Official ‘Trump 2028’ hats and shirts have gone on sale in the clearest indication yet that President Donald Trump may seek an unprecedented third term. The Trump Store put the hat in the signature MAGA red color with white lettering on sale on its website on Thursday. The Trump 2028 Hat is $50 and features an embroidered front and an American flag embroidery on the side.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reportedly had the messaging app Signal set up on several Pentagon office computers in an effort to get around a ban on personal phones.
According to the Washington Post, which cited three unnamed sources “familiar with the matter,” Hegseth directed the installation of Signal on his computer following “a discussion among Hegseth and his aides about how they could circumvent the lack of cellphone service in much of the Pentagon,” as well as a personal phone ban in certain areas, to “more quickly coordinate with the White House and other top Trump officials using the encrypted app.”
A spokesman for Hegseth denied the claims, telling the Washington Post that the secretary of defense had “never used and does not currently use Signal on his government computer.”
Two unnamed sources also told the Washington Post that Hegseth also had Signal installed on a second office computer.
The New York Times also spoke to several unnamed sources who made the same claims about Hegseth’s use of Signal in the Pentagon.
“Hegseth had the consumer messaging app Signal set up on a computer in his office at the Pentagon so that he could send and receive instant messages in a space where personal cellphones are not permitted,” reported the Times, which added that the secretary of defense “has two computers in his office, one for personal use and one that is government-issued.”
A source also told the Times that Hegseth “had cables installed in early March so that he could connect a private computer to Signal.”
While Hegseth threatens to have his underlings prosecuted, he can’t keep his own house in order:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had an internet connection that bypassed the Pentagon’s security protocols set up in his office to use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer, two people familiar with the line told The Associated Press.
The existence of the unsecured internet connection is the latest revelation about Hegseth’s use of the unclassified app and raises the possibility that sensitive defense information could have been put at risk of potential hacking or surveillance.
Known as a “dirty” internet line by the IT industry, it connects directly to the public internet where the user’s information and the websites accessed do not have the same security filters or protocols that the Pentagon’s secured connections maintain.
Other Pentagon offices have used them, particularly if there’s a need to monitor information or websites that would otherwise be blocked.
https://apnews.com/article/hegseth-signal-chat-dirty-internet-line-6a64707f10ca553eb905e5a70e10bd9d
The many contradictions of the vice-president should not distract from his ambition
It was inevitable that memes about JD Vance would surface the moment Pope Francis passed away. “It’s good to see you in better health,” the US vice-president told the pope on Sunday. The pontiff died on Monday.
As Donald Trump’s chief attack dog — though not yet his heir apparent — Vance is a prime target of ridicule on liberal social media. But he is also a master troller himself. Vance knows that the surest path to Maga hearts and Trump’s approval is to enrage liberals. The question is whether he means anything by it.
The answer is unclear. Vance has gone from being a never-Trumper who saw Trump as “America’s Hitler” to an arch-Trumper who sees his boss as part of God’s plan. That is as dramatic a political conversion as can happen. Rather than search for an intellectual key, Vance’s shift can be put down to ambition. The better question is whether there are any limits to his ambition. Judging by his performance so far, the answer is not really.
President Donald Trump slammed Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, accusing him of derailing negotiations to end the war in Ukraine while a peace deal was “very close.”
In a long post on Truth Social, Trump described Zelenskyy’s rejection of Russia’s takeover of Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, as “very harmful” to achieving peace.
“It’s inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War,” Trump wrote.
Zelenskyy has consistently rejected the suggestion that his country give up its claim to the Crimean Peninsula.
“There’s nothing to talk about here,” he said at a media conference Tuesday. “This is against our constitution.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth arrived at the Pentagon in January with almost no government experience and huge ambitions to remake the way the military was being run.
In just three months in office, Mr. Hegseth, a former Fox News host, has instead produced a run of chaos that is unmatched in the recent history of the Defense Department.
Mr. Hegseth’s inner circle of close advisers — military veterans who, like him, had little experience running large, complex organizations — is in a shambles. Three members of the team he brought with him into the Pentagon were accused last week of leaking unauthorized information and escorted from the building.
A fourth recently departed member of Mr. Hegseth’s team, John Ullyot, who had been his top spokesman, accused Mr. Hegseth of disloyalty and incompetence in an opinion essay in Politico on Sunday. “The building is in disarray under Hegseth’s leadership,” Mr. Ullyot wrote.
The discord, according to current and former defense officials, includes: screaming matches in his inner office among aides; a growing distrust of the thousands of military and civilian personnel who staff the building; and bureaucratic logjams that have slowed down progress on some of President Trump’s key priorities, such as an “Iron Dome for America” missile-defense shield. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal business.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has reportedly been granted access to sensitive immigration case data.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) gave permission to a team of six DOGE “advisors” to access the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s Courts and Appeals System (ECAS) on Friday, according to documents seen by The Washington Post.
ECAS includes millions of confidential records from immigration court cases, ranging from asylum claims to personal biographical information.
It is not explicitly clear what DOGE’s mission with this data is but it could be part of President Donald Trump‘s to crack down on illegal immigration.
…
The DOGE team of six reportedly includes Marko Elez, a staffer who resigned from the government in February in the wake of a scandal over his association with a social media account that promoted racism and eugenics, which was reported by The Post at the time.
https://www.newsweek.com/doge-access-data-migrants-department-justice-elon-musk-2062429
JD Vance was delivered a “lecture on compassion” by Pietro Paroline, Pope Francis‘ second-in-command this weekend, while many expected to meet with Francis himself.
Vance, who converted to Catholicism with the support of his wife Usha, had a meeting with the Vatican’s second-in-command on Saturday. This followed a significant papal criticism of the Trump administration’s harsh stance on migrants and Vance’s theological defense of it, invoking the ancient Catholic concept of ‘Ordo Amoris’.
…
While not specifically mentioning Vance by name in the letter, the Pope refuted the Vice President’s interpretation of ordo armoris, reports New Republic.
The Pope wrote: “Christians know very well that it is only by affirming the infinite dignity of all that our own identity as persons and as communities reaches its maturity.
A student at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., has had their visa revoked by the federal government, adding a Catholic school founded by U.S. bishops to the growing list of colleges where international students have had their visas revoked by President Donald Trump’s administration.
According to a CUA spokesperson, the student was removed from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, a database the Department of Homeland Security uses to track international students and their statuses.
…
The move is part of a sweeping immigration crackdown by the Trump administration, with the federal government changing the legal status of more than 1,300 international students in the U.S. — often with little to no explanation — according to Inside Higher Ed. A lawsuit filed on Wednesday by some impacted students against the government alleges the reasons for the revocations are often tied to minor offenses such as traffic stops or criminal cases that were dismissed.
…
The Trump administration’s crackdown has impacted more than 210 colleges and universities, including religious colleges such as Baylor University and Oklahoma Christian University, according to Inside Higher Ed.
