A Chinese satellite company linked to the communist government is aiding the Houthis with their attempted attacks on US vessels by giving them imagery the Houthis can use for targeting.
“We can confirm the reporting that Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co., Ltd. is directly supporting Iran-backed Houthi terrorist attacks on U.S. interests,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce <a href="https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-april-17-2025/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on Thursday. “Their actions and Beijing’s support of the company, even after our private engagements with them, is yet another example of China’s empty claims to support peace.”
“We urge our partners to judge the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese companies on their actions, not their empty words,” she continued. “Restoring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea is a priority to President Trump. Beijing should take this priority seriously when considering any future support of CGSTL. The United States will not tolerate anyone providing support to foreign terrorist organizations, such as the Houthis.”
“The United States has raised our concerns privately numerous times to the Chinese government on Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co Ltd’s role in supporting the Houthis in order to get Beijing to take action,” a senior State Department official said, according to the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/628b404b-2a24-4853-8f3c-9caad408ef8f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Financial Times</a>. The official added that China had “ignored” those concerns.
“Chang Guang is one of a handful of ‘ostensibly’ commercial Chinese satellite companies that are in fact deeply embedded in the military-civil fusion ecosystem, supplying global surveillance capabilities to both civilian and military customers,” James Mulvenon, an expert on Chinese military and intelligence services, asserted.
“Under China’s military-civil fusion programme, companies must share technology with the PLA when ordered by the government,” the Financial Times noted. Matthew Bruzzese, a China defense expert, said CGSTL had “close connections” to the Chinese Communist government and the country’s military.
China helps the Houthis by buying vast amounts of Iranian oil, the Atlantic Council <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/china-is-supporting-the-houthis-heres-how-the-trump-administration-can-respond/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pointed out</a> in January, adding, “China is Iran’s biggest customer, with more than 90 percent of Iran’s exports going to China in 2024. As a result of these exports, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/irans-revolutionary-guards-extend-control-over-tehrans-oil-exports-sources-say-2024-12-18/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> received as much as half of the fifty billion dollars in oil revenue that Iran earned last year. In turn, the IRGC uses its funds to support its proxies, including Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis.”

China Launches 18 Satellites From Hainan Commercial Spacecraft Launch Site

China-Linked Satellite Company Helping Houthis Launch ‘Attacks On U.S. Interests’

China

Communist China

Houthis

Iran

Red Sea

Satellites

Terrorism

Trump Administration

World

President Donald Trump announced that officials from his administration will have “top-level” direct talks with officials from the Islamic Republic of Iran this Saturday in hopes of reaching a new nuclear deal. If the talks are not successful, Trump said Iran would be “in great danger.”
&#8220;I think if the talks aren&#8217;t successful with Iran, I think Iran is going to be in great danger.” Trump said. “It’s not a complicated formula. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, that’s all there is.”
Trump declined to say where the talks would take place.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Trump announces that his administration will have “top level” talks with Iran this Saturday.
&#8220;I think if the talks aren&#8217;t successful with Iran, I think Iran is going to be in great danger.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/uEcyAzELgw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/uEcyAzELgw</a>
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) <a href="https://twitter.com/KassyAkiva/status/1909339143026663769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">April 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
The talks follow the United States&#8217; strike on the Houthis, an Iranian proxy group in Yemen that has disrupted global trade and fired ballistic missiles at Israel.
“I think everybody agrees that doing a deal will be preferable to doing the obvious and obvious is not something I want to be involved with or frankly that Israel wants to be involved with if they can avoid it,” Trump said. “So we’re going to see if we can avoid it but it&#8217;s getting to be very dangerous territory.”
Trump announced the talks during his Oval Office meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyanu, who fiercely opposed President Barack Obama’s 2015 Iran deal. <a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-ending-united-states-participation-unacceptable-iran-deal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump withdrew</a> from the deal during his first term in 2018, calling it “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”
Last month, during an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-iran-was-told-to-accept-nuclear-deal-or-face-u-s-military" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump said</a> Iran can be handled militarily or through making a deal.
“I would prefer to make a deal, because I’m not looking to hurt Iran,” Trump said. “They’re great people. I know so many Iranians from this country.”
“I would rather negotiate a deal,” he added. “I’m not sure that everybody agrees with me, but we can make a deal that would be just as good as if you won militarily. But the time is happening now. The time is coming up. Something’s going to happen one way or the other.”
Trump said that he wrote the Iranian regime a letter asking to negotiate.
Last week, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/irans-military-commanders-locked-and-loaded-for-preemptive-strike-on-u-s-bombers-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an Iranian official said</a> the country is “locked and loaded” for a strike on Great Britain’s Chagos Islands in the Central Indian Ocean, after Trump deployed at least three B-2 Spirit stealth bombers last month.
“Top commanders are being urged to launch preemptive strikes on the island and its base if Trump’s threats have become more serious,” an Iranian official informed <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/03/31/iran-urged-to-strike-diego-garcia-base-immediately/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Telegraph</a>.
“Discussions about the island have intensified since the Americans deployed bombers there…Some are suggesting that missiles be fired towards the island, not with the intent to hit anything, but to fall into the water to send a clear message to the Americans that we are serious.”

