone launches and targeting information of the assault, including descriptions of weather conditions.
More to follow …
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For more than a year, students at US colleges and universities have participated in protests in support of Palestine, as Israel’s war has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. Students have faced suspensions and expulsions over encampment demonstrations and other actions, as schools crack down on participation.
Now, at least five students and academics of color at US universities have been targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), as a part of the Trump administration’s ongoing punishment on Palestinian support.
“What we’re seeing is the use of immigration law to go after visa holders, permanent lawful residents, [over] their speech,” said Samah Sisay, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). “He’s trying to suppress political speech that goes against what the administration wants.”
Despite white students, professors and academics also being heavily involved pro-Palestinian protests, people of color have disproportionately faced sudden arrests and threats of deportation or had their visas revoked.
“We’re just seeing the focus on very specific people,” said Sisay, referring to academics of color. “I think it really is to try to create a wedge in solidarity, the multiracial, multiethnic solidarity that’s been created in support of Palestinian human rights.” Ice’s actions, she said, have “set a warning for students of color at these universities who rely on scholarships and educational support to improve their lives or better the situations for their family”.
A Democrat won a state senate seat in a Pennsylvania district that overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump, offering a ray of hope for the party as it continues to struggle nationally with its response to the Trump administration.
James Malone triumphed on Tuesday in the 36th senatorial district, which voted for Trump over Kamala Harris by more than 15 points in last November’s presidential election, in a victory that Democratic party leadership said “should put Republicans on edge”.
It served as a major upset win for the party, which has seen recriminations spill out into the open after Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader, voted for Republicans’ funding bill to avoid a government shutdown this month.
“I’m very excited and really, really happy that all the work we put in has paid off,” Malone, who won the district by 482 votes, told WGAL-TV.
Under pressure from his rightwing base to challenge judges who have ruled against Donald Trump, speaker of the House Mike Johnson suggested on Tuesday that Congress could consider eliminating certain federal courts.
It forms part of a broader assault on the judiciary, spurred by court decisions that have blocked several Trump administration actions, NBC News reports.
Beyond threats of defunding, Trump and his supporters have called for the impeachment of federal judges who have opposed him – most notably US district judge James Boasberg, who sought to halt the president’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants.
“We do have the authority over the federal courts, as you know. We can eliminate an entire district court. We have power of funding over the courts and all these other things,” Johnson told reporters on Tuesday.
“But desperate times call for desperate measures, and Congress is going to act.”
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Teen member of Musk’s Doge staff provided tech support to cybercrime ring, records show
The best-known member of Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) service team of technologists once provided support to a cybercrime gang that bragged about trafficking in stolen data and cyberstalking an FBI agent, according to digital records reviewed by Reuters.
Edward Coristine is among the most visible members of the Doge effort that has been given sweeping access to official networks as it attempts to radically downsize the US government. It is headed by Musk – the world’s richest person – with a powerful mandate from Donald Trump.
Past reporting had focused on the staffer’s age – he is 19 – and his chosen nickname of “bigballs”, which became a pop culture punchline. Musk has championed the teen on his social media site X, telling his followers last month: “Big Balls is awesome.”
Beginning around 2022, while still in high school, Coristine ran a company called DiamondCDN that provided network services, according to corporate and digital records reviewed by Reuters and interviews with half a dozen former associates. Among its users was a website run by a ring of cybercriminals operating under the name “EGodly”, according to digital records preserved by the internet intelligence firm DomainTools and the online cybersecurity tool Any.Run.
The details of Coristine’s connection to EGodly have not been previously reported.
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Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting law firms and attorneys who challenge his priorities are roiling the legal community, with some capitulating to the administration’s demands amid mounting pressure on the US’s biggest firms to speak out.
The president signed an executive order on Tuesday targeting the firm Jenner & Block over its previous employment of Andrew Weissman, a prosecutor who worked on Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s connections to Russia. The order came after Trump issued similar executive orders targeting three other firms – Covington and Burling, Perkins Coie, and Paul Weiss – over their representation of his political rivals.
Those orders have threatened to cripple the firms by revoking the security clearances of their lawyers, ending access to government buildings and forcing clients who do business with the government to disclose if they are represented by the firm. Trump also issued a separate executive order on Friday directing US attorney general Pam Bondi to investigate lawyers taking actions to block the administration’s priorities.
California representative John Garamendi has suggested Pete Hegseth shared top secret information in a Signal group chat with national security officials due to “personal inadequacies”, the Hill reports.
“What in the hell are you guys doing? And why are you doing that on a commercial chat platform? Makes absolutely no sense. And it’s, in fact, extraordinarily dangerous,” Garamendi told NewsNation on Tuesday.
“And then you bring in the secretary of defense and perhaps for his own personal inadequacies for the job, he decides that he’s got to show that he’s got the really big, important stuff that he can then share with the other teenagers that are chatting about this.”
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Look, it could happen to anyone: I well remember, for example, the time I added my mum to a thread with my siblings discussing what to get her for Christmas.
On the other hand, I don’t have a secure communications facility in my house for when I need to get something out on the family group chat.
Also, we rarely digress from pictures of cute kids to setting out war plans for an imminent set of airstrikes on the Houthis in Yemen.
