Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed

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NYT: Musk getting access to China war plans

Elon Musk is scheduled to get a Pentagon briefing today on "the U.S. military's plan for any war that might break out with China," the N.Y. Times scoops in a bombshell story with five big bylines.

• Why it matters: Giving Musk access to closely guarded secrets would draw attention to his "conflicts of interest as he ranges widely across the federal bureaucracy while continuing to run businesses that are major government contractors," The Times writes.

?️ The Wall Street Journal followed with a report saying Musk will be briefed on "the U.S. military's top-secret war plans for China."

• The Washington Post followed with a tamer account saying Musk will be briefed on the China threat and DOGE's work.
• The briefing now could be dialed back. After the Times story posted, Trump wrote on Truth Social at 11 p.m.: "China will not even be mentioned or discussed. How disgraceful it is that the discredited media can make up such lies. Anyway, the story is completely untrue!!!"

? The big picture: Musk has deep business ties with China through Tesla. SpaceX is a top supplier for the Pentagon.

• The Times says the briefing includes 20-30 slides outlining how the U.S. military would fight China: "It covers the plan beginning with the indications and warning of a threat from China to various options on what Chinese targets to hit, over what time period, that would be presented to Mr. Trump for decisions."

? Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, who hadn't responded to an earlier email from The Times, tweeted with a link to the story: "This is 100% Fake News. Just brazenly & maliciously wrong. Elon Musk is a patriot. We are proud to have him at the Pentagon."

• Keep reading (gift link — no subscription needed).

 

? Scoop: Musk group offers voters $100

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Apu Gomes/Getty Images

An Elon Musk-backed group is offering Wisconsin voters $100 to sign a petition expressing their opposition to "activist judges" — a cause that President Trump is pressing as judges block or delay several parts of his agenda, Axios' Alex Isenstadt reports. Keep reading.   ? Trump tally: J&J to spend $55 billion in U.S.     Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios   Off embargo 6 a.m. ET: Johnson & Johnson says it'll spend $55 billion in the U.S. over the next four years on manufacturing, research and technology investments, Axios' Ben Berkowitz writes. Why it matters: It's the latest in a series of pledges by big American companies, worth around $1 trillion so far, to expand U.S. manufacturing — a core goal of President Trump's trade war. The company breaks ground today on a manufacturing facility in Wilson, N.C., to make cancer and other medicines. It pledged to build three new facilities, at unspecified locations, and expand other existing sites. Between the lines: J&J said it already has more manufacturing in the U.S. than any other country — a nod to Trump's insistence that big U.S. companies have no reason not to make their products here. ? By the numbers: Other big-ticket spending promises in recent weeks include... $500 billion from Apple to expand manufacturing and training. "Several hundred billion" from Nvidia in electronics manufacturing. $27 billion from Eli Lilly for drug manufacturing.

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Musk at Pentagon

Elon Musk is expected to visit the Pentagon today at the invitation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. A Pentagon spokesperson said the tech billionaire was “just visiting.” However, a report in The New York Times said Musk would be briefed on the US military’s top-secret plan for any potential war with China during his visit. In a late night post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump denied that claim. The visit comes as the Pentagon, encouraged by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, considers major cuts to the top of the military in an effort to embrace the Trump administration’s push to shrink the federal government.

 

ps:These guys are just making a mockery of the USA for the whole world to see!!!

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Detentions of European tourists at US borders spark fears of traveling to America Since President Donald Trump took office, there have been high-profile incidents of tourists being stopped at U.S. border crossings and held for weeks at U.S. immigration detention facilities before being allowed to fly home at their own expense. U.S. authorities did not respond to a request from The Associated Press for figures on how many tourists have been held at detention facilities or explain why they weren’t simply denied entry. Read more.

Why this matters: The incidents are fueling anxiety as the Trump administration prepares for a ban on travelers from some countries. Noting the “evolving” federal travel policies, the University of California, Los Angeles sent a notice this week urging its foreign-born students and staff to consider the risks of non-essential travel for spring break, warning “re-entry requirements may change while you are away, impacting your return.”

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Judge calls Trump administration’s latest response on deportation flights ‘woefully insufficient’   DOGE blocked in court from Social Security systems with Americans’ personal information, for now   Judge tells Columbia and Barnard to refrain from turning over student disciplinary records for now   New York’s top court blocks NYC from letting noncitizens vote   Amtrak CEO abruptly resigns from the nation’s passenger railroad   Hegseth says he’ll meet with Musk at the Pentagon to discuss ‘efficiencies’   EU delays retaliatory trade action to mid-April to work out the impact of Trump’s reciprocal tariffs   Trump’s call to dismantle Education Department shows his grip on the GOP   Most oppose dismantling the Education Department in recent polls   Utah Rep. Maloy offers tepid criticism of some White House spending cuts at town hall   Some voters are pushing back on lawmakers’ efforts to overturn citizen ballot initiatives   Democrats’ new internet strategy tops trending charts but also draws mockery from allies and foes   New Jersey Democratic Sen. Andy Kim implores town hall to ‘please stay engaged’   DeSantis warns he has ‘tools’ including suspending local officials if they don’t cooperate with ICE   Thousands allege sexual abuse in youth detention centers. It could cost Maryland a huge sum   The release of a 1961 plan to break up the CIA revives an old conspiracy theory about who killed JFK

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White House rescinds executive order targeting prominent law firm President Donald Trump on Thursday rescinded an executive order targeting a prominent international law firm – Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Garrison & Wharton – after it pledged to review its hiring practices and to provide tens of millions of dollars in free legal services to support certain White House initiatives. Read more.

Why this matters: The order, the latest in a series of similar actions targeting law firms whose lawyers have provided legal work that Trump disagrees with, threatened to suspend active security clearances of attorneys at Paul, Weiss and to terminate any federal contracts the firm has.   The firm becomes the latest corporate target to make concessions to the president to avoid his ire. Meta and ABC made settlement payments to Trump’s future presidential library to end lawsuits filed by Trump. Other tech and financial firms have publicly rolled back DEI programs in line with Trump’s policy interests.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Delaware’s status as corporate capital might be on the line in a fight over shareholder lawsuits   What’s happening with the Institute of Museum and Library Services after Trump’s executive order   WATCH: Postal workers in Philadelphia protest after Trump suggests he might privatize the agency

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Trump sketches the start of a roadmap for winding down the Education Department

President Donald Trump on Friday began sketching a roadmap for dismantling the Education Department. Trump said student loans will be handled by the Small Business Administration, and programs involving students with disabilities would be shifted to the Department of Health and Human Services. Read More.