Donald Trump

Trump Says Iran Will Be In ‘Great Danger’ If Saturday’s Nuclear Talks Fail

Benjamin Netanyahu

Iran Nuclear Deal

The now infamous Signal chat breach — which gave Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg access to a private chat with top officials in President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration — has been linked to the &#8220;automated suggestion&#8221; feature on the iPhone used by National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.
According to a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/06/signal-group-chat-leak-how-it-happened" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> published Sunday by The Guardian, Waltz had intended to include his communications chief Brian Hughes — a former spokesman for Trump — but thanks to an iPhone algorithm that imports potentially &#8220;related&#8221; phone numbers into existing contacts, he also added Goldberg.
To find the connection between Goldberg and Hughes, the investigation had to go back nearly six months to October of 2024 — when Goldberg had sent an email to the Trump campaign about a story The Atlantic planned to publish attacking the president over his behavior toward wounded service members. According to The Guardian&#8217;s report, Hughes had texted then Rep. Waltz (R-FL) — who was serving as the campaign&#8217;s national security surrogate — and had included Goldberg&#8217;s contact information along with the content of his email. Waltz&#8217;s iPhone then associated the included number — Goldberg&#8217;s — with Hughes, adding it to an already saved contact.
Waltz did not contact Goldberg with regard to that story, but instead waited until after it was published and delivered a rebuttal on CNN: &#8220;Don’t take it from me, take it from the 13 Abbey Gate Gold Star families, some of whom stood on a stage in front of a 30,000 person crowd and said how he helped them heal.&#8221;
It was not until March, when Goldberg was included in the Trump &#8220;principals&#8221; group chat — where an imminent strike on Houthi terrorists was discussed in some detail — and then went public with the information, that Waltz was made aware of the mishap. At the time, he told FoxNews that the number had somehow been &#8220;sucked&#8221; into his phone.
&#8220;An iPhone suggestion to update a contact with a phone number seen inside the conversation is what led to Mike Waltz inadvertently saving an Atlantic reporter’s phone number under the name of the person he was chatting with, which was Brian Hughes,&#8221; Marina Medvin posted in reaction to the new report. &#8220;Automated suggestion on tech can be so damn dangerous.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
An iPhone suggestion to update a contact with a phone number seen inside the conversation is what led to Mike Waltz inadvertently saving an Atlantic reporter’s phone number under the name of the person he was chatting with, which was Brian Hughes.
Automated suggestion on tech… <a href="https://t.co/pRZPLPqMRk">pic.twitter.com/pRZPLPqMRk</a>
&mdash; Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarinaMedvin/status/1908904288778060076?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Referencing Waltz&#8217;s initial claim — that Goldberg&#8217;s number had been inadvertently saved under someone else&#8217;s name — The Daily Wire&#8217;s Brent Scher weighed in as well. &#8220;So it really did get sucked into Mike Waltz phone… According to @guardian, the WH forensic report says Brian Hughes, who runs Waltz comms, sent Goldberg’s contact last Oct to push back on a campaign story. Apple added the number under Hughes as a &#8216;contact suggestion update.'&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
So it really did get sucked into Mike Waltz phone…
According to <a href="https://twitter.com/guardian?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@guardian</a>, the WH forensic report says Brian Hughes, who runs Waltz comms, sent Goldberg’s contact last Oct to push back on a campaign story. Apple added the number under Hughes as a “contact suggestion update.” <a href="https://t.co/688DXYiEZl">pic.twitter.com/688DXYiEZl</a>
&mdash; Brent Scher (@BrentScher) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrentScher/status/1908895526977667549?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Throughout, Goldberg has stated that he knows Waltz and has spoken with him — a claim that Waltz has repeatedly denied, and that the Guardian reported was neither confirmed nor ruled out by the investigation into how his number got into the Signal chat.

2023 Concordia Annual Summit – September 18

‘So Damn Dangerous’: Signal Chat Breach Linked To ‘Automated Suggestion’ Feature On iPhone

'So Damn Dangerous': Signal Chat Breach Linked To 'Automated Suggestion' Feature On iPhone

Media

Mike Waltz

Politics

Signal

The Atlantic

President Donald Trump shared footage of a recent military strike on Iran-backed Houthi terrorists from his Truth Social platform, reinforcing his administration&#8217;s promise to take the fight to the Houthis until they stopped attacking commercial shipping lanes.
Trump&#8217;s post, which was also shared by the Defense Department&#8217;s Rapid Response team, read, &#8220;These Houthis were gathered for instructions on an attack. Oops, there will be no attack by these Houthis! They will never sink our ships again!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/CRX63Q3HIW">pic.twitter.com/CRX63Q3HIW</a>
&mdash; DOD Rapid Response (@DODResponse) <a href="https://twitter.com/DODResponse/status/1908286386685296717?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 4, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Chief Pentagon spokesman and Army Ranger veteran Sean Parnell also gave an update regarding the Houthis on Friday as part of the weekly SITREP (situation report) he shared via X.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
To the American Warfighter and the American taxpayer, this is what happened this week. <a href="https://t.co/NNin3PD810">pic.twitter.com/NNin3PD810</a>
&mdash; DOD Rapid Response (@DODResponse) <a href="https://twitter.com/DODResponse/status/1908189176526245899?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 4, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Also this week, the Commander in Chief, President Trump, made clear to the world that the attacks against the Houthis will continue until they are no longer a threat to freedom of navigation,&#8221; Parnell said, beginning at the 26-second mark. &#8220;Secretary Hegseth and our warfighters are proud to defend American interests. If you shoot at U.S. ships, we will shoot at you, plain and simple.&#8221;
Parnell&#8217;s words echoed those of President Trump, who said just a few days earlier that the American military would continue to shoot back as long as the Houthis targeted U.S. ships.
&#8220;The Iran-backed Houthi Terrorists have been decimated by the relentless strikes over the past two weeks,&#8221; Trump posted on Monday. &#8220;Many of their Fighters and Leaders are no longer with us. We hit them every day and night — Harder and harder. Their capabilities that threaten Shipping and the Region are rapidly being destroyed. Our attacks will continue until they are no longer a threat to Freedom of Navigation. The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at U.S. ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The Iran-backed Houthi Terrorists have been decimated by the relentless strikes over the past two weeks. Many of their Fighters and Leaders are no longer with us. We hit them every day and night — Harder and harder. Their capabilities that threaten Shipping and the Region are…
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1906780985888522694?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 31, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

