Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said he took full responsibility for a stunning leak of military plans in a Signal chat, while Trump intervened to defend him, saying it was “the only glitch in two months”.
“I take full responsibility. I built the group. My job is to make sure everything is coordinated,” Waltz said in an interview with Fox News, in which he conceded: “it’s embarrassing”.
The Trump administration has scrambled to contain the fallout since the Atlantic published a story on Monday revealing that its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, had been inadvertently added to a chat with Waltz and other senior White House officials – including vice-president JD Vance, defense secretary Pete Hegseth and secretary of state Marco Rubio. The group discussed sensitive operational information about planned US airstrikes on Yemen.
Mike Waltz claims ‘full responsibility’ for Signal, but can’t explain how it happened
When pressed by Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, Waltz accepted responsibility for making the Signal group, though he continued to deflect blame, insulted Goldberg and said he couldn’t explain how the mistake had occurred.
“It’s embarrassing, yes. We’re going to get to the bottom of it,” Waltz said, adding that he was consulting with Elon Musk: “We’ve got the best technical minds looking at how this happened.”
Democrats demand answers over ‘careless’ Signal blunder
Democratic senators demanded answers from leaders of the US intelligence community on Tuesday over the Signal breach, arguing that the “sloppy, careless” leak put national security at risk.
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and CIA director John Ratcliffe appeared before the Senate intelligence committee, in which Democratic senator Michael Bennet lambasted the security lapse as “swampiness”, “incompetence” and “an embarrassment”. Senior intelligence officials will face another round of questioning Wednesday by lawmakers.
Leak shows Five Eyes allies must ‘look out for ourselves’, says Mark Carney
Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has said the Signal leak means that allied nations must increasingly “look out for ourselves” as trust frays with a once-close ally. Carney said the intelligence blunder was a “serious, serious issue and all lessons must be taken”. He said it would be critical to see “how people react to those mistakes and how they tighten them up”.
Pentagon warned staffers against using Signal
The Pentagon recently warned its employees against using Signal, due to a technical vulnerability. According to a Pentagon “OPSEC special bulletin” seen by NPR reporters and sent on 18 March, Russian hacking groups may exploit the vulnerability in Signal to spy on encrypted organizations, potentially targeting “persons of interest”.
Trump administration claims details of mass deportations are state secrets
The Trump administration invoked the “state secrets” privilege to avoid providing more information to a federal judge regarding this month’s highly contentious immigrant expulsions to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act.
Judge rules Columbia protester can’t be detained as she fights deportation
A federal judge in Manhattan blocked immigration officials from detaining Yunseo Chung, a Columbia University student and legal permanent resident the Trump administration is trying to deport for taking part in Gaza solidarity protests.
The 21-year-old green card holder, who has lived in the US since she was seven years old, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday, arguing the government is “attempting to use immigration enforcement as a bludgeon to suppress speech that they dislike”.
Trump signs executive order that will upend US voter registration processes
Donald Trump has signed a far-reaching executive order that promises to fundamentally disrupt American voter registration processes, introducing measures so restrictive they could in effect disenfranchise millions of citizens if enacted.
Described by Will Scharf, the White House staff secretary, on Tuesday as “the farthest reaching executive action taken” in the nation’s history, the order represents the latest in a long list of assaults against immigration, but also on current voting systems.
Trump outburst prompts removal of his ‘distorted’ portrait
A portrait of Donald Trump that was commissioned by fellow Republicans – but which he evidently came to believe had been “purposefully distorted” – was removed from a wall at the Colorado state capitol where it had been since 2019.
What else happened today:
-
The University of Southern California announced an immediate hiring freeze for all staff positions, “with very few critical exceptions” as US universities brace for Trump administration cuts to funding.
-
US consumer confidence plunged to the lowest level in more than four years in March, with households fearing a recession in the future and higher inflation because of Trump’s tariffs.
Catching up? Here’s what happened Monday, 24 March.