Small Business Administration to reorganize, cut about 2,700 jobs

The Small Business Administration said it will cut its workforce by 43%, or about 2,700 jobs, as part of a reorganization. The SBA was established in 1953 to offer resources to small businesses and helps administer small business and disaster recovery loans. Read More.   Eyeing China threat, Trump announces Boeing wins contract for secretive future fighter jet President Donald Trump announced Friday that Boeing will build the Air Force’s future fighter jet, which the Pentagon says will have stealth and penetration capabilities that far exceed those of its current fleet and is essential in a potential conflict with China. The initial contract to proceed with production on a version for the Air Force is worth an estimated $20 billion. Read More.

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Columbia University makes policy changes in dispute over federal funding

Columbia University has announced a series of new policies, including restrictions on demonstrations, new disciplinary procedures and immediately reviewing its Middle East curriculum, making apparent concessions following President Trump’s revocation of $400 million in federal funding over campus protests.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/21/us/columbia-university-policies-funding-dispute/index.html?

⚾️ Travel ban could ensnare baseball stars

An expected travel ban by the Trump administration on more than three dozen countries could prevent some Cuban and Venezuelan MLB players from coming into — or leaving — the U.S., Axios' Russell Contreras reports.

• Players from Cuba and Venezuela have had an increasing presence in the major and minor leagues in the past two decades. There were 18 players from Cuba and 58 from Venezuela on Opening Day in 2024, according to MLB.
• Without a special exemption, those players would have a hard time returning to the U.S. after games against the Toronto Blue Jays or after playing in winter baseball leagues in Mexico, Venezuela or the Dominican Republic.

Go deeper.

ps:Not to bright!!

School loans, nutrition get new homes in Trump plan to end Education Department

Management of special needs and nutrition programs, as well as student loans, will move from the Department of Education to other federal agencies, President Trump said on Friday.

https://www.axios.com/2025/03/21/trump-education-department-student-loans-nutrition?

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Dissent or Obstruction?

Who will defend the federal government against itself? Donald Trump’s administration is waging an aggressive campaign against the executive branch as it has long existed. Democratic leaders in Congress have demonstrated in the past week that they have neither the ability nor the will to slow Trump down. Individual federal employees—such as former Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger, whom I profiled last week—have sued, but such suits take time and money that few individuals possess.

State attorneys general, though, see an opportunity. This month, the chief law-enforcement officers of blue states have been working to enforce federal laws against the federal government, and they’ve had some success.

Last week, a federal judge in Maryland ordered the government to temporarily rehire thousands of probationary federal workers in many departments. The judge, James Bredar, concluded that the administration had mass-fired workers using bogus claims of performance issues rather than the required procedures for a reduction in force. “The sheer number of employees that were terminated in a matter of days belies any argument that these terminations were due to the employees’ individual unsatisfactory performance or conduct,” he wrote.

That’s plain enough. What is interesting is that the suit was brought not by the workers who’d been fired but by Democratic attorneys general in 20 states. In order to convince the court that they had standing to intervene, even though the workers are private citizens employed by the federal government, they alleged that their states were harmed in various ways, focusing on how the failure to provide the legally required notice of the terminations left states scrambling to provide services to the workers. They also argued that the layoffs harmed the states because of lost income taxes. Bredar was fairly skeptical of some of the economic arguments but found that the states nonetheless had standing to sue.

The probationary-workers case is just one of several such lawsuits. In another last week, 21 states petitioned courts to prevent the Education Department from firing hundreds of workers. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to review rulings by lower courts, which were successfully petitioned by state attorneys general, that block his executive order purporting to get rid of birthright citizenship. If you’re not a fan of the Trump administration, these developments may seem like great news. But what’s legal for the goose is also legal for the gander, which is why state lawsuits on federal issues are something that should perhaps give all Americans pause.

States have long sued the federal government over alleged impositions on their prerogatives, but in 2007, after Massachusetts sued the EPA for failing to regulate carbon dioxide, the justices ruled for the state and said that states have special standing to sue in federal court to ensure that federal agencies are following federal laws. State attorneys general were more than happy to take advantage of the new leeway.

“What we’ve seen since around the George W. Bush administration is this massive increase in state lawsuits,” Tara Leigh Grove, a law professor at the University of Texas, told me. “It’s just the name of the states that change from administration to administration.”

That time period coincides with increasing partisan polarization. Although attorney general is ostensibly a lawyerly position, an old joke runs that AG is an abbreviation for aspiring governor. Having a big legal fight with a president of the opposing party is a good credential to have as a candidate. In 2013, then–Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott described his job this way: “I go into the office in the morning, I sue Barack Obama, and then I go home.” Since then, he has landed a new job—as governor of Texas.

Two partisan organizations, the Republican Attorneys General Association and the Democratic Attorneys General Association, have grown in importance in recent years, raking in millions in outside contributions. These groups are subject to the same capture by special interests that has come to dominate other areas of politics, with the same warping effect on their incentives that it has everywhere else.

Even when attorneys general aren’t motivated by base partisanship (in both senses of the word base), they don’t necessarily represent the interests of all Americans. What is valuable and important to constituents in Nevada may be very different from what’s valuable and important to those in South Carolina. This is why we have a federal government that sets national policies, but in a moment of tumult, state attorneys general are one of the few forces that can battle Washington.

Grove told me she understands why Trump critics might see lawsuits by state attorneys general as a godsend. The administration is taking many actions that “neither Republican nor Democratic administrations have thought to do, and that’s really, really jarring,” she said. “There’s a desire for a check in the system, and right now, a lot of people are looking to the courts as the key check to the system.”

But not all checks are created equal. One of my enduring interests in the Trump era has been the ways in which he forces the country to choose between bad and worse situations. For example, charging a former president with crimes sets a dangerous precedent that could precipitate political retribution, but not charging a former president who allegedly absconded with documents and attempted to subvert an election sets an even worse one.

Something similar, though less drastic, is at play here. Is it better for states to have no recourse at all, or to have recourse that the other political side can use to tie you in knots? You might have approved of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton using such suits to hamstring Joe Biden’s administration—but if so, you might be less enthused about Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown using the same methods to prevent Trump from enacting his priorities. And the flood of state lawsuits producing nationwide injunctions has made it more difficult for presidential administrations of either party to implement their agenda.

