Daily Beast: Fox News Analyst Floored by Hegseth’s Attempt to Deny Bombshell Leak

Trump’s Bimbo #3 Pam Bondi needs to butt out & mind her own business. Non-violent protest is protected free speech. Read the First Amendment, toots. If you can read.

The bell has rung to signal the start of Round 2 between Attorney General Pam Bondi and Rep. Jasmine Crockett, as Trump’s top legal enforcer demands the Texas Democrat apologize to Tesla shareholders for her public criticism of the automaker.

The saga started after Crockett voiced her support for #TeslaTakedown, a group organizing nonviolent protests against Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company. In response, Bondi told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo Monday that the congresswoman needed to “tread very carefully.”

Crockett appeared shortly after on MSNBC to remind Bondi that she had not “promoted violence whatsoever.”

But Bondi was not done.

And it goes on …

Pam Bondi Wants Jasmine Crockett to Apologize to Tesla Shareholders

Fox News: Fox News Analyst Floored by Hegseth’s Attempt to Deny Bombshell Leak

Fox News political analyst Brit Hume expressed astonishment after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, his former colleague at the network, attempted to deflect a question about inadvertently leaking plans for airstrikes in Yemen.

Hegseth was one of more than a dozen Trump administration national security officials who were added to a group chat that mistakenly included The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who revealed the government’s massive blunder in a story for the magazine.

Noting the “shocking recklessness” of the officials, Goldberg wrote that one message sent to the group by Hegseth “contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.”

Goldberg, who has the same initials as U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, was mistakenly added to the group by National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.

When asked about the story by a reporter, Hegseth’s initial response was to duck the burgeoning scandal and attack Goldberg.

Fox News Analyst Floored by Hegseth’s Attempt to Deny Bombshell Leak

NBC News: Trump administration live updates: Military plan texts draw Senate scrutiny; more executive orders expected today

President Donald Trump stood by his national security adviser after the group chat mishap.

Of course Trump stood by his stooges — his suck-up sycophants can do no wrong.

Trump administration live updates: Military plan texts draw Senate scrutiny; more executive orders expected today

Wall Street Journal: 21-Year-Old Columbia Student Protester Sues Trump to Stop Deportation

Homeland Security seeks to arrest the green-card holder, originally from South Korea who has lived in the U.S. since age 7

Her crime? She attended a sit-in on March 5, was arrested, given a citation, and released.

21-Year-Old Columbia Student Protester Sues Trump to Stop Deportation – WSJ

UK Daily Mail: Whose side ARE they on? Fury at US plot to ‘extort’ Europe over key global shipping route as extraordinary security bungle reveals Team Trump branding closest allies ‘pathetic freeloaders’

MPs voiced fury today after an extraordinary security bungle revealed some of Donald Trump’s most senior team condemning Europe as ‘pathetic freeloaders’.

A bombshell exchange on the Signal messaging app – accidentally shared with a journalist – showed an elite group including JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and national security advisor Mike Waltz voicing ‘loathing’ for their long-term allies.

They also discuss how to get money out of European countries in return for US military strikes intended to stop Houthi rebels disrupting critical shipping routes in the Red Sea.

But UK politicians said glimpse behind the scenes showed America was ‘unreliable’ and accused them of plotting ‘extortion’. One normally US-friendly MP described the situation as a ‘nightmare’ and warned Europe must ‘take it seriously and not think it’s just casual chat’. 

Whose side ARE they on? Fury at US plot to ‘extort’ Europe over key global shipping route as extraordinary security bungle reveals Team Trump branding closest allies ‘pathetic freeloaders’ | Daily Mail Online

New York Times: I Don’t Know How Pete Hegseth Can Look Service Members In the Eyes

I don’t know how Pete Hegseth can look at service members in the eyes. He’s just blown his credibility as a military leader.

On Monday, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg published one of the most extraordinary stories I’ve ever read. Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz, apparently inadvertently invited Goldberg to join a Signal group chat (Signal is an encrypted messaging app) that seemed to include several senior Trump officials, including Stephen Miller, JD Vance, Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth.

A National Security Council spokesman told The Atlantic that the chat “appears to be authentic.”

