The Trump administration is dealing with the fallout of a bombshell report published in The Atlantic Monday that revealed the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was inadvertently added to a group chat with senior members of the Trump administration discussing plans to attack the Iran-backed Houthi militants.
The White House has also continued its immigration crackdown, defending its move to expel hundreds of Venezuelan migrants from the U.S. to El Salvador despite a judge ordering the administration to reverse course.
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance, his wife and a U.S. delegation are set to travel to Greenland this week amid President Donald Trump’s annexation talk.
Read the latest updates below:
Judge Refuses To Drop Demand For More Information On Migrant Flights From Trump Administration
Judge James Boasberg accused the Trump administration of “again evad[ing] its obligations” after Justice Department officials provided a tardy and “woefully insufficient” response to the judge’s previous demands.
Boasberg has ordered the administration to provide concrete details on the two planes full of Venezuelan migrants removed under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 last weekend, as he seeks confirmation that government officials disobeyed a direct order. The White House has insisted that it is complying with all lawful court orders and that Boasberg had no right to tell the pilots to turn around.
The Justice Department’s Wednesday filing was made under seal, but Boasberg said in his response that it “repeated the same general information” previously provided, including the suggestion that the White House was considering invoking the state secrets privilege over facts in the case. That would allow the Trump administration to keep information on the flights secret.
Boasberg demanded, by 10 a.m. Friday, a sworn declaration from someone directly involved affirming that Cabinet-level officials are, in fact, considering invoking the state secrets privilege. He said they have to make a decision on the privilege by March 25. The same day, the administration must file a brief proving they did not violate the judge’s orders.
Individuals on the flights say they have been unjustly targeted and have not been given any chance to defend themselves. One man says the Trump administration deported him over his tattoo, mistaking it for a gang-affiliated symbol when it actually represents his favorite soccer team, Real Madrid.
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Department Of Health And Human Services Will Cut 10,000 Jobs As Part Of Major Restructuring Plan
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will eliminate 10,000 jobs as part of a major restructuring plan, it announced Thursday.
Overall, the agency, which is responsible for monitoring infectious diseases, inspecting foods and hospitals and overseeing health insurance programs for nearly half the country, says it will decrease its workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 positions. That includes 10,000 in layoffs as well as another 10,000 workers who are taking early retirements or buyout offers that were given to nearly all federal employees by the Trump administration.
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Fox News Reporter Shares Damning Reaction To War Plans Group Chat From U.S. Officials
Fox News’ chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin said the group chat that Trump officials inadvertently added a reporter to ahead of a recent bombing campaign in Yemen was possibly “FAR MORE sensitive” than Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claims.
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A Vaccine Skeptic Has Been Hired To Lead A Controversial Autism Study — And Medical Experts Are Appalled
The vaccine skepticism of the current administration is well known at this point. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has a history of sharing misinformation about vaccines, and both Kennedy and President Donald Trump have spread the idea that vaccines are linked to autism, a notion that has been debunked time and time again.
But the fact that this idea has been disproven is not stopping the Trump administration from establishing a large-scale federal study looking at the “link” between vaccines and autism, and the Washington Post reported that David Geier, a known vaccine skeptic, has been hired to head the analysis.
Read more here.
Trump Says He May Give China An Incentive To Approve Possible TikTok Sale
Trump on Wednesday floated the possibility of giving Beijing a small reprieve from tariffs as an incentive to approve the sale of the U.S. operations of TikTok once the U.S. government officially green-lights a deal.
"China is going to have to play a role in that, possibly in the form of an approval, Trump said. “I think they’ll do that. Maybe I’ll give them a little reduction in tariffs or something else to get it done."
"Sounds like something I’d do," Trump continued.
China’s commerce ministry said its position on tariffs hasn’t changed, adding that it’s willing to work with the White House "on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit,” according to Reuters.
Trump Has A Middle-Of-The-Night Meltdown About... Well... So Many Things
Trump fired off a series of wild messages on a number of topics during a flurry of activity on his Truth Social website in the wee hours of Thursday morning.
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Trump Says Pete Hegseth Had 'Nothing To Do' With War Plans That Hegseth Texted To Journalist
Trump on Wednesday downplayed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s role in sharing highly sensitive matters of national security to a group chat that included The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.
“Hegseth is doing a great job, he had nothing to do with this,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, despite screenshots showing the defense secretary sharing plans for U.S. strikes in Yemen with the Signal chat earlier this month.
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Looks Like Signal Isn’t The Only Digital Security Issue For Top Trump Officials
Two more media reports today reveal serious digital security risks among Trump's top officials.
A Wired investigation found that national security adviser Michael Waltz, one of the top Trump officials at the center of the war plans group chat fiasco, likely had a public Venmo account.
When Wired reached out to the White House about the digital payments account possibly belonging to Waltz, the account was immediately made private. The same happened with a public account linked to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
Here's how public Venmo accounts belonging to senior White House officials can be exploited, according to Wired:
"Mixed in with the high-profile names connected to the apparent Waltz Venmo account, which was created in 2017, are a number of accounts appearing to belong to ordinary people, such as several doctors, real estate agents, and a tailor. These are the kinds of low-level connections that, experts say, spies look at for basic information—a relationship with a medical specialist could expose that a person is being treated for an illness that hasn’t been made public—as well as patterns, pressure points, or a way in. Experts call them 'soft targets': people who have access but aren’t protected."
And Der Spiegel, a German news outlet, reported that its staff was able to find mobile phone numbers, email addresses and even some passwords belonging to top officials in the Trump administration, including Waltz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Marco Rubio On War Plans Leak: ‘Someone Made A Big Mistake’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed for the first time the leak of messages among top Trump officials discussing war plans and other matters of national security.
“Obviously someone made a mistake,” Rubio, who was part of the Signal message group, said at a press conference in Jamaica on Wednesday. “Someone made a big mistake and added a journalist. Nothing against journalists, but you ain’t supposed to be on that thing. So they got on there, and this happened.”
Despite the historic breach of national security caused by Trump’s own team, Rubio tried to downplay the impact.
“I’ve been assured by the Pentagon and everyone involved that none of the information that was on there … threatened the operation or lives of our service members.”