Some scholars see more positive effects. They note, among other things, that state and federal implementation of laws is so intertwined that attempting to disentangle the interests of each is practically impossible. They also celebrate state lawsuits as a tool of dissent—for example, from the excesses of the Bush-era Patriot Act. But enlarging the power of states cuts both ways. Progressives have historically been skeptical of states’-rights arguments, in part because they were once used to defend racist policies within state boundaries. In a nationally polarized environment, where states are asking courts to block laws nationwide, the effect is even broader. One state’s dissent is another state’s outrageous obstruction.

Grove wrote a law-review article in 2016 arguing for more stringent limits on state standing. “It’s been really interesting, the different reception that that article has gotten over the years,” she told me drily. When it was published, during the Obama administration, progressives agreed with her; once Trump took office, suddenly it was conservatives who most appreciated the argument. The valence flipped again during the Biden presidency. Maybe there should be a golden rule of state lawsuits: Sue your political opponents as you would like to be sued.

Related:

• Democratic states’ new anti-Trump strategy (From 2024)
• The law can still constrain Trump.

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Trump makes rare admission of Musk’s conflicts of interest after Pentagon visit

President says plans for potential war with China would not be shared with billionaire due to his business interests

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/21/musk-pentagon-briefing-china?

The potential impacts of closing the Department of Education, explained

The federal agency handles financial aid for college students, civil rights enforcement and federal funding for marginalized K-12 students.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/03/20/trump-abolish-education-explained/?

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? Trump's 2025 seeks to reverse LBJ's 1965

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Getty Images

President Trump has embarked on a systematic effort to unravel Lyndon B. Johnson's civil rights legacy, rolling back protections that have shaped American life for nearly six decades, Axios' Russell Contreras writes. Why it matters: The Trump administration's aggressive push to reverse LBJ's signature achievements could radically alter how communities of color confront discrimination in a diversifying America. "This is not as much about dismantling the policies of Bill Clinton or Barack Obama or Joe Biden," Mark K. Updegrove, the LBJ Foundation's president and CEO, tells Axios. "It's dismantling the Great Society." ? The big picture: Two months into his term, Trump has already overturned, weakened or targeted LBJ policies on voting rights, desegregation, the environment, immigration, education, affirmative action and health care. Within hours of taking office, Trump revoked LBJ's 1965 executive order mandating "equal opportunity" for people of color and women in the recruitment, hiring and training of federal contractors. Trump's new order triggered sweeping changes to anti-discrimination rules — including a little-noticed memo stating that the federal government no longer would unequivocally prohibit contractors from operating "segregated facilities." 1965: Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act after the attack on unarmed peaceful demonstrators in Selma, Ala. 2025: Republicans in Congress have blocked attempts to reauthorize elements of the Voting Rights Act, while Trump has pushed for national voting restrictions as part of his false claims of rampant election fraud. 1965: Johnson signed the Higher Education Act, creating scholarships and low-interest loans for Black, Latino, Native American and low-income white students. 2025: Trump is seeking to eliminate the Department of Education and has waged war on universities, slashing federal funding and launching investigations into 45 colleges over their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices. The crackdown has endangered Black and Latino student groups founded during LBJ's era. 1965: LBJ signed legislation creating Medicare and Medicaid, two pillars of the U.S. social safety net. 2025: Trump has promised not to cut either program, but House Republicans are eyeing major changes to Medicaid to pay for roughly $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. ? White House spokesman Kush Desai tells Axios that Trump is fulfilling the promises he made during the campaign. The president's mandate was "to streamline our bloated government, implement commonsense policies, enforce our immigration laws, and restore the primacy of merit over racist DEI policies so that every American can live up to his or her potential." Keep reading. ps:Amazing!! How much lower can this man go?????

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Day in Trump: Musk briefing dialed back

Elon Musk and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth athe Pentagon yesterday. Screengrab from video: Idrees Ali/Reuters It happened on Day 61: Elon Musk visited the Pentagon and met with SecDef Pete Hegseth. But a planned briefing for Musk about plans if war broke out with China was called off after a leak to the N.Y. Times. Axios is told Hegseth opposed the briefing, which was to be held in the Tank and include 20-30 slides. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the Justice Department "is opening a criminal investigation relating to the selective leak" to the N.Y. Times of "inaccurate, but nevertheless classified" intelligence about the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TDA). Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested on the "All-In" podcast that only "fraudsters" would complain about missing a Social Security check: "My mother-in-law, who's 94, she wouldn't call and complain." A Commerce Department spokesperson tells Axios: "The Secretary is committed to protecting Social Security for all eligible Americans.

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They “Always Followed the Flag” Ku Klux Klan members parade down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the Treasury in Washington, D.C., on August 8, 1925. (Bettmann / Getty)

