Trump to meet with top Atlantic editor who was accidentally added to Hegseth Signal group chat – live
Trump to meet with the Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg today
Maya Yang
Donald Trump will meet with Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, today.
In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump wrote:
Later today I will be meeting with, of all people, Jeffrey Goldberg, the Editor of The Atlantic, and the person responsible for many fictional stories about me, including the made-up HOAX on ‘Suckers and Losers’ and, SignalGate, something he was somewhat more ‘successful’ with.”
Trump went on to say that Goldberg is bringing along with him the Atlantic’s reporters Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker. He added that he was told by his representatives that the story the Atlantic is writing will be called “The Most Consequential President of this Century.”
I am doing this interview out of curiosity, and as a competition with myself, just to see if it’s possible for The Atlantic to be ‘truthful.’ Are they capable of writing a fair story on ‘TRUMP’?” he said in his Truth Social post.
In March, Goldberg found himself in the center of a scandal when White House national security adviser Mike Waltz accidentally added Goldberg into a private Signal group chat in which senior members of Trump’s administration – including vice president JD Vance and defense secretary Pete Hegseth – discussed attack plans on Yemen.
Following the Atlantic’s reporting of the group chat, Trump spun the scandal as not a major security breach by his administration but rather a media lapse.
Key events
As we reported earlier, Donald Trump has lashed out at a lawyer for the Trump Organization who is also representing Harvard University in its lawsuit against his administration, saying the company should fire him.
Trump’s post on his social media platform Truth Social did not name the attorney, but it appeared to describe prominent Washington lawyer William Burck of law firm Quinn Emanuel. The Trump Organization is run by Trump’s sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.
Asked whether Burck still worked for the Trump Organization, Eric Trump said in a statement on Thursday:
I view it as conflict and I will be moving in a different direction.
He did not elaborate.
Burck is a lead attorney for Harvard in a lawsuit filed this week accusing the Trump administration of illegally moving to freeze more than $2bn in federal funding as part of a pressure campaign against the research institution and other schools.
In January, the Trump Organization said it retained Burck, a longtime Republican insider, as an outside ethics adviser to help develop and maintain internal policies to ward against conflicts of interest.
Burck and Quinn Emanuel did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Burck, a former White House lawyer for former president George W Bush, has also represented Steve Bannon and other Trump backers. Quinn Emanuel, with more than 1,000 lawyers, is a longtime law firm for Tesla CEO and Trump ally Elon Musk.
Harvard’s lawsuit is not the firm’s only case opposing the administration. Quinn Emanuel is separately representing wrongly deported man Kilmar Ábrego García in his lawsuit seeking his return from El Salvador to the US.
A hearing is scheduled for Monday in Boston in Harvard’s lawsuit against the Trump administration.
Trump to meet with the Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg today
Maya Yang
Donald Trump will meet with Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, today.
In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump wrote:
Later today I will be meeting with, of all people, Jeffrey Goldberg, the Editor of The Atlantic, and the person responsible for many fictional stories about me, including the made-up HOAX on ‘Suckers and Losers’ and, SignalGate, something he was somewhat more ‘successful’ with.”
Trump went on to say that Goldberg is bringing along with him the Atlantic’s reporters Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker. He added that he was told by his representatives that the story the Atlantic is writing will be called “The Most Consequential President of this Century.”
I am doing this interview out of curiosity, and as a competition with myself, just to see if it’s possible for The Atlantic to be ‘truthful.’ Are they capable of writing a fair story on ‘TRUMP’?” he said in his Truth Social post.
In March, Goldberg found himself in the center of a scandal when White House national security adviser Mike Waltz accidentally added Goldberg into a private Signal group chat in which senior members of Trump’s administration – including vice president JD Vance and defense secretary Pete Hegseth – discussed attack plans on Yemen.
Following the Atlantic’s reporting of the group chat, Trump spun the scandal as not a major security breach by his administration but rather a media lapse.
Trump denies aid for Arkansas after storms that killed more than 40 people
Gloria Oladipo
Donald Trump has denied federal disaster relief funds to the people of Arkansas, which saw dozens of people die from a series of deadly tornados last month, so legislators are pleading for him to reconsider.