No one apparently noticed Goldberg’s presence, and he had a front-row seat as they debated Trump’s decision to attack the Houthi rebels, an Iran-backed militia that had been firing on civilian shipping in the Red Sea.

Then, at 11:44 a.m. on March 15, the account labeled “Pete Hegseth” sent a message that contained “operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying and attack sequencing.”

This would be a stunning breach of security. I’m a former Army JAG officer (an Army lawyer). I’ve helped investigate numerous alleged spillages of classified information, and I’ve never even heard of anything this egregious — a secretary of defense intentionally using a civilian messaging app to share sensitive war plans, without even apparently noticing a journalist was in the chat.

Opinion | I Don’t Know How Pete Hegseth Can Look Service Members In the Eyes – The New York Times

Washington Post: Trump’s shocking military plan leak epitomizes a sloppy operation

The second Trump administration has clearly made a decision to move fast and break things. Largely gone are the establishment Republican figures and steady hands that sometimes resisted President Donald Trump during his first term. In their place are a bunch of people with less subject-matter and governmental experience but with the zeal of MAGA true believers, eager to implement Trump’s complete governmental overhaul and to bust through the traditional guardrails in the process.

The result is a very — and increasingly — sloppy first two months, by any objective measure.

The editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added to the string of messages on Signal, an open-source encrypted messaging service. The group included the names of prominent administration figures, such as national security adviser Michael Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance, all strategizing about the impending attacks.

The messages were sent before the strikes began last weekend and previewed almost precisely when they ultimately took place.

Trump’s shocking military plan leak epitomizes a sloppy operation

Associated Press: Trump officials texted war plans to a group chat in a secure app that included a journalist

Top national security officials for President Donald Trump, including his defense secretary, texted war plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen to a group chat in a secure messaging app that included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic, the magazine reported in a story posted online Monday. The National Security Council said the text chain “appears to be authentic.”

Goldberg said he received the Signal invitation from Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, who was also in the group chat.

As expected, Hegseth resorts to character assassination rather than explaining the lapse in security:

Hegseth in his first comments on the matter attacked Goldberg as “deceitful” and a “discredited so-called journalist” while alluding to previous critical reporting of Trump from the publication. He did not shed light on why Signal was being used to discuss the sensitive operation or how Goldberg ended up on the message chain.

Trump officials text Yemen war plans to Signal group chat with journalist | AP News

Lobbyist slips corrupt Vice President Vance an “extra” $170,000

The corruption continues unabated, shamelessly, in plain sight — VP Dunce just got $170,000 slipped into his wallet. And what will the government contractor / lobbyist receive in return?

JD Vance’s Home Sold To Government Contractor And Lobbyist Who Was A Trump Appointee

Donald Trump is lying about Social Security. Elon Musk is sabotaging it.

Donald Trump is lying about Social Security. Elon Musk is sabotaging it. Together, they’ve created a slow-motion theft disguised as reform — a deliberate, calculated effort to break America’s most important safety net and blame the victims when it fails.

This isn’t just reckless governance. It’s cruelty wrapped in a spreadsheet — a war on America’s elderly, waged by a billionaire with a god complex and a president too lazy to learn the facts.

THE LIE THAT STARTED IT ALL

In his recent speech to Congress, Trump stood before the nation and claimed that millions of “dead” people were still in the Social Security system, draining taxpayer dollars with fraudulent checks. He said there were 4.7 million people aged 100 to 109 still on the rolls. He claimed 3.6 million people over the age of 110 were receiving benefits. By the time he suggested nearly 3.5 million people aged 140 to 149 were cashing Social Security checks, it sounded less like a speech and more like a fevered rant from a man who still believes windmills cause cancer.

The numbers weren’t just wrong — they were laughably impossible. The SSA’s own data shows that only about 44,000 records with unverifiable birthdates are still linked to active benefits. The agency has long had automated systems in place that suspend payments for anyone listed as 115 or older unless they actively prove they’re alive. Trump’s wild claims about centenarians on the take weren’t just exaggerated — they were fantasy.

But the truth didn’t matter. Trump’s lie wasn’t meant to inform. It was meant to create panic — to convince Americans that Social Security is a bloated, broken program riddled with fraud. Once that lie took root, the rest of his plan could unfold.

Donald Trump is lying… – Fear and Loathing: Closer to the Edge | Facebook