View in browser A century ago, in 1925, the Ku Klux Klan came to Washington, D.C. The Klansmen had arrived in early August: the Kleagles and Dragons and Exalted Cyclopes, regalia folded and packed, families in tow. Loyal men came from the South, as expected, but that was not where the group’s true strength lay. The Invisible Empire sent agents from all four corners, from New Jersey and Ohio and California and pretty much everywhere else. An all-woman Klan band arrived from Cumberland, Maryland. A marching troupe paraded in from Fort Worth, Texas. Caravans of cars choked the highways heading into Washington, D.C., and specially chartered trains full of Klansmen spat out wave after wave of people into Union Station. Steamboats ferried groups up the Potomac from Virginia. The hordes of loyal Knights camped in Bethesda, Maryland, or at the crossroads of 15th and H Streets Northeast, in D.C., or across the river at the horse-show grounds. They crashed in boardinghouses and in hotels and with friends. In all, the members and their retinue numbered at least 30,000, not counting the horses. They would march that weekend. There was talk that the New Jersey contingent had hired a plane that would fly a giant illuminated cross over the city, like a sign of some perverse providence. But as it turned out, that was just talk. The Klan had been preparing for some time. The organization was not very tight-knit, and the planning was fractious. Hiram Wesley Evans—the group’s national leader, known as the Imperial Wizard—had originally discouraged the event, but he’d eventually relented to local members in D.C. He’d lived in Texas, where he’d personally overseen racial terror and violence. He’d been present in 1921 when Klansmen in Dallas abducted Alex Johnson, a Black bellhop, and flogged the man and branded his forehead with acid, after Johnson was allegedly found in a white woman’s hotel room. But now, with the Klan reaching for a new level of national legitimacy, Evans found it useful for the group to avow a more moderate—or at least less overtly violent—platform. If the Klan was to march through the nation’s capital, it would request the proper permissions and allow police oversight. The D.C. march was supposed to be peaceful: no vulgarity, no fights, no brandings, no lynchings. The Klan wanted to appeal to American patriotism and dazzle onlookers with its showmanship—this was to be a pageant, not a pogrom. Even so, many residents of D.C. were not so easily sold. The federal bureaucracy had become the beginnings of a multicultural haven, providing jobs that helped build a Black middle class and opening up roles to Jews and Catholics. This was a city whose architecture bore the handprints of slaves, and where cathedrals would soon dot the stunted skyscape. The city’s ethnic and religious minorities understood well that no matter how much the Klan polished its image, its swords still cut. Sales of guns in the District soared, and newspapers reported that “the negroes” were “arming and awaiting eventualities.” Other groups appealed to President Calvin Coolidge to stop the march, but to no avail. Klan leaders in D.C. planned—perhaps hoped—for confrontation, and the city sent out its entire police force and mobilized Marines from Quantico. But on the day of the event, white reporters said they could barely find any spectators from the supposed lesser race and figured they were hiding. One Black newspaper told a different story, of Black people going about their day as normal, peering at the commotion with “amused contempt.” The sky was heavy on the afternoon of the demonstration. Storm clouds were gathering. But the Klansmen carried on with confidence; the winds had been blowing in their favor for years. A decade prior, D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation had become the country’s first blockbuster. The silent picture had enjoyed screenings right here in Washington, D.C., both for President Woodrow Wilson and for other members of government. The film’s portrayal of the Lost Cause myth and of heroic avenging Klansmen had helped re-create the KKK, which had mostly dissolved in the 1870s. Hundreds of thousands—perhaps millions—of white Protestant men and women joined this new Klan in the following years, including Evans himself. Much of the country and the world was in a similar mood. The Red Summer of 1919, when anti-Black riots and massacres gripped dozens of cities, had come and gone, and the Black neighborhood of Greenwood, in Tulsa, had recently been burned. The Blackshirts paraded on Rome, and just a month before the Klan’s planned march, the first volume of a book called Mein Kampf began appearing on German bookshelves. The Scopes trial had just concluded; the Klan had been one of the early organizations calling for the inclusion of creationism in curricula. Still, even up to the last minute, there were factional disputes about whether to go on with the D.C. parade at all. Perhaps, after having gotten there with little opposition, with city officials helping and thick crowds of white spectators appearing, the coming march somehow felt too easy for Klan leaders, for whom membership had always been a thing to hide, if only for appearances’ sake. Maybe there were some in the ranks of the Empire who’d expected to be shut down—a grievance to add to the list. But the weather held, and the road beckoned. The triumph began at the Peace Monument, a marble complex built to honor men who’d served in the Union Navy during the Civil War. At its peak was an intricate white sculpture of a woman, referred to as Grief, crying on the shoulder of another, representing History. History held a tablet honoring the men who’d given their lives for the Union: “They died that their country might live.” Statues of Peace and Victory flanked the monument’s east and west faces, looking out to spaces where other features had been planned by the sculptors but never finished. On the morning of the march, men who bore the inheritance of Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the most notorious Confederates, gathered below the monument to prepare. A color guard of robed men riding atop black horses and carrying “a gorgeous American flag” struck out first, reportedly the first time anybody had ever preceded the police escort in a Pennsylvania Avenue parade, according to The Washington Post. As Evans would later remark, the Klan “always followed the flag.” They followed the flag up Pennsylvania Avenue, the great road of democracy, in the direction of the White House. Side to side, covering the breadth of the avenue, men, women, and children marched, keeping their bared faces trained ahead. Many wore white hoods and robes, some with fringes and regalia colored brightly to mark various groups, orders, and ranks. Drummers and marshals helped them keep pace, and many Klans and auxiliaries put on special performances for the applauding crowd. Some participants marched with military precision—some groups had dusted off actual kits from the Great War, and marched with their old comrades in arms. Groups of women and children marched. More than 100 attendees passed out from the sticky August heat, but the mood was otherwise exultant. The Klansmen sang hymns and marching songs. Behind men and banners that proclaimed white superiority, some bands played jazz. Above all, according to the Post, “there was a profusion of flags.” According to The Baltimore Sun, there 900 or so large flags, “the greatest number, perhaps, which were ever massed in a single spot.” Many marchers carried and waved small American flags, while new Klans and regiments were announced by larger flags, held high. Many units marched with flags that were so comically gigantic that they could not be waved, and had to be carried horizontally by teams of marchers. One group of women carried a flag that could cover the foundation of a good-size house today; spectators threw money on it, netting the flag-bearers some $200. There was to be no mistaking it: These were the most American of Americans. Under Evans, their platform, succinctly, was “Americanism.” After about four hours, the march reached its end, under the stone obelisk dedicated to George Washington. Speakers held forth. The Grand Kleagle of the District of Columbia promised that the rain from the heavy clouds would not come; God had ordained it so. By the time A. H. Gulledge, an official orator for the Klan, took the stage, the ordination had evidently worn off. “This is the proudest day of my life,” Gulledge told the soaking crowd. “I never dreamed it would come so soon—a day when so many native-born, gentile, white Protestant American citizens might march down Pennsylvania Avenue unharmed and unmolested.” They had all come, Gulledge said, “to renew our pledge of allegiance to the greatest government man ever built,” a government that was finally allowing people like them their birthright freedom of speech. Gulledge refuted any claims of “malice” or “hate” on the Klan’s part, saying that his group just wanted to put an end to the mixing of races—a phenomenon that had caused only strife and the disinheritance of white Protestants. In this, his words encapsulated part of the brewing philosophy of Evans. “We found our great cities and the control of much of our industry and commerce taken over by strangers, who stacked the cards of success and prosperity against us,” Evans would write in the North American Review the next year. “Shortly they came to dominate our government.” Evans was skeptical of the assimilability of Jews, Catholics, and recent immigrants, and believed that Black people were simply naturally inferior to their white betters. Evans blamed Jews and Catholics for constantly criticizing that which was American. “Nothing is immune,” he wrote, “our great men, our historic struggles and sacrifices, our customs and personal traits, our ‘Puritan consciences’—all have been scarified without mercy. Yet the least criticism of these same vitriolic critics or of their people brings howls of ‘anti-Semitic’ or ‘anti-Catholic.’” For him, the way forward would be “Americanism”—for real Americans to proudly wear their real Americanness, to claim their dominion, to find their forgotten greatness. The next evening, the organizers held a “Klan spiritual” and burned a towering cross in Arlington, but most of the visitors had already gone home. The marchers had made their way back to Union Station. Night trains sped home in the darkness. A group of white-robed boys helped direct traffic out of the city. Klansmen went back to their lives as policemen, doctors, teachers, dentists, carpenters, politicians. When the next editions of newspapers arrived, many breathlessly covered the spectacle, estimating crowd sizes and marveling at the composure of the Klansmen. Black newspapers, however, played a different tune. According to The Washington Tribune, the march was huge but “unimpressive,” with “apathetic” spectators and little city enthusiasm. The Chicago Defender carried a brief blurb about the Klan’s “gala day,” but other events had pushed it below the fold: The front page centered the lynching of Walter Mitchell, a 33-year-old Black man in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, by a white mob. Mitchell had been falsely accused of accosting a young white woman, and the mob had rushed the jail, kidnapped him, paraded him through the streets, and hanged him from a tree. One headline was grim and sardonic: “Missouri Carries Out American Democracy.” Related: When bigotry paraded through the streets (From 2016) The forgotten history of the western Klan