President Trump Swears-In Alina Habba As US Attorney For New Jersey

Trump Shares Footage Of Military Strike On Houthis: ‘They Will Never Sink Our Ships Again’

Military

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump issued a stern warning to Houthi terrorists on Monday: stop shooting at the United States ships, or &#8220;the real pain is yet to come.&#8221;
The president released his <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114258406263396157">statement</a> on social media, adding that &#8220;the Iran-backed Houthi Terrorists have been decimated by the relentless strikes over the past two weeks.&#8221;
&#8220;Many of their Fighters and Leaders are no longer with us,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;We hit them every day and night — Harder and harder. Their capabilities that threaten Shipping and the Region are rapidly being destroyed.&#8221;
The president promised that these attacks will not stop until the Houthis cease shooting at American ships.
&#8220;Our attacks will continue until they are no longer a threat to Freedom of Navigation,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at U.S. ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran.&#8221;
The Daily Wire&#8217;s Tim Pearce <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-pummels-houthi-controlled-cities-in-yemen-in-latest-wave-of-airstrikes-report">reported Sunday</a> that the United States launched airstrikes against the Yemeni cities controlled by Iran-backed Houthi militants beginning Friday and running into Saturday. Those strikes came just a day after the United States hit the Houthi general command headquarters as the United States tries to stop the Houthis from striking Israel or commercial ships in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea and Suez Canal.
The attacks have also garnered unique attention in the United States after a journalist known for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-acknowledges-journalist-was-inadvertently-added-to-high-level-chat-on-houthi-strikes">his critical pieces</a> on Trump was inadvertently added, apparently by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, to a national security group chat in which top Trump officials discussed airstrikes in Yemen.
That chat included Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and other members of Trump’s inner circle.
The White House confirmed last week that the chat appeared to be authentic, and has since said that no classified information was shared. Hegseth has also pushed back against the notion that “war plans” were shared, and the entire Trump team has aggressively messaged that The Atlantic is a liberal, anti-Trump publication and that Goldberg himself is a hack.
Asked by NBC News on Saturday if he still has confidence in Hegseth and Waltz, Trump replied: “I do.”
“I think it’s just a witch hunt and the fake news, like you, talk about it all the time, but it’s just a witch hunt, and it shouldn’t be talked [about],” Trump <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-says-couldnt-care-less-automakers-raise-prices-tariffs-rcna198731">told</a> NBC.
He added: “We had a tremendously successful strike. We struck very hard and very lethal. And nobody wants to talk about that. All they want to talk about is nonsense. It’s fake news.”
Trump has repeatedly said that he isn’t familiar with the Signal app when pressed for specifics on whether his team should have been using it.
“I have no idea what Signal is. I don’t care what Signal is,” Trump said again Saturday. “All I can tell you is it’s just a witch hunt, and it’s the only thing the press wants to talk about, because you have nothing else to talk about. Because it’s been the greatest 100-day presidency in the history of our country.”

President Trump Announces Aviation Safety Executive Orders In The Oval Office Of White House

Donald Trump Warns The Houthis: Stop Shooting At U.S. Ships Or ‘The Real Pain Is Yet To Come’

The &#8220;case has been closed&#8221; at the White House after the high-profile leak of a Signal group chat in which leading Trump administration officials discussed plans for airstrikes on Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Monday.
Leavitt also indicated that National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, who has taken responsibility for the breach, will stay on the job.
&#8220;As the president has made it very clear — Mike Waltz continues to be an important part of his national security team and this case has been closed here at the White House as far as we are concerned,&#8221; Leavitt <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXWhrp20VKg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> reporters.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on the Signal group chat:
&quot;As the president has made it very clear &#8212; Mike Waltz continues to be an important part of his national security team. This case has been closed here at the White House.&quot;<a href="https://t.co/Hz9Ow3YTEj">pic.twitter.com/Hz9Ow3YTEj</a>
&mdash; The American Conservative (@amconmag) <a href="https://twitter.com/amconmag/status/1906766213209878693?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 31, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Since The Atlantic&#8217;s Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/trump-administration-accidentally-texted-me-its-war-plans/682151/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">broke</a> the news last week that he was added to the Signal chat and revealed its contents, some have called for Waltz to resign or be fired. Waltz <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg12ewv7xyo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Fox News that he took &#8220;full responsibility&#8221; for the breach in which Goldberg was added to the chat because he built the Signal group. President Donald Trump <a href="https://x.com/Acyn/status/1904615849450971537" target="_blank" rel="noopener">informed</a> reporters that Waltz was a &#8220;good man&#8221; and &#8220;would continue to do a good job.&#8221;
The controversy that stemmed from the breach, which has become known as &#8220;Signalgate,&#8221; has embroiled other top members of the Trump administration who took part in the thread. One of those officials, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has also faced calls to resign over the information he shared in the conversation. Some lawmakers have <a href="https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/press-releases/chairman-wicker-ranking-member-reed-request-inspector-general-probe-into-signal-incident" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pushed</a> for an investigation by the Pentagon&#8217;s inspector general. Hegseth has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hegseth-fires-back-at-the-media-over-signalgate-reporting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> his &#8220;job&#8221; was to &#8220;provide updates in real-time, general updates in real-time, keep everybody informed.&#8221;
In a post on X last week, Leavitt <a href="https://x.com/PressSec/status/1904512527699968437" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that no classified material was included in the thread and warned that Goldberg &#8220;is well-known for his sensationalist spin.&#8221; She also rejected Goldberg&#8217;s characterization that &#8220;war plans&#8221; were discussed, affirmed that the National Security Council was &#8220;looking into how Goldberg&#8217;s number was inadvertently added to the thread,&#8221; and noted that the White House Counsel&#8217;s Office had provided guidance on communications across different platforms.
On Monday, Leavitt said there have been &#8220;steps made to ensure that something like that can obviously never happen again and we&#8217;re moving forward and the president and Mike Waltz and his entire National Security team have been working together very well if you look at how much safer the United States of America is because of the leadership of this team.&#8221;

