Fox Reporter Destroys Trump Team’s Excuse for War Plans Group Chat

Even the chief national security correspondent at Fox News is calling bullshit on the Trump administration’s Signalgate story.

Trump and co. are sticking to the story that the Signal chat that The Atlantic editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added to did not contain any classified information, even though the messages contained precise timing about plans to bomb Yemen. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and press secretary Karoline Leavitt have been steadfast in this.

Fox’s Jennifer Griffin thinks they’re lying.

“There is a debate about whether the operational details Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared in the Signal Group Chat were ‘classified’or not. So I surveyed a range of current and former US defense officials who agreed ‘war plans’ is not the right term but what was shared may have been FAR MORE sensitive given the operational details and time stamps ahead of the operation, which could have placed US military pilots in harms way,” Griffin wrote.

“What Hegseth shared two hours ahead of the strikes were time-sensitive ‘attack orders’ or ‘operational plans’ with actual timing of the strikes and mention of F18s, MQ9 Reapers and Tomahawks. This information is typically sent through classified channels to the commanders in the field as ‘secret, no [form] message. In other words the information is ‘classified’ and should not be shared through insecure channels.”

Griffin continued. “This kind of real time operational information is more sensitive than ‘war plans,’ which makes this lapse more egregious, according to two former senior US defense officials. ‘This information was clearly classified,’ according to former senior defense official #1. The Defense Secretary can retroactively declassify information after the fact, but the fact that this was shared in real time before the strike took place makes it unlikely to have been declassified when it was being shared and seen by the journalist for The Atlantic who was inadvertently included in the Signal chat.”

It says a lot when the administration’s own media wing is starting to get tired of its gaffes.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on Wednesday visited the mega-prison in El Salvador where U.S. deportees are being held—and decided to post a propaganda video to push the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

Noem visited the Terrorism Confinement Center in the country Wednesday, posting a garish video of herself speaking in front of crowded prison cells full of partially clothed, tattooed detainees on X and bragging about the administration’s policy of deporting immigrants to El Salvador, at times without even due process.

“I also want everybody to know that if you come to our country illegally, this is one of the consequences that you could face,” Noem said. “First of all, do not come to our country illegally. You will be removed and you will be prosecuted. But know that this facility is one of the tools in our tool kit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people.”

The video sparked immediate criticism on social media, with commentators remarking on everything from how dystopian it looked to the clear constitutional violations of deporting people from the United States to a foreign country without due process.

Many of the people the administration has deported are civilians accused of being hardened criminals or gang members, sometimes on the flimsy basis of being Latinos with tattoos. In one case, a Venezuelan asylum-seeker was deported to El Salvador because he had a tattoo inspired by the soccer club Real Madrid and had made hand gestures in social media posts.

Meanwhile, El Salvador is run by autocrat Nayib Bukele, who has been accused of severe human rights violations and has thumbed his nose at U.S. court rulings. Still, the Trump administration made a deal with him to aid in mass deportations, and now El Salvador is helping administration officials make attention-seeking propaganda videos.

The Department of Health and Human Services will be firing 10,000 employees—nearly a quarter of the workforce.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is cutting employees in the disease outbreak, drug approval, and insurance departments. These firings, combined with the 10,000 employees who’ve already quit, leaves the critical public health department with just 62,000 employees. The department will also lose half of its regional offices.

“We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy said.

According to the Journal, the cuts will include:

- 3,500 full-time employees from the Food and Drug Administration—or about 19% of the agency’s workforce.

- 2,400 employees from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—or about 18% of its workforce.

- 1,200 employees from the National Institutes of Health—or about 6% of its workforce

- 300 employees from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—or about 4% of its workforce.

HHS has been a target for Elon Musk and DOGE since Trump reentered the Oval Office, and has received much ire from the right for its Covid-19 policies.

This story has been updated.

Elon Musk is so desperate to get Wisconsin voters to sign his petition condemning so-called “activist” judges, he’s paying them a million dollars—but there’s reason to doubt the giveaway is even real.