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Trump teeters on court crisis

Many top legal experts believe a full-blown constitutional showdown between President Trump and the courts is already here. Others are confident there's still room to avoid one, Axios court watcher Sam Baker writes.

• But most agree that the administration's battle with U.S. District Judge James "Jeb" Boasberg — who last weekend ordered a temporary halt to the administration's deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members — is a significant escalation.

Conservative lawyer John Yoo — a Trump ally who has advanced one of the most sweeping theories of presidential power — told Fox News Digital: "I worry that there might be some people in the administration who would actually like to defy a judicial order. Which I think would be a terrible mistake."

• "If the courts can't render reliable decisions, then our legal system doesn't function," Yoo added.

⚡ State of play: Senior members of the Trump administration and the MAGAverse have been talking for months about simply ignoring court orders they don't like. Now, the talk is being tested.

• A senior White House official told Axios' Marc Caputo of the deportation fight: "It's the showdown that was always going to happen between the two branches of government."
• Trump lawyers have made narrow arguments in court that the administration didn't intentionally violate the order by Boasberg, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to halt the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members.

? Over the past week, the administration's legal tactics also grew more aggressive. Lawyers refused to turn over information Boasberg requested, and petitioned a higher court to remove him from the case.

• The Justice Department asked that Boasberg and another federal judge, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, be removed from pending cases — requests that are almost never granted. Trump said the Senate should impeach Boasberg, which drew a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts.
• Earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell of Rhode Island said the administration's stance on freezing federal funding undermines "the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government." Last month, McConnell wrote that the administration was violating "the plain text" of a temporary restraining order.
• White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing Monday that in the deportation case, the administration "acted within the confines of the law ... within the president's constitutional authority, and under the authority granted to him under the Alien Enemies Act [of 1798]."

? What's next: The fact that administration lawyers are arguing they haven't defied judges' ruling is important, legal experts tell Axios. That leaves off-ramps before a full-blown constitutional upheaval.

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⚖️ Lower courts' growing power

Data: Harvard Law Review. Chart: Axios Visuals It's true, as the White House claims, that the courts have blocked President Trump's executive orders at a particularly high rate, Axios' Sam Baker writes. It's also true, as White House critics argue, that simply ignoring those rulings would undermine checks and balances established by the Constitution. The big picture: Trump and his White House aren't alone in their frustration with district-court judges blocking major parts of their agenda. Presidents Obama and Biden also had major policies blocked by the same type of rulings. Legal scholars from both sides of the aisle have criticized the rapid rise of such sweeping orders. ? How it works: Lawsuits against the federal government start in a district court — there are more than 600 district-court judges — then can move to an appeals court, then the Supreme Court. In the old days, district courts' rulings only applied to the parties before them. But since the beginning of the Obama administration, those judges have become increasingly willing to say their rulings apply nationwide — the same scope a Supreme Court decision has. ? By the numbers: District courts issued 64 rulings freezing Trump administration policies during the president's first term, according to a Harvard Law Review tally. At least 15 universal (nationwide) injunctions have been issued against Trump's second-term policies. ? Between the lines: Critics argue the rise of universal injunctions has also fueled a rise in venue shopping. When you only need to convince one district judge to halt an entire federal program, you'll quickly figure out the best place to file your lawsuit — and keep filing them there. Trump, White House officials and MAGA leaders are decrying "out-of-control" district courts — but celebrated their rulings against Biden. Few Democrats who decried those rulings against Obama or Biden are complaining about them now.

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? Overcrowding plagues detention units

Photo illustration: Allie Carl/Axios. Photos via Getty Images

Days without a shower. Sleeping on floors. Two hundred people confined in a space meant for 85. Some immigration detention units are so crowded that non-citizens arrested in President Trump's crackdown are living in inhumane conditions, attorneys for detainees tell Axios' Brittany Gibson. Why it matters: The Trump administration's goal of deporting "millions" of people has led officials to jam more than 46,000 detainees into a system designed to hold no more than about 40,000, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) records. Conditions in detention have been so poor that some immigrants prefer deportation to spending more time in the facilities, said Paul Chavez, director of the litigation program at Americans for Immigrant Justice. "A lot of people are just signing orders to be removed, because the conditions are so horrible," he said. The crowding is just one sign of a system under stress: Officials are scrambling to arrange more detention space across the U.S. and abroad. They're sending detainees they've deemed as dangerous on controversial — and legally questionable — flights to foreign prisons without giving them court hearings. And they're monitoring other unauthorized immigrants who've been arrested and released after agreeing to return for their court dates. Nestor Yglesias, an ICE spokesperson in its Miami office, said in a statement that "some ICE facilities are experiencing temporary overcrowding due to recent increases in detention populations." Yglesias said the agency is doing several things to alleviate crowding, including transferring detainees and "expedited case processing where appropriate." Read on for case studies.