So perhaps the latest Trump administration hullabaloo isn’t that relatable, after all. Two days after the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that he had been mystifyingly added to a thread on Signal – an encrypted WhatsApp-like instant messaging app – in which vice-president JD Vance, defense secretary Pete Hegseth, and a host of others chatted about a highly sensitive operation, there are as many questions as answers.
How on earth did Goldberg get added in the first place? Why didn’t anybody realise the error? Are White House officials doing this all the time? And how vulnerable are their communications to interception from America’s adversaries?
Today’s newsletter explains this absolute dumpster fire of a story, and why it matters:
To sign up to our morning briefing newsletter, see here.
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Mike Waltz has said he takes “full responsibility” for the security breach, as he had created the Signal group, but emphasised there was no classified information shared.
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Democrats urge US justice department probe of war plans discussion on Signal
Democratic US Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and top Senate Democrats on Wednesday wrote a letter to Republican president Donald Trump and his top officials urging a justice department probe into how a journalist was inadvertently included in a secret group discussion of sensitive war plans.
Trump administration officials have claimed no classified material was shared in the group chat on Signal, an encrypted commercial messaging app.
Democratic senators voiced scepticism, noting that the journalist, Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, reported that defense secretary Pete Hegseth posted operational details about pending strikes against Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, “including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing”.
“We write to you with extreme alarm about the astonishingly poor judgment shown by your Cabinet and national security advisers,” the Democratic senators wrote in Wednesday’s letter, Reuters reported.
“Moreover, given that willful or negligent disclosure of classified or sensitive national security information may constitute a criminal violation of the Espionage Act or other laws, we expect attorney general Bondi to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation of the conduct of the government officials involved in improperly sharing or discussing such information,” the letter added.
Trump said his administration would look into the use of Signal but voiced support for his national security team when questioned about the incident at a White House event on Tuesday with Michael Waltz, his national security adviser.
Trump said he did not think Waltz should apologise, but said he did not think Waltz and the team would be using Signal again soon.
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Denmark welcomes US change of Greenland visit
Denmark’s foreign minister on Wednesday welcomed a US decision to alter a planned visit to Greenland that had sparked a diplomatic standoff between Copenhagen and the White House amid Donald Trump’s interest in taking over the island.
Denmark’s prime minister had said on Tuesday that a planned visit by Usha Vance, the wife of US vice-president JD Vance, to a popular dog-sled race in Greenland was part of an “unacceptable pressure” on the semi-autonomous Danish territory.
The White House on Tuesday announced that the delegation would instead be headed by JD Vance himself, but that it would only visit the US space base at Pituffik in northern Greenland and not the dog-sled race, Reuters reported.
“I think it’s very positive that the Americans cancelled their visit to the Greenlandic society. Instead, they will visit their own base, Pituffik, and we have nothing against that,” foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen told broadcaster DR.
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Homeland security secretary Noem visits the El Salvador prison where deported Venezuelans are held
Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday will visit the high-security El Salvador prison where Venezuelans who the Trump administration alleges are members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang have been held since their removal from the US.
Noem’s trip to the prison – where the incarcerated are packed into cells and never allowed outside – comes as the Trump administration seeks to show it is deporting people it describes as the “worst of the worst”.
Since taking office, Noem has often been front and center in efforts to highlight the immigration crackdown, AP reported.
She took part in immigration enforcement operations, rode horses with Border Patrol agents and was the face of a television campaign warning people in the country illegally to self-deport.
Noem’s Wednesday visit is part of a three-day trip. She will also travel to Colombia and Mexico.
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US intelligence officials to appear at House hearing over leaked military plan
Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with news that Donald Trump’s top intelligence officials will brief House members on Wednesday on global threats facing the US where it is likely they will be questioned again over use of a group text to discuss plans for military strikes in Yemen.
CIA director John Ratcliffe, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and FBI director Kash Patel are among those who were asked to testify before the House intelligence committee as part of its annual review of threats facing the US.
Tuesday’s hearing was dominated by questions about Ratcliffe and Gabbard’s participation in a group chat on Signal in which they discussed plans to strike Houthi rebels in Yemen. The group included a journalist, the Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.
Gabbard and Ratcliffe have said no classified information was included in the messages, but Democrats have decried the use of the messaging app, saying that any release of information about timetables, weapons or military activities could have put US service members at risk.
At Tuesday’s hearing they asked Patel, who was not a participant in the text chain, if he would investigate. It is likely House Democrats will press Patel on the same question on Wednesday.
The national security council has said it will investigate the matter, which Trump on Tuesday downplayed as a “glitch”. Goldberg said he received the Signal invitation from Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, who was also in the group chat.
In other news:
The Senate voted to confirm Marty Makary as the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and Jay Bhattacharya as director of the National Institutes of Health. Both men were skeptics of the Covid-19 response.
In a letter to Trump on Tuesday, representative Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democratic minority in the House, demanded that the president fire his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, for disclosing secret war plans for strikes on Yemen to a Signal group that included a journalist.
Ignoring the uproar in Greenland over the plan for his wife, Usha Vance, to visit the territory this week without an invitation, the US vice-president, JD Vance, announced in a video message that he plans to join her. The White House did, however, scrap plans for the second lady to attend a public event.
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