Musk’s America PAC announced the first so-called “winner” of his million-dollar giveaway on Wednesday, in the latest attempt from the oligarch to interfere with the democratic process.

“Scott A. From Green Bay, WI is the first $1 Million spokesperson for signing our Petition In Opposition To Activist Judges. Stay tuned between now and April 1st for more surprise announcements from Wisconsin,” a post on X reads.

The petition asked voters to reject “the actions of activist judges who impose their own views” and demand “a judiciary that respects its role—interpreting, not legislating.”

Musk previously held a $1 million sweepstakes in several swing states, including Wisconsin, ahead of the presidential election. He invited voters to sign a petition endorsing the constitutional right to free speech and to bear arms—potentially collecting data on millions of voters.

Philadelphia’s District Attorney Larry Krasner sued Musk to prevent him from continuing his grift, but a judge said he failed to prove Musk was holding an illegal lottery because Krasner could provide no evidence beyond “speculation.” When Krasner petitioned the court, his bid was denied by the judge because there was only one sweepstakes remaining. Well, it seems like there will be a lot more, as Musk continues efforts to buy the nation’s courts after purchasing the presidency.

Crucially, it’s unlikely that there was any “winner” to Musk’s game. In November, America PAC lawyers revealed in court that the so-called winners were paid spokespeople for the PAC, not victors in a game of chance. It seems implausible that this time would be any different—especially when they got away with it so easily before.

Musk has been offering $100 to anyone who completes his petition in Wisconsin ahead of the state Supreme Court race on April 1. Musk has also put at least $20 million behind conservative candidate Brad Schimel.

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court is set to weigh questions on hot-button issues, including the use of voter drop boxes in elections, abortion access, and redrawing congressional maps. A Republican majority on the court could influence the outcome in any of these cases, which would have national repercussions. Musk is also waging his own legal battle in the state, after he sued Wisconsin for not allowing Tesla dealerships there.

The American public knew before Donald Trump that top administration officials had conducted airstrikes on Yemen via a Signal chat, and now it appears that the president has been left in the dark on other intelligence matters too.

At an Oval Office news briefing Wednesday evening, Trump casually admitted that he was not aware that several U.S. army members had gone missing during a training exercise in Lithuania.

“Have you been briefed about the soldiers in Lithuania who are missing?” a reporter asked.

“No, I haven’t,” Trump said.

Earlier that day, the U.S. Army released a statement that four soldiers had disappeared on training grounds in a swamp near Pabradė, along the border with Belarus. The soldiers were conducting “scheduled tactical training” at the time of their disappearance, according to the Army. The M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle they had been using was discovered 16 feet underground a day after the soldiers went missing, reported NBC News.

But the armymen were known to be missing as early as Tuesday at 4:45 p.m., the Lithuanian military said, so why Trump was still unaware of the situation more than 24 hours later is unclear.

Search efforts are “underway,” the Army said in their statement, specifying that the operation has been a joint effort between U.S. military officials, the Lithuanian Armed Forces, Lithuanian law enforcement, the Lithuanian Fire and Rescue Department, and other groups. Helicopters operated by Lithuanian Air Forces and the State Border Guard began a search and rescue mission on Tuesday, according to the country’s military press office.

“I would like to personally thank the Lithuanian Armed Forces and first responders who quickly came to our aid in our search operations,” said Lieutenant General Charles Costanza, the V Corps commanding general. “It’s this kind of teamwork and support that exemplifies the importance of our partnership and our humanity regardless of what flags we wear on our shoulders.”

The lapse in Trump’s knowledge begs the question, however, as to just how much intel the president has been left out of within the folds of his own administration.

During another White House press briefing on Monday, Trump fumbled by admitting that he was not only not invited to his Cabinet’s Signal exchange, in which his top officials discussed when, how, and where they would bomb Houthi targets in Yemen, but that he actually had no idea it had happened.

“I don’t know anything about it,” Trump said at the time, noting that a reporter’s question regarding the group chat was the first he had heard of it. “But I know nothing about it, you’re saying that they had what?”