More than 40 people have been found dead after a series of tornados and severe storms hit Arkansas and neighboring states Mississippi and Missouri in March, according to CNN.
Given the scale of the disaster, the state’s Republican governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, requested federal disaster aid as a part of an emergency declaration. That request was later denied by the Trump administration.
Reuters notes that the supreme court previously weighed in on Trump’s targeting of transgender troops during his first term in office, allowing the defense department in 2019 to enforce a more limited restriction that had let certain personnel diagnosed with gender dysphoria, after entering the military, to continue to serve.
In the Washington state case, seven active-duty transgender troops, a transgender man seeking to enlist and a civil rights advocacy group sued over the ban. In blocking the policy, US district judge Benjamin Settle called it an “unsupported, dramatic and facially unfair exclusionary policy” and that Trump’s administration had provided no evidence of any harm that had resulted from transgender individuals’ presence in the armed services.
The San Francisco-based ninth US circuit court of appeals declined the administration’s request to put Settle’s order on hold pending an appeal.
Trump has targeted the rights of transgender Americans in a series of executive orders including one stating that the US government will recognize only two sexes, male and female, and that they are “not changeable”. Trump also signed an order to end federal funding or support for healthcare that aids the transition of transgender youth and another one attempting to exclude transgender girls and women from female sports.
Trump administration asks US supreme court to allow enforcement of transgender military ban
Donald Trump’s administration asked the US supreme court on Thursday to allow implementation of his order banning transgender people from serving in the military, one of a series of sweeping directives by the president to curb transgender rights.
The justice department in a filing requested that the court lift Seattle-based US district judge Benjamin Settle’s nationwide order blocking the military from carrying out Trump’s prohibition on transgender service members while a legal challenge to the policy proceeds. Settle found that Trump’s executive order likely violates the US constitution’s fifth amendment right to equal protection under the law. The judge also said there was no evidence that trans troops harm military readiness.
Trump in January signed an executive order that cast the gender identity of transgender people as a “falsehood” and asserted that they are unable to satisfy the standards needed for service in the American armed forces. His order stated:
A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.
The directive reversed a policy implemented under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden to allow transgender troops to serve openly in the American armed forces.
The Pentagon later issued guidance to implement Trump’s order, disqualifying from military service current troops and applicants with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria or who had undergone gender transition steps. The guidance allowed people to be considered for a waiver on a case-by-case basis if their service would directly support “war-fighting capabilities”.
Donald Trump said on Thursday that Boeing “should default China” for not taking the planes it committed to purchase.
“This is just a small example of what China has done to the USA, for years,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Boeing is looking to resell potentially dozens of planes locked out of China by Trump’s tariff war after repatriating a third jet to the United States rather than store it without willing buyers.
Justice department brings first terrorism case against alleged high-ranking Tren de Aragua gang member
The justice department has charged an alleged high-ranking member of Tren de Aragua in Colombia with terrorism offenses, making the first case of its kind against a member of the gang the Trump administration has designated a foreign terrorist organization, the Associated Press reports.
The case is part of a broad push to target Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Venezuelan gang that has been blamed for drug smuggling and violence in the US. Donald Trump has designated the gang a foreign terrorist organization and an invading force under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which has been used to justify the deportation of alleged gang members to a notorious El Salvador mega-prison.
The justice department’s application of a criminal statute primarily reserved in recent years for extremist groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaida underscores the extent to which the administration is relying on a strikingly expansive definition of terrorism as it pursues a national security agenda focused on drug trafficking and illegal immigration.
“TdA is not a street gang – it is a highly structured terrorist organization that put down roots in our country during the prior administration,” attorney general Pam Bondi said in a statement. “Today’s charges represent an inflection point in how this Department of Justice will prosecute and ultimately dismantle this evil organization, which has destroyed American families and poisoned our communities.”
Jose Enrique Martinez Flores, 24, was charged in Texas federal court with drug offenses as well as conspiring to provide and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Prosecutors described him as part of the “inner circle of TdA leadership”, and accused him of playing a role in the international distribution of cocaine.
He is in custody in Colombia awaiting further proceedings. The justice department said he faces up to life in prison.
The material support statute has long been a favored tool of the justice department to build prosecutions against people who are suspected of facilitating the operations of a militant group but not always carrying out violence themselves.
