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.
His administration meanwhile 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 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 as the White House pushes back by blaming the media.
Trump claims to know nothing about four U.S. soldiers missing in Lithuania
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.
Watch: Trump crowns himself the ‘fertilization president’ at Women’s History Month event
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.”
Top story: Trump announces 25 percent tariffs on all vehicle imports and issues new threat to EU and Canada
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.
Trump asks DOGE leader Elon Musk to investigate Signal blunder
Ariana Baio reports.
ICE arrests Tufts University doctoral student and revokes visa
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.
Trump was ‘p*****’ at Mike Waltz for the text blunder — but it was more than just about the leak, report says
Ariana Baio reports.
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.
Source: independent.co.uk