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America’s European allies are trying to pry their unspent money back from USAID

After the Trump administration and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency cut USAID’s funding and the bulk of its programs, government officials from Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands asked whether their combined $15 million would be funneled to projects as expected or refunded. They have gotten no response. Read more.

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Legal experts say Trump official broke law by saying ‘Buy Tesla’ stock but don’t expect a crackdown

NEW YORK (AP) — When a White House adviser in the first Trump administration told TV viewers to “Go buy Ivanka stuff,” top government lawyers sprang into action, telling her she had violated ethics rules and warning her not to do it again.

https://apnews.com/article/musk-trump-tesla-stock-lutnick-commerce-secretary-ethics-5a89c2f4a68a9470692630b5c56cffd6?

New Social Security requirements pose barriers to rural communities without internet, transportation

WELCH, W.Va. (AP) — Veronica Taylor doesn’t know how to turn on a computer, let alone use the internet.

https://apnews.com/article/west-virginia-social-security-administration-294eb67ad316d287be3f2f0882de4931?

ps:Why would this administration do anything the right way?? They could care less! Period!!!!!

Trump EPA’s Next Move: Making It Harder to Sue for Getting Cancer from Roundup

The corporation behind Roundup herbicide has paid out nearly $11 billion in lawsuits. Now it’s backing an EPA rule that would stop the bleeding.

https://theintercept.com/2025/03/21/trump-epa-monsanto-roundup-bayer-cancer-chemicals/?

Venezuelans deported to brutal El Salvador prison weren’t gang members, lawyers say

WASHINGTON — In new court briefings Thursday, attorneys for several Venezuelan immigrants say their clients either had no criminal record or had cases before an immigration judge when they were deported under the Trump administration’s wartime authority — despite a federal judge ordering the return of the flights to the United States.

https://floridaphoenix.com/2025/03/21/repub/venezuelans-deported-to-brutal-el-salvador-prison-werent-gang-members-lawyers-say/?

Trump says any country buying Venezuelan oil will face a 25% tariff

President Donald Trump said Monday that he will impose tariffs of 25% on any nation that purchases oil from Venezuela.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/24/business/trump-venezuela-oil-tariffs/index.html?

ps:It just gets better and better each day!!

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to block ruling reinstating thousands of fired probationary federal employees

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to put on hold a federal judge’s ruling reinstating thousands of probationary federal employees who were fired as part of the government’s efforts to quickly downsize its workforce.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/24/politics/appeal-supreme-court-probationary-employees?

ps:Does he think his friends will bail him out again??

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? Trump admin tells seniors to shut it. While President Donald Trump continues to insist he won’t cut seniors’ benefits, his administration’s attacks on Social Security are growing more brazen. In a damning sign of what’s to come, last week Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick slammed seniors who flag missing Social Security payments as "fraudsters," arguing that legitimate beneficiaries wouldn’t complain about not receiving their monthly check — “whoever screams is the one stealing,” he said.

ps:How much lower can these guys go??

Caught in the middle, this US border town is grappling with Trump’s trade war with Canada

Point Roberts, Washington, is a rare border community that is so dependent on Canada’s goodwill that the strain of Trump’s tariff war is inescapable — in the grocery store, at the pub and for the majority of residents who never voted for the president. Read More.

Trump says countries that buy Venezuelan oil will face 25% tariff

In a Truth Social post, President Donald Trump said Venezuela has been “very hostile” to the U.S. and countries purchasing oil from it will be forced to pay the tariff on all their trade to the U.S. starting April 2. Read More.

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White House says Trump won’t cut Social Security, Medicare after Musk remarks

The White House on Tuesday asserted President Trump would not cut Social Security or Medicare after tech billionaire Elon Musk’s comments about the need to examine entitlement spending gained traction.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5188082-white-house-donald-trump-social-security-medicare-cuts/

Commerce secretary: No one but ‘fraudsters’ would complain about missed Social Security check

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick raised alarm over “fraudsters” receiving Social Security benefits, as Trump allies have ramped up rhetoric about potential waste in the program amid a major restructuring effort at the agency that oversees the program.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5208187-commerce-secretary-social-security-fraud/

ps:The competence of these people is amazing!!!!!

The Doublespeak of Energy Secretary Chris Wright

In his confirmation hearing, the Liberty Energy founder pledged broad support for renewable energy. But when speaking to conservatives, he declared, “We don’t have replacements” for coal, oil and gas.

https://www.propublica.org/article/energy-secretary-chris-wright-climate-change-double-speak-oil-gas-trump?

ps:Just like healthcare, Social Security, Education, etc., etc., etc.!! They have no alternatives for anything!!

Killing Grants That Have Saved Lives: Trump’s Cuts Signal End to Government Work on Terrorism Prevention

Tens of millions of dollars slated for violence prevention have been cut or are frozen as DOGE steamrolls the national security sector. “This is the government getting out of the terrorism business,” said one grant recipient.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doge-budget-cuts-terrorism-prevention?

Judge refuses to lift ban on Venezuelan deportations despite Trump request

The Trump administration can't deport alleged Venezuelan gang members after a federal judge Monday rejected a request to lift the temporary halt on the practice.

https://www.axios.com/2025/03/24/judge-trump-venezuelan-deportations-restraining-order?

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The editor in the group chat

President Trump's national security adviser accidentally added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic to a group text in which top officials debated highly sensitive plans for bombing Yemen, the magazine reported today.

• The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg said he was added to a Signal thread earlier this month that included Vice President Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, along with other officials.

?Why it matters: The breach exposed classified information and private deliberations among some of the nation's highest-ranking officials.

• The U.S. government doesn't permit the use of Signal to transmit classified information.

NSC spokesperson Brian Hughes said in a statement: "At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain."

• "The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials," Hughes added. "The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to our servicemembers or our national security,"

? The intrigue: The Atlantic article is headlined, "The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans." It reports Vance told the group as momentum built for a strike in Yemen: "I think we are making a mistake. ... There is a real risk that the public doesn't understand this or why it's necessary. ... I just hate bailing Europe out again."

• The Atlantic notes that the administration contends America's European allies benefit from U.S. Navy protection of international shipping lanes.
• Hegseth wrote back: "I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It's PATHETIC."

Trump told reporters when asked about the story: "I know nothing about it."

• Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, said: "This is an outrageous national security breach and heads should roll."

Go deeper.

 

Measles warning

The disease still poses a serious threat in many parts of the world. With the recent outbreak in the US and decreasing vaccination rates, experts warn that measles is “only a plane flight away” — and imported cases can have large consequences.   NASA overhaul The space agency outlined how it will respond to President Donald Trump’s order that federal agencies eliminate “waste, bloat and insularity.” NASA plans to reorganize as it chases ambitious goals such as establishing a permanent lunar settlement.   ‘Climate of fear’ As Columbia University students return from spring break, they’re discovering a different vibe on campus. The school announced sweeping policy changes after Trump paused $400 million in federal funding.

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A Mack-Truck-Size Breach (Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Pool /CNP / INSTARimages.com / Reuters)

View in browser David A. Graham: Has anything like this ever happened to you before? Jeffrey Goldberg: I think that on one level, this is very relatable. Everyone has sent a text or an email to an unintended recipient, and sometimes they’ve embarrassed themselves by doing that. This is, I would say, at a different level—but it kind of proves a point, which is that there’s a reason people who work on sensitive issues in the government aren’t supposed to use Signal, even though it is end-to-end encrypted. Anyone can use Signal, so if you’re not careful, you might pull into your conversation a Houthi sympathizer or a magazine editor. Our colleague Shane Harris points out that the phones of top senior defense and national-security and intelligence officials are targets of intelligence operations. Imagine what you can do if you saw everything that the CIA director may be texting, even on a secure phone—especially on a secure phone. I’m mindful of the fact that the Trump team has already dealt with a serious issue in the securing of sensitive documents in Mar-a-Lago. If you’re going to make a big deal about Hillary Clinton’s emails, you may want to have excellent communication hygiene. David: Tell me how you came to conclude that this group was real. Jeffrey: It was actually chilling: 11:44 a.m., Saturday the 15th, Eastern Time, in my car in a parking lot, just checking my phone, and I see a text from Pete Hegseth, or somebody who’s hoaxing me as Pete Hegseth. It provides information about upcoming military operations with timings attached: This is going to happen. Then this happens, then this happens, and this happens. I’m sitting there in my car and thinking I’m about to find out if this was an elaborate scam or not. So I thought to myself, I’m sitting here for the next two hours with my hands around my phone. I check on X around 1:55, and yes, Sanaa is being bombed, so then I have the realization that this is almost certainly a real channel and not just an elaborate fakery of some sort. And that’s when I began to realize that I had to write about this massive security breach. David: You have done a lot of sensitive national-security reporting. Have you ever received any information like this? Jeffrey: No, nothing like this. This was like an intravenous drip of information that no one in the government thinks journalists should have. Until almost the very last minute, I could not believe that this was actually happening, that there could be a Mack-truck-size breach, that somehow, the editor in chief of The Atlantic was invited into a conversation with the intelligence agencies, secretaries, the national security adviser. Like most reporters, I’ve been a recipient of leaks. A leak is a totally different thing. That’s a whistleblower trying to make complaints. This is just reckless. David: There’s the horror that something like this would happen on an operational level, but in terms of what we learn from the substance of the conversation, what are the most important things that people should take away? Jeffrey: The actual conversation that they have is fascinating, and in a certain way impressive. It’s nice to see that they’re disagreeing with one another. It’s very useful for the public to know that the vice president has a more hands-off approach than other members of the administration. One of the things that I found interesting was that when a person named “S M” in the chat, who I took to be Stephen Miller, comes in and says, “As I heard it, the president was clear,” this kind of shuts down the conversation. It suggests that Stephen Miller can be in a conversation with, among others, the vice president of the United States and still can get his way. (Miller did not reply to a request for comment or confirm that he is “S M.”) David: In addition to the question of how secure Signal is, this is also notable, because without this report, none of these conversations might be preserved for posterity. You note that National Security Adviser Michael Waltz set some messages to disappear after a week or so. Jeffrey: This is an interesting question: Are they using Signal because it’s convenient? Are they using Signal because it disappears? According to the experts Shane interviewed, the administration should not have established a Signal thread for such conversations in the first place, but once it did, what one is supposed to do legally is copy an official government account, and that government account will then send these threads to the National Archives for posterity, for research, for accountability. But if you’re using a disappearing-text app, I don’t know. That’s one of the questions that I’ve asked and have not gotten answered yet. David: It is remarkable that this would happen with any reporter. It’s even more remarkable that this would happen with someone like you, and with a publication that has been specifically singled out by the president. Do you have any sense of how this happened? Jeffrey: I literally have no idea. The remarkable thing is that no one in the group asked, Who’s JG?, and when I removed myself from the group, seemingly nobody said, Hey, why did JG leave? David: Are you concerned about retaliation from the Trump administration because of this story? Jeffrey: It’s not my role to care about the possibility of threats or retaliation. We just have to come to work and do our jobs to the best of our ability. Unfortunately, in our society today—we see this across corporate journalism and law firms and other industries—there’s too much preemptive obeying for my taste. All we can do is just go do our jobs. Read the full article here. More From The Atlantic The wild Trump theory making the rounds on Wall Street An “impossible” disease outbreak in the Alps Americans are living in Trump’s dream. Tom Nichols on the judiciary’s last stand Americans are buying an escape plan.

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Scoop: Private equity tax fight

Graphic: Courtesy of the American Investment Council As it braces for the fight of its life, the private equity industry is launching a 7-figure ad campaign to make its case for how it boosts the economy. Why it matters: Trump is taking aim at the tax treatment of "carried interest," and the private equity industry has the resources and self-interest to preserve the status quo. Tax writers have long eyed how private equity structures some of its compensation, which allows employees to pay capital gains rates on their "carried interest" instead of the higher income tax rate. It currently gets taxed as capital gains at 23.8% and not at the top regular income rate of 40.8%. The ad and education campaign, "Investing in America," is designed to appeal to Trump's broader desire to make America more competitive and grow its industrial base. What they're saying: "President Trump's tax law struck the right balance in 2017," said Drew Maloney, the president and CEO of the American Investment Council. "A new 40.8% tax rate would be higher than China, Europe and Canada and would make the U.S. less competitive," he said. Between the lines: Trump fixed the "carried interest" issue in 2017, when he required private equity workers to hold assets for three years before receiving the capital gains rate, the industry argues. Changing it could reduce the deficit by some $13 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Zoom in: The AIC is highlighting just how many jobs it helps support in a new economic impact study from EY. The study reports that the U.S. private equity sector employed 13.3 million workers across the country and paid $337 billion in federal, state and local taxes from its firms and employees and the companies it invests in. Zoom out: Corporate America is also worried about Trump looking for more revenue by preventing corporations from deducting their state and local taxes (SALT) from their federal returns. The so-called C-SALT is causing heartburn in C-suites, even if it has not gotten as much attention as individual SALT. — Hans Nichols

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Why is President Trump attacking the Postal Service?