The addition of TdA to the state department list of foreign terrorist organizations enables the justice department to wield the statute against individuals suspected of supporting that group.
The announcement comes days after prosecutors announced what they said was the first case to bring federal racketeering charges, which were famously used to bring down the Mafia, against the Venezuelan street gang.
Hegseth denies ordering installation of makeup studio at Pentagon
The embattled defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who is facing calls for his resignation over his repeated use of Signal group chats to discuss sensitive US military operations in Yemen, has denied reports that he ordered the installation of a makeup studio in the Pentagon.
CBS News reported on Wednesday that Hegseth had ordered a costly remodeling of “a room next to the Pentagon press briefing room to retrofit it with a makeup studio that can be used to prepare for television appearances”. In its report CBS notes the project cost “several thousands of dollars” at a time when the Trump administration is searching for “cost-cutting measures” and slashing federal spending. A defense department official told CBS any changes and upgrades made to the room were “routine”.
Hegseth responded in a post on X:
Totally fake story. No ‘orders’ and no ‘makeup.’
The former Fox News host has (very nobly) been doing his own makeup thus far, rather than paying for a makeup artist, a defense official told CBS.
Donald Trump has repeated his attacks on Harvard as “antisemitic” and a “far-left institution”. In a post on his Truth Social platform, the president also attacked the lawyers appointed by Harvard in its lawsuit against the Trump administration, William Burck and Robert Hur, both of whom have conservative credentials.
Harvard filed its lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging it is trying to “gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard”. The university is fighting back against the White House’s threat to review about $9bn in federal funding after Harvard officials refused to comply with a list of demands that included appointing an outside overseer to ensure that the viewpoints being taught at the university were “diverse”. Harvard is specifically looking to halt a freeze on $2.2bn in grants.
The lawsuit comes as the Trump administration has sought to force changes at multiple Ivy League institutions after months of student activism centered around Israel’s war on Gaza. The administration has painted the campus protests as anti-American, and the institutions as “liberal” and “antisemitic”, which Harvard has refuted.
Here’s the full post from Trump this morning:
Harvard is an Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institution, as are numerous others, with students being accepted from all over the World that want to rip our Country apart. The place is a Liberal mess, allowing a certain group of crazed lunatics to enter and exit the classroom and spew fake ANGER AND HATE. It is truly horrific! Now, since our filings began, they act like they are all “American Apple Pie.” Harvard is a threat to Democracy, with a lawyer, who represents me, who should therefore be forced to resign, immediately, or be fired. He’s not that good, anyway, and I hope that my very big and beautiful company, now run by my sons, gets rid of him ASAP!
Pete Hegseth had Signal messaging app installed on a Pentagon office computer – report
The defense secretary Pete Hegseth “directed the installation of Signal, a commercially available messaging app, on a desktop computer in his Pentagon office”, according to the Washington Post (paywall).
According to the Post’s report, Hegseth and his aides discussed “how they could circumvent the lack of cellphone service in much of the Pentagon and more quickly coordinate with the White House and other top Trump officials using the encrypted app”. But it was also “a work-around that enabled him to use Signal in a classified space, where his cellphone and other personal electronics are not permitted”.
Hegseth’s repeated disclosures of sensitive military intelligence in unsecured Signal group chats have led to growing concerns his behavior has weakened the Pentagon in the eyes of its foreign adversaries and made him and his entourage a top espionage targets. Democrats and a number of conservatives have called for his immediate resignation.
Donald Trump will host Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre at the White House today, along with Jens Stoltenberg, who served as head of Nato for a decade before stepping down last autumn. I’ll bring you all the key lines from their scheduled press briefing at 1.30pm ET from the Oval Office.
‘Vladimir, STOP!’ Trump turns criticism to Putin saying he’s ‘not happy’ after ‘unnecessary’ strikes on Kyiv
Donald Trump turned his criticism on Russian president Vladimir Putin on Thursday after Russia pounded Kyiv with missiles and drones overnight, saying “Vladimir, STOP!”
“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing,” Trump wrote in a social media post a day after expressing frustration that it was Ukraine’s leader who was hampering peace talks on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Here’s the full post from Truth Social:
I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!
