Pete Hegseth’s Signalgate Scandal Somehow Just Got Worse

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth should stop using the Signal messaging app at this point.

The Washington Post reports that the former Fox News host had Signal installed on his office computer at the Pentagon, a major security risk and further evidence that Hegseth used the messaging tool frequently for government business. According to the Post, the desktop app mirrored Hegseth’s phone and helped the secretary overcome the lack of cell phone service within the Pentagon.

Cell phones and other personal electronic devices are not permitted within classified spaces, and installing Signal on his desktop computer allowed Hegseth to get around that prohibition. At least one of Hegseth’s top aides, his chief of staff Joe Kasper, also expressed interest in using Signal on Department of Defense computers, but it’s not clear how widespread the app is among Pentagon employees.

Hegseth and his team are also required by law to preserve messages sent to one another, and there’s no indication that they have done so with their conversations on Signal, which allows messages to automatically disappear. A spokesperson for Hegseth, Sean Parnell, told the Post in a statement that Hegseth “has never used and does not currently use Signal on his government computer.”

According to the Post’s sources, Hegseth had Signal installed on a second computer in his Pentagon office and was interested in an app that allowed him to send conventional text messages from his computer.

Hegseth is under fire for using Signal last month to discuss attack plans against targets in Yemen with other top administration officials in a group chat with a journalist, Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, accidentally present. On Sunday, Hegseth was in hot water again when it was discovered that he discussed the attack plans in another, personal group chat with his wife, personal lawyer, and brother, among others.

Classified information is not supposed to be shared within private messaging apps such as Signal, and Hegseth has faced calls to resign, as well as reports that President Trump has begun the search for a new secretary of defense. Trump has publicly denied these reports, and says he stands by Hegseth.

But Hegseth is facing more turmoil within the DOD, with three top employees being fired last week as the result of a leaked investigation. Others within the department think he may not last much longer, especially considering he doesn’t have much support in Congress, having narrowly been confirmed by the Senate thanks to a tiebreaker vote from Vice President JD Vance.

Hegseth’s actions, if they weren’t scrutinized before, will now be under a microscope, and any other scandals, even small ones, could sink his tenure.

And just like that, the bromance is over. Elon Musk is preparing to step away from DOGE in May, and President Trump seems to be looking forward to being rid of his “special employee.” The president is already referring to the billionaire DOGE head in the past tense, even with a month left on his tenure.

“He was a tremendous help, both in the campaign and in what he’s done with DOGE,” Trump said at a press conference from the Oval Office Wednesday evening. “He was treated very unfairly by the—I guess you call it the public.… They took it out on Tesla.… He really helped the country. Saved us a lot of money.… He was always gonna ease out.”

Musk has cast himself as this sacrificial lamb, taking on both so much responsibility with DOGE and so much hate and nastiness from the public that he simply cannot go on. And while the hate has been real—Tesla stocks have plummeted as Musk’s E.V. car company took a massive reputational hit—the damage Musk has already done to our federal government may be here long after he’s gone.

The State Department can’t seem to handle its own heat.

State Secretary Marco Rubio spontaneously pulled out of Ukraine peace talks Wednesday, leaving State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce bickering with CNN’s Pamela Brown after the Trump mouthpiece refused to talk shop about the potential peace deal or answer basic questions.

“I know you want to have a sense of what ratings might be, or pulling people in, but it is, I and—” Bruce said, before Brown interjected that “it’s not that, it’s just trying to get answers for our viewers.”

“We will not have this debate, certainly it’s not going to be a negotiation between you and me, and you know that, I know that, and the audience should know this is a dynamic that is very different than this kind of an exchange which is unfortunate,” Bruce continued.

“Okay, you are the State Department spokesperson, it is very fair for me to ask you basic questions about what has been said publicly,” Brown clarified.

“I’m trying to be!” the former Fox News contributor responded.

“You didn’t answer some of my questions, which is why I followed up, which is my job,” Brown pushed back.

“I didn’t answer the way you wanted me to answer it,” Bruce said. “That’s the difference. I answered them but not in the way you wanted.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy plainly rejected a U.S. deal that would permanently hand over Crimea to Russia.

“Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea,” Zelenskiy said at a press conference in Kyiv Tuesday. “There’s nothing to talk about here. This is against our Constitution.”

Responding via a post on Truth Social Wednesday, Trump claimed that the territory was “lost years ago” and “and is not even a point of discussion.”

In a statement released later in the day, Zelenskiy noted that “emotions have run high today.”