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz

‘This Case Has Been Closed’: White House Shuts Book On Signalgate, Stands By Mike Waltz

White House: Signalgate 'Case Has Been Closed,' Stands By Mike Waltz

Executive

Karoline Leavitt

National Security

Scandals

White House

Yemen

Democrats and media just can&#8217;t quit the Signal story, as evidenced by the broadcasts across multiple networks on Sunday morning. On every show, time was devoted to questions about the apparently-accidental inclusion of Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg in a Signal chat group in which top officials discussed an imminent attack on Houthi terrorists.
For those who don&#8217;t spend their Sunday mornings glued to the television — and their Sunday afternoons attempting to dig through a week&#8217;s worth of network and cable news media spin — The Daily Wire has compiled a short summary of what you may have missed.
Despite the fact that the attack discussed in the chat went off without so much as a hitch — and American service members do not appear to have been put in any danger — from ABC News to CNN, hosts and guests discussed whether or not the information discussed in the Signal group amounted to classified information and what should ultimately happen to those who were responsible for it.
On ABC News&#8217; &#8220;This Week,&#8221; anchor Martha Raddatz referred to the mishap as &#8220;jaw-dropping&#8221; and an &#8220;extraordinary national security breach&#8221; — and accused President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration of &#8220;downplaying, deflecting, and at times outright dismissing&#8221; the seriousness of the situation.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
“The Trump administration downplaying, deflecting and at times outright dismissing an extraordinary national security breach.” <a href="https://twitter.com/MarthaRaddatz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MarthaRaddatz</a> breaks down how Trump officials are responding to the Signal group chat containing Yemen strike details: <a href="https://t.co/5uOLPfh8tt">https://t.co/5uOLPfh8tt</a> <a href="https://t.co/hAlAQs6OwQ">pic.twitter.com/hAlAQs6OwQ</a>
&mdash; This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1906347760116273342?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Raddatz then brought in Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) to discuss the situation, and he claimed that despite assurances from multiple Trump administration officials that nothing discussed in the chat had been classified, he knew better.
&#8220;There is no question, regardless of agency, that this was classified,&#8221; Warner insisted, arguing that American lives could have been lost had the information been leaked to the public sooner. &#8220;It insults the intelligence of the American people when someone says, &#8216;Oh, no, nothing classified here.'&#8221;
Warner noted that the intelligence community had previously warned that Signal should not be used for classified information — and continued to insist that the information discussed by the Trump administration officials was classified, but never gave any specifics regarding what exactly had been divulged that was classified.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
“There is no question, regardless of agency, that this was classified.”
Sen. Mark Warner said that if information had been leaked from top Trump officials&#39; Signal chat discussing plans to bomb the Houthis in Yemen, American lives could have been lost. <a href="https://t.co/K6lUzM1jTE">https://t.co/K6lUzM1jTE</a> <a href="https://t.co/mIZpNE1Fla">pic.twitter.com/mIZpNE1Fla</a>
&mdash; This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1906351336188162306?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Raddatz followed by bringing in Rep. Mike Turner — who previously chaired the House Intelligence Committee — and he also suggested that the material discussed was classified by virtue of the fact that military plans were included. He did not mention, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did shortly after the story broke, the fact that the military plans did not include coordinates either for the troops involved or the targets, nor did they give the names and locations of the units tasked with carrying out the attacks.
Still, Turner argued that it &#8220;should be considered classified information and it&#8217;s surprising to find it in an unclassified manner.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
GOP Rep. Mike Turner, former chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said “clearly” subject of military details discussed in the Signal group chat “should be considered classified information and it&#39;s surprising to find it in an unclassified manner.” <a href="https://t.co/oPQ2UURqhG">https://t.co/oPQ2UURqhG</a> <a href="https://t.co/73aXHApjw1">pic.twitter.com/73aXHApjw1</a>
&mdash; This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1906357037929230549?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
On CBS News&#8217; &#8220;Face the Nation,&#8221; Sue Gordon — former principal deputy director of national intelligence — weighed in on the incident, and she complained that too much focus was being given to the fact that no tragedy had resulted from the breach.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t think we should rest on the fact that nothing bad happened this time. We don&#8217;t know whether that communications path has been penetrated, so we don&#8217;t know whether state actors that have lots of resources are just sitting and lurking,&#8221; she said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
There was &quot;nothing&quot; about the military information discussed in the Trump administration&#39;s Signal group chat that was &quot;appropriate&quot; for being shared on that app, says Sue Gordon, former principal deputy director of national intelligence.
&quot;I don&#39;t think we should rest on the fact… <a href="https://t.co/xeoQl76Lcr">pic.twitter.com/xeoQl76Lcr</a>
&mdash; Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1906382615805849628?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Former CENTCOM commander, Retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, pushed back a bit and noted that there was one major component of the story that was getting lost underneath all the noise regarding the Signal chat group — the fact that the Trump administration was successfully taking the fight to the Houthi terrorists in a way that President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration either could not or would not do.
&#8220;I think we have the capability — actually, right now, in Iran&#8217;s weakened state — to threaten them very strongly,&#8221; McKenzie said, adding that he &#8220;wouldn&#8217;t take anything off the table&#8221; with regard to next steps against the Houthis and Iran. The United States, he explained, has &#8220;finally begun to strike the Houthis hard,&#8221; in a way &#8220;that, frankly, eluded the previous administration.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Ret. Gen. Frank McKenzie, former CENTCOM commander, says the &quot;larger story&quot; behind the Signal group chat controversy is that the U.S. has &quot;finally begun to strike the Houthis hard,&quot; at a pace &quot;that, frankly, eluded the previous administration.&quot;
He adds that he &quot;wouldn&#39;t take… <a href="https://t.co/8w9wE150z7">pic.twitter.com/8w9wE150z7</a>
&mdash; Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1906384751407063498?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
On NBC&#8217;s &#8220;Meet the Press,&#8221; Jeffrey Goldberg  claimed that Vice President JD Vance&#8217;s comments in the chat were proof that he didn&#8217;t think President Trump fully grasped the situation.
What Vance actually said in the chat was that he favored delaying the strikes for a month because an immediate strike — besides sending an obvious message to the Houthis — ultimately did more to benefit and bail out Europe than it did for the United States.
&#8220;I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,&#8221; he said, referencing the administration&#8217;s broader position that Europe needed to step up and take an active role in its own defense.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Vance Signal messages suggest he doesn’t think Trump knows what he’s doing, Goldberg says <a href="https://t.co/9P79IZMqjA">https://t.co/9P79IZMqjA</a>
&mdash; Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) <a href="https://twitter.com/MeetThePress/status/1906345176081043831?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
And on CNN&#8217;s &#8220;State of the Union,&#8221; Dana Bash brought in Senator James Lankford (R-OK) — who agreed that an investigation into the Signal chat was &#8220;entirely appropriate.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorLankford?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenatorLankford</a> tells <a href="https://twitter.com/DanaBashCNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DanaBashCNN</a> that it&#39;s &quot;entirely appropriate&quot; for the acting Pentagon inspector general to look into top Trump officials discussing military plans on Signal. <a href="https://t.co/2mYxfcIOfy">pic.twitter.com/2mYxfcIOfy</a>
&mdash; State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/1906338929218863605?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Later on in the broadcast, however, Republican commentator <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/no-accountability-dems-calling-for-hegseths-ouster-trip-over-awol-lloyd-austin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Scott Jennings</a> dismantled the argument that Trump administration heads — particularly Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth&#8217;s and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz&#8217;s — should roll over the breach, pointing out that the bar for such firings had been set by the Biden administration.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨Scott Jennings lays out the plain facts to Dems calling for firings over Signalgate —
JENNINGS: “The bar for firing people like this is really high from the last administration when after the Afghanistan withdrawal, which was a disaster, people died.&quot;
&quot;No accountability was… <a href="https://t.co/eE5n3liLIk">pic.twitter.com/eE5n3liLIk</a>
&mdash; Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesternLensman/status/1906350055574966505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;If you’re trying to assess ‘what should we do about it,’ I hear Democrats arguing, ‘Well, we should fire Pete Hegseth,’ or, ‘We should fire the National Security Adviser,&#8217;” Jennings said. “The bar for firing people like this is really high from the last administration when after the Afghanistan withdrawal, which was a disaster, people died, no accountability was meted out. After the drone strike that vaporized those poor kids and that family, no accountability. After the secretary of defense went AWOL, no accountability.&#8221;