Zelenskyy says document with proposals from London talks is on Trump’s desk
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday he believed that a document with proposals that emerged from Wednesday’s talks in London was now on Donald Trump’s table.
The Ukrainian president said that he did not see signs the United States was putting strong pressure on Russia as part of its peace push, and that Kyiv was doing what its allies proposed, though it could not flout its constitution.
“After the proposal from the United States, other papers appeared, and I believe that today, this format, this document, is on President Trump’s desk,” Zelenskyy said at a press conference in South Africa. “Anything that contradicts our values or our constitution cannot be included in any agreement.”
Zelenskyy is referring to reports that the US could be willing to recognise Russia’s annexation of Crimea as part of an agreement to end the war. The Ukrainian president has flatly rejected this as against his country’s constitution, and was subsequently lambasted by Trump who accused Zelenskyy on Wednesday of jeopardizing what he claimed was an imminent peace deal.
Last night at least nine people were killed and more than 70 injured in Kyiv after Russia carried out one of the most devastating air attacks against Ukraine for months, with Kharkiv and other cities also targeted.
My colleague Jakub Krupa has all the latest developments on Ukraine over on our Europe live blog:
Donald Trump began dismantling Joe Biden’s climate change and renewable energy policies on his first day in office in January, declaring a national energy emergency to speed up fossil fuel development.
The declaration called on the federal government to make it easier for companies to build oil and gas projects, in part by weakening environmental reviews.
Trump has also targeted what he called “overreach” by Democratic-controlled states to limit energy production to slow the climate crisis.
Despite overwhelming evidence, the president has called the climate crisis a “hoax” and dismissed those concerned by its worsening impacts as “climate lunatics”. You can read more about Trump’s anti-environmental policies here:
US government official says clean power policies are ‘harmful and dangerous’
Tommy Joyce, an acting assistant secretary of international affairs at the US energy department, has been speaking at an energy summit in London.
Joyce, who is in the position while Donald Trump’s choice to head the department of energy’s international affairs office, David Eisner, awaits Senate confirmation, said that clean power policies are “harmful and dangerous”.
“The focus during the last administration was on climate politics and policies leading to that (energy) scarcity. These policies have been embraced by many, not just the United States, and harm human lives,” Joyce told business leaders and ministers who gathered at Lancaster House for the conference.
Speaking shortly after an address by the UK’s energy secretary, Ed Miliband, Joyce stopped short of criticizing Britain’s push towards clean power.
But he said:
Some want to regulate every form of energy besides the so-called renewables, completely out of existence and in favour of a net zero. We oppose these harmful and dangerous policies. This is not energy security, and we know exactly where it leads.
China calls reports of ongoing US tariff talks ‘baseless’
Beijing said on Thursday that any claims of ongoing trade talks with Washington were “baseless”, a day after Donald Trump suggested there were active discussions with China about tariffs.
Asked on Wednesday if his administration was “actively” talking to China, the US president said: “Actively. Everything is active. Everybody wants to be a part of what we’re doing.”
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he would set tariffs over the next couple of weeks, insisting that a deal with Beijing “depends on them”.
Pushing back at these comments earlier today, He Yadong, a spokesperson for China’s ministry of commerce, said:
There are currently no economic and trade negotiations between China and the United States.
Any claims about progress in China-US economic and trade negotiations are baseless rumors without factual evidence.
The US put 145% tariffs on imports from China and it responded with a 125% tax on US products.
Lisa O’Carroll
Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr will meet the Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto in Budapest on Friday, Hungary’s foreign ministry has announced.
The US president is travelling to Rome for the pope’s funeral on Saturday and it is not clear what the purpose of his son’s visit is.
Trump Jr works to expand the company’s real estate, retail, commercial, hotel and golf interests, according to the Trump Organization, of which he is vice-president.
The ministry did not reveal the purpose of the visit and officials were not immediately available for comment.
Bloomberg reported late on Wednesday that Trump Jr would visit eastern Europe this week as he is seeking to expand his family’s business ties. Trump Jr met Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade last month.
Donald Trump Jr met with Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade amid a wave of anti-government protests and political crises brewing in neighboring Balkan nations. https://t.co/DG5qmj1LfO
— Bloomberg (@business) March 11, 2025
