What to know today
- President Donald Trump held a Cabinet meeting this morning with Elon Musk in attendance. The previous meeting, held earlier this month, delved into Musk's efforts to slash the size of government under the administration's Department of Government Efficiency initiative.
- The White House said it is reviewing how a magazine editor was accidentally added to a group text in which people who appeared to be members of the Trump administration were discussing plans for a military strike in Yemen.
- The federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., heard arguments this afternoon over the Trump administration's efforts to deport five Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely used wartime law. Trump and the Justice Department spent much of last week in a heated back-and-forth with U.S. District Judge James Boasberg.
- U.S. negotiators are meeting separately with Russian and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia to try to broker a deal to end the three-year war. Last week, Trump spoke to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who agreed on terms for a partial ceasefire.
Coverage of this live blog has ended. For the latest news, click here.
Speaker Johnson says Mike Waltz should 'absolutely not' resign over military plans sent to journalist
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters that national security adviser Mike Waltz, a former congressman from Florida, should not resign after The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, reported on text messages he received this month via the Signal app from top officials detailing U.S. military plans in Yemen.
“Should Mike Waltz resign? Absolutely not. He’s exceptionally qualified for the job. He is trusted, trustworthy. Was an extraordinary legislator, but he is, he was made for that, that job, and I have full confidence in him,” Johnson said today on Capitol Hill.
Johnson added he has been told that the administration is determining how Goldberg's number was included and that officials will “improve the process.”
Pressed about discussing classified information on the messaging app, Johnson said it would be a "terrible mistake" for those involved to face "adverse consequences."
“They were trying to do a good job. The mission was accomplished with precision. I think that’s what matters in the end," he said.
Trump officials shared military plans on a private app — 10 years after uproar over Hillary Clinton’s private server
A decade ago this month, America found out that Hillary Clinton used a private email server to communicate while serving as secretary of state — and later that a handful of the messages had classified markings.
The revelations dogged her 2016 presidential campaign, leading to a lengthy FBI investigation and Trump’s promise to put her in prison — “lock her up!” his rally crowds chanted — if he won. He was the victor, but he didn’t pursue a tough-to-win prosecution of Clinton.
Now, two months into Trump’s second presidency, the top officials in his administration were discussing sensitive military operations using a commercial, encrypted cellphone app called Signal, The Atlantic reported today.
Sharing the article on X, Clinton was quick to suggest more than a whit of hypocrisy in the actions of Trump’s national security officials — some of whom harshly criticized her for mishandling classified information and not properly following federal document-preservation laws.
Pam Bondi predicts administration 'will be successful' on appeal in Alien Enemies Act case
Attorney General Pam Bondi defended a Trump administration decision over deportation flights and directly took aim at U.S. District Judge Boasberg during a Fox News interview tonight.
"Judge James Boasberg is trying to control our entire federal policy, our foreign policy, everything we do, one single district judge," Bondi told host Sean Hannity.
"I'm fairly confident we will be successful, and this judge will be knocked down in his ruling, his very poor ruling," she added.
The comments come after an appeals court hearing this afternoon in a case that centers on the Trump administration deporting immigrants under the Alien Enemies Act after Boasberg temporarily blocked the flights.
Bondi predicted yesterday that the Supreme Court "will get involved" in the case and also criticized Boasberg.
Trump has called for Boasberg's impeachment.
Trump officials invoke state secrets privilege in Alien Enemies Act case
The Trump administration is refusing to disclose the details of deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act by invoking the state secrets privilege, according to a new court filing tonight.
The administration’s filing included declarations from Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Rubio said in his statement that disclosing further information about the deportation flights “threatens significant harm to the United States’ foreign affairs and national security interests.”
He added that doing so could cause “foreign state governments to face internal and international pressure,” making them and others less likely to “work cooperatively with the United States in the future.”
The court filing is in response to a deadline of tomorrow set by the judge in the case on whether the administration was invoking the state secrets privilege in this case.
Alex Murdaugh's attorney to represent Hunter Biden in federal libel lawsuit
The South Carolina attorney who represented Alex Murdaugh in a 2023 murder trial told NBC News that he will represent Hunter Biden in a federal libel lawsuit this summer.
Attorney Dick Harpootlian is a former prosecutor and Democratic state senator in South Carolina. He will represent former President Joe Biden's son in his case against Overstock.com founder Patrick Byrne in Los Angeles.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attacks Atlantic editor, says 'nobody was texting war plans'
In his first public comments since The Atlantic story broke today, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth came out swinging. But rather than address the alleged classified information shared on an unclassified app, Hegseth took aim at journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, who wrote the story.
Asked how information about war plans was shared with a journalist and whether the information was classified, Hegseth went after Goldberg, calling him a "so-called journalist."
Asked why military details were shared on Signal and how he found out a journalist was on the chain, Hegseth said: “I’ve heard I was characterized. Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that.”
He then walked away from reporters.
As Trump and his allies push to impeach judges, Speaker Johnson eyes an escape hatch
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., faces mounting pressure from Trump and some of his allies in Congress to impeach judges who are blocking his agenda.
But legislation introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., could provide Johnson with an off-ramp, allowing his members to voice their support for Trump on the issue while avoiding politically perilous impeachment votes that are all but doomed to fail.
Issa’s bill, the “No Rogue Rulings Act,” would bar district court judges from issuing nationwide injunctions, the sort of rulings that have hampered Trump’s fully enacting his plans on issues from deportation to federal agency cuts two months into the new administration. Johnson, a former constitutional attorney, threw his support behind the bill over the weekend.
“We have a major malfunction in our federal judiciary, and practically every week another judge casts aside the tradition of restraint from the bench and opts to be the Trump resistance in robes,” Issa, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, told NBC News today.
Trump signs executive order imposing tariffs on countries importing Venezuelan oil
Trump issued an executive order today that imposes a 25% tariff on imported goods from any country that directly or indirectly imports Venezuelan oil.
The tariff will be enacted starting April 2.
Trump previewed the order in a Truth Social post today that described Venezuela as “very hostile” to the United States.
GOP leaders raise alarm bells over a Florida special election in a deep-red district
Republican leaders have grown privately alarmed about the massive fundraising disparity their candidate, Randy Fine, faces in a special House election in a deep-red Florida district and have swooped in to help resuscitate his campaign at the eleventh hour.
House GOP leaders have in recent days been calling donors to plead for financial help in the race to fill the seat previously held by Mike Waltz, who is now Trump’s national security adviser, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter. In addition, Fine, a state senator, has made personal pleas to Florida-based lobbyists and donors for a quick infusion of cash, according to two sources familiar with those conversations, ahead of the April 1 election.
While party leaders in both Washington and Florida are ultimately confident that Fine will pull off a victory, Republicans say they’re frustrated that they need to intervene in a district that Trump won by 30 percentage points last year.
Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., who leads the House GOP’s campaign arm, said Fine “needs to do better” on his fundraising. But Hudson was confident Republicans would hold onto the seat, and said he did not expect the National Republican Congressional Committee to spend in the race.
Colorado to take down Trump portrait at state Capitol after president demands removal of ‘distorted’ painting
Hillary Clinton. Joe Biden. Rosie O’Donnell. Trump has a long list of foes, and this weekend he added another: a painting of himself.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump blasted a portrait of him that has been hanging in the Colorado state Capitol and demanded its removal.
“Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado, in the State Capitol, put up by the Governor, along with all other Presidents, was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before,” Trump claimed in a lengthy post last night.
He added that he “would much prefer not having a picture than having this one.”
Today, he got his wish.