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in Poland

Spin Cycle: But About That Signal Story …

Spin Cycle: But About That Signal Story ...

ABC News

CBS News

NBC News

Pete Hegseth

The United States launched airstrikes against Yemeni cities controlled by Iran-backed Houthi militants over the weekend in a renewed effort to beat down the terror group.
The strikes began on Friday and ran into Saturday. The Houthi-run SABA news agency said bombs killed at least one civilian and wounded four others, according to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/03/29/world-news/us-airstrikes-pound-houthi-controlled-yemen-cities-killing-1-reports/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Post</a>. Houthi soldiers often dress in civilian clothing and the group is known for undercounting its casualty numbers.
The United States has yet to confirm the strike. Houthi-run media reported that bombs struck the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, as well as targets in the governorates of al-Jawf and Saada, all areas under Houthi control, according to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthis-us-airstrikes-israel-hamas-war-b46abf73435b3c340b7fba3d0fff877f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Associated Press</a>.
The strikes came a day after the United States escalated its retaliation against the Houthis by hitting their general command headquarters. The U.S. military released a video of the strike on Friday.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
CENTCOM Forces Attack Houthi Positions&#8230;<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HouthisAreTerrorists?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HouthisAreTerrorists</a> <a href="https://t.co/6pOZhOmTp6">pic.twitter.com/6pOZhOmTp6</a>
&mdash; U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) <a href="https://twitter.com/CENTCOM/status/1905716545667617196?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
U.S. airstrikes have increasingly pummeled the Houthis in recent weeks in an effort to deter the terror group from striking Israel or commercial ships in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea and Suez Canal. The Trump administration has ratcheted up pressure on the terror group, expanding targets from the missile launch sites hit under former President Joe Biden to include top Houthi commanders and key military sites.
The Houthis have threatened commercial shipping and launched attacks on Israel in solidarity with Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza. The increased military action against the Houthis from the United States has yet to stop the terror group.
On Thursday, Israeli missile defenses intercepted two ballistic missiles launched by the Houthis. On Sunday morning, Israeli defenses again intercepted a Houthi ballistic missile, the eighth such missile fired from the Houthis at the Jewish state since March 18, the day Israel’s military renewed operations against Hamas in Gaza after ceasefire negotiations fell apart.
The Houthis as recently as Thursday have also launched attacks against the USS Harry S. Truman, an aircraft carrier stationed in the Red Sea. The terror group has targeted over 100 commercial ships sailing near Yemen since November 2023.