“But it is good that [five] countries met to bring peace closer. Ukraine, the USA, the UK, France and Germany. The sides expressed their views and respectfully received each other’s positions,” Zelenskiy wrote on X. “We are grateful to partners. Ukraine will always act in accordance with its Constitution and we are absolutely sure that our partners, in particular the USA, will act in line with its strong decisions.”

Donald Trump’s tariffs will end up hurting most Americans, acting as a tax increase for nearly every income group, with a minimal impact on the top one percent of earners.

Those are the findings of an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released Wednesday. The study found that if Trump’s tariffs of 10 percent on most countries, 25 percent tariffs on certain sectors for specific countries like Mexico and Canada, and 145 percent tariffs on China were still around in 2026, the poor would be hit the hardest.

Specifically, the bottom 20 percent of Americans making less than $29,000 per year would in effect have a tax increase of 6.2 percent on their yearly income. The middle 20 percent of Americans, with incomes between $55,000 and $94,000, would see the equivalent of a tax hike of 5 percent of their yearly income. But the top one percent of Americans, making more than $915,000 per year, would only see a relative tax increase of just 1.7 percent.

Even before the 2024 elections, Trump’s tariff idea was painted as a giveaway to the richest Americans, benefiting those with major assets. Small businesses are already seeing negative effects from Trump’s moves, unable to keep up with higher prices from suppliers. At one point, even the government wasn’t making any money off of the tariffs—a glitch at U.S. ports prevented their collection.

Even aside from glitches, the government’s tariff revenue is far below the billions promised by Trump. And his constant flip-flops smack of market manipulation—Trump even bragged about how much money his wealthy executive friends made when stocks jumped after he announced a pause in most of his tariffs earlier this month. The president also has his own scheme to personally cash in.

But the markets are still sliding lower each day the tariffs are in effect. Trump has backed off of his attacks on China and Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell for now. However, until there’s some kind of deal with China and other countries that allows Trump to save face on an obviously ill-though out concept of a plan, the economy will continue to suffer as Americans are forced to live under a tax hike.

Vice President JD Vance thought it was “crazy” that he was one of the last people to see Pope Francis before he died early Monday morning.

“I thought a lot about that, it’s pretty crazy actually,” Vance told reporters while on a visit to Agra, India, on the tarmac on Wednesday. 

“Obviously I was able to see him very briefly the morning of Easter Sunday. I knew he was very ill, I didn’t realize how sick he was. The thing that I will always remember Pope Francis for is that he was a great pastor. People on the margins, poor people, people suffering from diseases, they saw in Pope Francis an advocate, and I think a true expression of Christian love.”

Pope Francis has had a tenuous relationship with Trump, Vance, and the Christian right in America for the entirety of his papacy. He was a noted environmentalist who often chastised the Trump administration for its lack of humanity on immigration and climate change and its misuse of Catholic Social Teaching.  

Pope Francis’s funeral will be held on Saturday, according to the Vatican.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right security minister who openly supports the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, said on Wednesday that the Republican leaders he met with in the United States were in full support of his plans to bomb Gaza’s humanitarian aid stations.

“I had the honor and privilege of meeting with senior Republican Party officials at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate,” Ben-Gvir wrote on X. “They expressed support for my very clear position on how to act in Gaza and that the food and aid depots should be bombed in order to create military and political pressure to bring our hostages home safely.”

This is par for the course for a government that has massacred likely hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the name of self-defense. Ben-Gvir doubled down on his hatred shortly after.

“I see the reports about the debate over who should bring ‘humanitarian’ aid into Gaza: Well, it’s a fundamentally stupid debate, because the entire Strip should not receive any ounce of aid as long as our hostages are being held there,” he said.

Ben-Gvir was welcomed to Florida with open arms. He met with the Miami Police Department, spoke at a Jewish school in Fort Lauderdale, and stopped by an Israeli-Russian-owned gun store. He also had dinner at Mar-a-Lago, which President Trump was not present for. Ben-Gvir will be in New York City on Thursday.

Ben-Gvir has a long history of cruel, racist, anti-Arab sentiments that has led him to be convicted of eight charges related to incitement of racism and support for Israeli terrorism against Arabs. Multiple protests have erupted around his visit to the United States.

Illinois Representative Jan Schakowsky is planning to announce her retirement next month, leaving the Democratic primary for her district wide open.

“I’m going to announce my plans on May 5th. Stay tuned,” Schakowsky said, Politico reported Wednesday. That’s the day that Schakowsky’s annual Ultimate Women’s Power Lunch is scheduled in Chicago.

The veteran Democrat’s exit announcement will invite other Democrats to try to grab her seat. State Senator Laura Fine and Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss are both expected to announce bids for Illinois’s 9th congressional district after Schakowsky officially makes her plans public.