What has the president said about the Postal Service?

https://www.epi.org/publication/president-trump-attacks-the-postal-service-your-questions-answered/?

Executive Order on closing the Department of Education

On March 20, President Trump signed an executive order to begin shutting down several functions of the Department of Education (DOE) and send many functions of the DOE to the states. The order also mandated that any program that receives funds from the Department of Education must end any focus on diversity, equity or inclusion, as a condition of receiving the federal funds.  This Executive Order comes after the White House directed the DOE to lay off 1,300 employees (a directive that is currently in litigation).

https://www.epi.org/policywatch/executive-order-on-closing-parts-of-the-department-of-education/?

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Signal fiasco

Courtesy of The Atlantic

Trump administration true believers are closing ranks to try to protect top national security officials from being pushed out over yesterday's Signal scandal, insiders tell Axios' Marc Caputo. Why it matters: Democrats and critics of President Trump want him to fire National Security Adviser Mike Waltz. That's a major reason he could survive. So far, insiders are defiant. ? Four top administration officials tell Axios they expect the controversy to die down and Waltz to remain. Four outside advisers concurred. "We don't care what the media says," a Trump adviser said. "We can easily handle what would kill any other administration. This will blow over." A senior White House official added: "Trump certainly wasn't pleased with this. But all this talk you see about Waltz not lasting is just way premature. There's a Washington feeding frenzy. And we all know that you don't give the mob what it wants." Still, there's a debate in Trumpworld over whether Waltz will ultimately get sacked after accidentally adding Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to an 18-member Signal group chat, "Houthi PC small group" (for Principals Committee, the National Security Council's top officials). Goldberg reports he was mistakenly sent messages that contained "war plans" for strikes on Houthi militants in Yemen: "The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing." The group chat, on the commercial messaging app Signal, included more than a dozen top Trump officials. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted "operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing," Goldberg writes. Screenshot: CNN ? What we're hearing: "The main thing Mike [Waltz] is definitely gonna get sh*t about is that it was The Atlantic. Man, the boss hates The Atlantic," an outside adviser told Axios, laughing. "But seriously, this was horrible. Just really embarrassing." "Waltz is utterly humiliated by the whole thing. He probably wants to die," said a longtime ally of Trump and Waltz, a former Florida congressman. "I wouldn't be surprised if Mike offered his resignation and if Trump refused it." However, a ninth top Trump adviser told us this morning that they were "unsure" about Waltz's fate. Between the lines: Administration officials concede the episode was deeply embarrassing, and put top Trump Cabinet members in the blast radius of a humiliating story about a sloppy security failure. Waltz now has a bunch of top officials, and their teams, who are annoyed at him for drawing bad publicity. ? Reality check: No one can say for sure how Trump will feel going forward. Trump could sour on Waltz if coverage of the blunder continues to saturate cable TV — especially if a small faction of outside advisers who dislike Waltz can get to the president. But Trump instinctively resists giving adversaries a win. Today's New York Post cover ? Behind the scenes: Goldberg writes that after he accepted the Signal connection request on March 11, he and Atlantic colleagues "discussed the possibility that these texts were part of a disinformation campaign, initiated by either a foreign intelligence service or, more likely, a media-gadfly organization." "I had very strong doubts that this text group was real," he added. Goldberg writes that after seeing Waltz on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, he concluded the Signal chain "was almost certainly real." The editor says he removed himself from the Signal group, "understanding that this would trigger an automatic notification to the group's creator, 'Michael Waltz.'" Yesterday morning, Goldberg emailed top officials with questions about the thread. The NSC spokesman replied two hours later that the thread "appears to be authentic." ✈️ Landing in Hawaii as he began an Indo-Pacific swing, Hegseth bashed Goldberg as a "deceitful and highly discredited so-called 'journalist' who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again." Goldberg responded last night on CNN: "No, that's a lie. He was texting war plans. He was texting attack plans." ? What's next: Two members of the Signal chat — CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — are scheduled to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee at 10 a.m. ET. Both then face questions at House Intel tomorrow. Axios' Hill crew reports Dems plan to focus heavily on the Signal debacle at both hearings. Excerpts from the chat.

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America's biggest cyber threat

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

High-ranking officials and government employees who accidentally leak or access classified information are now a bigger U.S. cybersecurity threat than Chinese and Russian spies, Axios Future of Cybersecurity author Sam Sabin writes. Why it matters: When government officials "move fast, break things," they risk unintentionally breaking systems they didn't realize were valuable to begin with — like their secure wartime communications protocols. ? Zoom out: Typically, communications about military operations follow a more traditional — albeit clunky — process. Officials with the appropriate security clearances enter a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), which is designed to block out eavesdropping and surveillance attempts. Even when officials are on the road, they enter a mobile SCIF that takes time to set up to get updates about an ongoing mission. The bottom line: A Cabinet-level Signal chat is much more efficient. But while the app is end-to-end encrypted, it's much less secure.

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⚡ Heritage Foundation's deportation blueprint

Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photos: Getty Images

The Trump administration's push to cast pro-Palestinian protesters as Hamas supporters — and then use anti-terror and immigration laws to quiet campus demonstrations — was forecast in a little-known plan last year from the creators of Project 2025, Axios' Russell Contreras writes. Why it matters: That plan — dubbed "Project Esther" and based on months of chatter among some GOP leaders — was reflected in the White House's moves to arrest Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil and pull universities' funding over antisemitism allegations. ? The backstory: Project Esther was quietly unveiled just before the presidential election, on the one-year anniversary of Hamas' attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. It was produced by the Heritage Foundation, the conservative group behind Project 2025, and took aim at what it called antisemitism on college campuses. Like Project 2025, Esther envisions expanding executive power and reshaping American life with a conservative agenda — this time focusing on colleges and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Keep reading.