USS Harry S. Truman

U.S. Pummels Houthi-Controlled Cities In Yemen In Latest Wave Of Airstrikes: Report

Israel

United States

Sen. James Lankford (R-LA), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Sunday that he does not believe there is an &#8220;issue of leadership&#8221; with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth following the leak of a Signal group chat in which Trump administration officials discussed plans for airstrikes on Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen.
During an interview on CNN&#8217;s &#8220;State of the Union,&#8221; anchor Dana Bash asked Lankford if Hegseth should take responsibility after noting that the defense secretary &#8220;shared the specific information about the timing and aircraft being used&#8221; in the Signal chat.
&#8220;I think he just joined into an encrypted app,&#8221; Lankford said, adding that he did not &#8220;see it as much of an issue&#8221; because &#8220;they all believed that this was a closed circle of conversation&#8221; and Hegseth was trying to give them &#8220;a heads up&#8221; of the attack plan &#8220;as we had given a heads-up to our foreign partners overseas as well.&#8221;
The White House has <a href="https://x.com/PressSec/status/1904512527699968437" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who publicized the contents of the conversation, was &#8220;inadvertently added&#8221; to the Signal chat and the breach would be investigated by the National Security Council.
In response to the Signal controversy, Hegseth <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hegseth-fires-back-at-the-media-over-signalgate-reporting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> his &#8220;job&#8221; was to &#8220;provide updates in real time, general updates in real time, keep everybody informed.&#8221; Meanwhile, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg12ewv7xyo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">taken</a> &#8220;full responsibility&#8221; for the leak, noting that he built the Signal group.
Lankford said the Signal app was being used for &#8220;normal communication&#8221; and what was &#8220;not normal&#8221; was having a reporter &#8220;in the middle of the&#8221; conversation.
When Bash pressed Lankford on whether he had any doubts about Hegseth&#8217;s leadership, the senator <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1906336511341064491" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, &#8220;No, I don&#8217;t see this as an issue of leadership.&#8221;
Lankford, who had earlier said an inspector general inquiry into the leak would be appropriate, went on to say that people calling for Hegseth for Hegseth to resign was &#8220;way overkill.&#8221;
Hegseth &#8220;is stepping in and has actually led a very successful first attack here on somebody that had attacked the United States over and over again,&#8221; Lankford said. &#8220;During the Biden administration, they had very limited response. Pete Hegseth has actually organized and coordinated an initial response to pushback and make them stop.&#8221;
Lankford also <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1906334416953114725" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>: &#8220;The story behind the story here is that Houthis have attacked American ships 170-some-odd times. So, for the Trump administration to push back on them is an entirely appropriate thing to be able to do. And they are pushing back on them strong to be able to stop their attack on American warships.&#8221;

No ‘Issue Of Leadership’ With Hegseth After Signal Leak: Senate Intel Republican

Congress

James Lankford

U.S.

U.S. Senate

Satellite images have emerged showing a massive staging of B-2 Spirit heavy stealth bombers in the Indian Ocean that have been moved within range of being able to bomb the Houthis in Yemen and nuclear facilities in Iran.
The bombers arrived at the Diego Garcia base this week after taking off from their base in Missouri.
Images showed at least three B-2 bombers on the tarmac alongside multiple C-17A Globemaster III cargo planes, which would be used to transport munitions and other equipment to support a strategic bombing campaign.
However, there may be an additional four B-2 bombers at the base that cannot be seen by satellite because they could be in the four hardened aircraft shelters at the base.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A U.S. official told Axios that the deployment of B-2 bombers to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean is &quot;not disconnected&quot; from President Trump&#39;s two-month deadline for Iran, signaling this is preparation of a military contingency plan should diplomatic efforts fail. <a href="https://t.co/ksZfLwS5Gg">pic.twitter.com/ksZfLwS5Gg</a>
&mdash; GMI (@Global_Mil_Info) <a href="https://twitter.com/Global_Mil_Info/status/1905363355549728905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
A fourth B-2 bomber was en route to the base earlier this week when it was forced to make an emergency landing in Hawaii and there were reports that additional B-2 bombers were preparing to take off from Missouri en route to the base.
Seven B-2 bombers represents more than one-third of America&#8217;s fleet of the bombers, all of which are based out of Missouri.
John Hannah, who served as a national security adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney, told The Wall Street Journal that the amassing of the bombers was an &#8220;unprecedented concentration&#8221; of firepower.
“This unprecedented concentration of overwhelming U.S. firepower in close proximity to the region is intended to signal to the Houthis that…unless they stand down immediately, things are about to get much, much worse for them,” he said.
Rebeccah Heinrichs, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute and the director of its Keystone Defense Initiative, agreed.
&#8220;Iran is vulnerable and outmatched. It’s not even close,&#8221; she told The Daily Wire. &#8220;If the president of the United States is serious about ensuring Iran never gets a nuclear weapon on his watch, there will not be a better time for him to guarantee that.&#8221;
President Donald Trump and his national security team have made it abundantly clear to Iran that they will not be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon and that they have less than two months to enter a nuclear agreement or else the United States military will remove their program for them.
Top Trump senior adviser Dan Scavino posted a video on X this week showing B-2 bombers flying after news surfaced that they were being deployed to the base.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber🔥 <a href="https://t.co/cw5SRsNSAQ">pic.twitter.com/cw5SRsNSAQ</a>
&mdash; Dan Scavino Jr.🇺🇸🦅 (@DanScavino) <a href="https://twitter.com/DanScavino/status/1904710834527363553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 26, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The B-2 bomber is the only aircraft in the world capable of carrying the the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), a 30,000-pound bunker buster that is designed to penetrate 200-feet of rock and concrete underground before it detonates a 6,000-pound high explosive warhead. The MOP is the most powerful non-nuclear bunker buster bomb ever built.
The munition could be critical to operations in Yemen where the Houthis have deep, underground munition sites.
In Iran, some of the Islamic regime&#8217;s nuclear facilities are located under the side of a mountain — thus ensuring that the MOP would be needed to destroy them.

Future 30,000-pound bomb reaches mile stone

Trump Stages ‘Unprecedented Concentration Of Overwhelming U.S. Firepower’ At Base Near Mideast

Global Politics

Iran Nuclear

On Monday, Jeffrey Goldberg, the execrable editor of The Atlantic, dropped a bombshell story. Goldberg is basically a stand-in for Barack Obama&#8217;s foreign policy team.
He broke the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/trump-administration-accidentally-texted-me-its-war-plans/682151/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">story</a> that he was accidentally included in a Signal chat that was basically comprised of every top member of Team Trump in the national security sphere, ranging from the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, to National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, to Vice President of the United States JD Vance, to Stephen Miller, a top adviser to President Trump.
They were all in a Signal chat discussing the upcoming military strike on the Houthis. Waltz accidentally included Goldberg in this Signal chat.
What exactly happened here? The answer is almost certainly that Waltz meant to include the U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
Signal is an encrypted messaging service that is basically supposed to be uncrackable by outside sources. When using Signal — as I myself do — you can choose how your name appears in its identity line. You can either pick your full name or your initials.
My assumption is that Jamieson Greer opted to use his initials, “JG,” and that whoever put together the group selected Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic instead.
This does not mean, as so many folks who do not like Mike Waltz surmise, that he was regularly chatting with Goldberg. It just means that Goldberg was in a list of contacts that included Greer, both of them used their initials “JG,” and he selected the wrong one.
Obviously, the biggest issue is the leak itself. How did this happen?
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2165-member-exclusive">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
President Trump was asked about this yesterday, and said, “I don&#8217;t know anything about it. I&#8217;m not a big fan of The Atlantic. To me, it&#8217;s a magazine that&#8217;s going out of business. I think it&#8217;s not much of a magazine, but I know nothing about it.” When told the chat was discussing the attack on the Houthis, Trump <a href="https://x.com/yashar/status/1904250234236289151">replied</a>, “The Houthis? You mean the attack on the Houthis? Well, it couldn&#8217;t have been very effective because the [U.S.] attack was very effective. I can tell you that.”
When Hegseth was asked about this, he <a href="https://x.com/DODResponse/status/1904311661629964334" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tore into</a> The Atlantic as well: “So you&#8217;re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who&#8217;s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again, to include the, I don&#8217;t know, the hoaxes of ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’ or the ‘fine people on both sides’ hoax or ‘it&#8217;s suckers and losers’ hoax. This is a guy who peddles in garbage.”
I&#8217;m on board. I think The Atlantic, particularly Goldberg, is not a good representative of the journalistic institution. He was basically a stenographer for Barack Obama. But it was confirmed that the Signal chat involved all these players, and the story was real.
That raises a couple of questions. One is legal. There are people who are attempting to claim that this was somehow violative of criminal law, that this was a breach of Official Records Acts because an auto-delete function can be activated in Signal chats.
The use of terms in The Atlantic piece such as “high side” suggests that there was an entire other thread that was going on inside these sort of classified government rooms. That was preserved. So, there&#8217;s that.
Second, the president of the United States has the ability to simply declassify whatever he wants. So the idea that this is some violation of law is overstated. Is it a scandal? Sure, it&#8217;s a scandal when there&#8217;s a screwup this big. If you accidentally include a journalist in a high-ranking discussion about the precise location of a bombing, that is a major problem, of course. It is a breach of security.
But I am not willing to hear such claims from people on the Democratic side of the aisle who were perfectly fine with the Hillary Clinton email issue. This is one of the lines that the Left is hammering: “You guys, you fussed all about Hillary Clinton and her emails and keeping those on her own private server.”
First, we should recognize that what Hillary Clinton did and what happened here (inviting a journalist into a group chat) are both quite bad. Obviously, that involves high-ranking discussions of national security matters that are classified. That is a giant booboo.
As much as I despise Goldberg as a human being, I think he actually did the responsible thing in not printing, for example, operational details or blowing the operation beforehand, which he certainly could have done.
With that said, the reason that everyone is so casual about the use of classified material these days is because of the original sin of James Comey not prosecuting Hillary Clinton over her emails. That set up an entire permission structure for people to mishandle classified materials — unless you’re a Republican.
That is the way this works. If Hillary Clinton uses classified materials, and she puts them on a private server — which Comey of the FBI openly acknowledged was likely accessed by foreign sources — and no prosecution attends, how can that rule apply to anybody else?
This is why it was so ridiculous when they tried to go after Trump for the mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago at the same exact time that Joe Biden had classified documents in his garage.
This issue is largely played out, in the sense that while something can be a giant screwup, nobody takes it as a criminal-level screwup at this point. That was laid to rest in 2015 and 2016 by the operation to let Clinton off the hook back for her email scandal.
When the Left says, “We&#8217;ve now heard the end about her emails,” the reality is, “But her emails,” was the inciting event for an entire string of mishandling of classified materials on both sides of the aisle.
Some Democrats say this could have cost lives. As it stands, that is hypothetical and did not happen in reality. A giant screwup is not quite the same thing as an intentional move to endanger human life on the American side of the aisle.
It&#8217;s also worth noting that many of the same people who are very upset with this particular situation would have been perfectly happy if the war plan had been leaked by a Trump administration insider and printed on the front page of The New York Times — which happened all the time in the first Trump administration.
What is interesting is the mobilization on one side of the Republican aisle against Waltz in particular, because there are really two issues that are of note with regard to this leak.
One is the leak itself, which obviously is deeply noteworthy. And the administration should make sure nothing like this ever happens again.
But then, there is the second issue, which is what was actually said in the leak. I have noticed that the partisans of Vance are saying that the real story is the leak, while partisans of Waltz are saying that the real story is what was said in the chat.
The answer is both. Both of these things are actual real stories, and neither should be obscured.
People who are fans of the vice president are shifting the focus away from what Vance actually said in the chat, which is another fascinating aspect to this.
This is a window into the open foreign policy debates happening inside the Trump administration. Trump says we are going to reopen freedom of trade and freedom of the seas. We&#8217;re going to strike the Houthis; we&#8217;re not going to be cowards as the Biden administration was.
A consequential discussion ensues in the chat: part of the administration says we need to go punch the Houthis in the mouth, but Vance says we should not punch the Houthis in the mouth and then puts forward a pretty milquetoast delay tactic. Vance posited an open disagreement with President Trump: “I&#8217;m not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now.”
It isn’t. Striking the Houthis is not inconsistent with his messaging on Europe.
By the way, the argument that only 3% of U.S. trade runs through the Suez but 40% of European trade does and thus it doesn&#8217;t matter for the United States if trade moves through the Suez Canal is incredibly silly because trade is intertwined. If the price of goods drastically goes up in Europe, then the price of goods in the United States will go up as well — because we trade with Europe.
Vance’s remarks bespeak an entirely different geopolitical strategy than what the Trump administration as a whole has been promoting. When looking past the leak issue to the actual content, Waltz, Hegseth, and Miller reflect the priorities of the president of the United States.
But Vance? Not so much. When he says, “This is really about cramming it down on the Europeans, so why don&#8217;t the Europeans do it,” he knows full well that the Europeans are not capable of taking on the Houthis. He also understands how global trade works.
This really suggests that the vice president has a very different view of foreign policy from Trump’s, a view that he expressed pretty clearly before he was vice president when he said he didn&#8217;t care whether Russia took Ukraine. That is certainly a view that bespeaks of foreign policy and spheres of influence — essentially, that Russia should have its own sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, stretching all the way down into the Middle East, and that the United States should basically remove itself from the world, which may or may not mean a broader sphere of influence for the Chinese.
Vance has a very different foreign policy than the Trump foreign policy. That&#8217;s just reality.
When he makes statements that openly conflict with the President of the United States’ statements, that is another side to this story.
There are two dueling narratives, and it will be interesting to see how it shakes down inside the administration.

US-DEFENCE-DIPLOMACY

The National Security Story

Ben Shapiro

Department of Defense

JD Vance

National Security Agency (NSA)

Opinion

President Trump

Social Media

Stephen Miller

Tulsi Gabbard

White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz responded to the explosive report in The Atlantic from a reporter who was accidentally included in a Signal chat group where high-level Trump officials were discussing a forthcoming strike on Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen.
Waltz made the remarks to reporters during a meeting on Tuesday where other administration officials were present as the president signed executive orders. He said he has never met or communicated with Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, who wrote the story.
&#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of journalists in this city who have made big names for themselves [by] making up lies about this president, whether it&#8217;s the Russia hoax or making up lies about Gold Star families,&#8221; Waltz said. &#8220;And this [journalist] in particular, I&#8217;ve never met, don&#8217;t know, never communicated with and we are looking into him, reviewing how the heck he got into this room.&#8221;
&#8220;But I&#8217;ll tell you what, the world owes President Trump a favor,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Under Biden, global shipping was shut down — pin-prick attacks months between them, our destroyers being fired upon dozens of times. President Trump took decisive, active action with his national security team, took out the head missileer, knocked out missiles, knocked out headquarters, knocked out communication sites, and for once, as we hear, as you all hear, from every one of our allies, thank God for American leadership again. Thank God for American strength.&#8221;
Waltz said that Goldberg &#8220;wants the world talking about more hoaxes and this kind of nonsense, rather than the freedom that you&#8217;re enabling.&#8221;
&#8220;And a key part of our sovereignty is open sea lanes and knocking the crap out of terrorists, which is exactly what your team and Pete Hegseth, a good friend and fellow veteran, is leading the charge on,&#8221; he added.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
BREAKING
After President Trump was asked about the Yemen Signal group chat, he asked National Security Advisor Mike Waltz to weigh in.
These are the first public comments from Waltz, who reportedly added Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the group chat by accident,… <a href="https://t.co/s7I8byz31Y">pic.twitter.com/s7I8byz31Y</a>
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) <a href="https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1904612524319719899?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 25, 2025</a></blockquote>

US-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY-TRUMP-AMBASSADORS

Mike Waltz Responds To Controversy Over Signal Chat On Houthi Strike Plans

Menu