But there’s another opponent already in the field. While Schakowsky has been on retirement watch for at least a few months, 26-year-old lefty content creator Kat Abughazaleh revealed her own gambit for Illinois’s vote. Abughazaleh announced her campaign on March 24.

In a potential sign of the times, Abughazaleh’s campaign outpaced Schakowsky’s first-quarter fundraising in just one week after she announced her candidacy, reportedly raising more than $379,000 in eight days, according to Abughazaleh.

However, less than 1 percent of Abughazaleh’s fundraising stemmed from campaign contributions of more than $200 within the region that she intends to represent, which stretches from Chicago’s North Side through southeast McHenry County.

Abughazaleh’s campaign manager, Sam Weinberg, said that the political newcomer had received more than 1,100 donations from people within Illinois, though the vast majority were under $200—something that Weinberg blamed on the “economic struggles” faced by many Americans that Abughazaleh is “seeking to address.”

“The average American can’t spare $200 or more to donate to a political campaign, and we shouldn’t fault people for that,” Weinberg told WTTW News. “This is the result of an economy that is working for the few rather than the many, and this dynamic should be entirely unacceptable in the richest country in the history of the world.”

The U.S. government is reportedly preparing to deport immigrants to Rwanda who can’t be sent back to their country of origin due to fears of prosecution.

The Handbasket newsletter reported Tuesday that a State Department cable sent from the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, on March 13 stated that the country would be willing to accept such people. A new cable sent Tuesday from the State Department said that a refugee from Iraq, Omar Abdulsattar Ameen, became the first person to be officially deported to Rwanda thanks to this arrangement.

It’s quite a departure from the public deal the U.S. cut with El Salvador to accept deported immigrants in January, which resulted in legal challenges and at least one immigrant, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, being mistakenly sent to the country. The use of Rwanda as a third country for deportations has not been publicly disclosed by the country or the U.S. government.

“This successful relocation—and Rwanda’s subsequent agreement to accept additional third-country nationals (TCNs)—proved the concept for developing a new removal program to relocate TCNs from the United States to Rwanda,” Tuesday’s cable states, according to The Handbasket.

The cable mentions a “wish list” from Rwanda, including policy concessions as well as a single $100,000 payment for “social services, residency documents, and work permits.” The newsletter confirmed that the payment was made, but how the U.S. responded to other items on the list is unknown.

“Rwanda also agreed to accept another ten TCNs of various nationalities,” the cable also states, while adding that the country “seeks a bilateral dialogue to develop a durable program to facilitate these relocations and avoid reinventing the wheel with time-intensive ad hoc negotiations.”

Similar to Abrego Garcia, Ameen was accused of being a terrorist by the first Trump administration, who called him a member of ISIS and said he abused the refugee resettlement program. In 2014, Ameen and his family were granted refugee status, but he was arrested in 2018 by “dozens of armed men” at his Sacramento home.

The administration claims that Ameen murdered an Iraqi police officer as part of an ISIS plot, and tried to have him deported back to Iraq to stand trial. Ameen maintains that he is innocent, saying that he was in Turkey at the time of the murder, awaiting refugee status with the United Nations.

A federal judge ruled in 2021 that the case against Ameen was “dubious” with “unreliable” witnesses and allegations that were “simply not plausible,” ordering his immediate release. But just after he was released, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under the Biden administration, picked him up again and began deportation proceedings.

Last year in May, Ameen said in a statement that “I am so grateful to the judge for listening to all the evidence, and I thank God that in this country, I had the right to defend myself and be found innocent. I love America and want to enjoy living here with my wife and children for the rest of my life. It saddens me that I still have to fight for my freedom again.”

Yet Ameen was let down by the U.S. and is now the first person to be deported by the Trump administration to Rwanda, and on the basis of weak evidence to boot. Will he get any restitution, or will he be stuck overseas like Abrego Garcia?

Immigration was one of Donald Trump’s winning priorities with American voters, but not anymore.

Three recent polls have practically spelled disaster for Trump on the issue, with Americans increasingly disapproving of the president’s immigration policies amid a flurry of rushed deportations.

A YouGov/Economist poll released Wednesday indicates that Americans have soured on Trump’s immigration stances, with 50 percent of respondents disapproving compared to 45 percent approving.

The poll comes on the heels of a Reuters-Ipsos poll published Monday that indicated that 46 percent of the country disapproved of Trump’s immigration policies. And earlier this month, a Quinnipiac survey found that 50 percent of polled respondents didn’t agree with Trump on immigration.

During his second inaugural address in January, Trump promised to “eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil.” But in the months since Trump has returned to the White House, he has defied court orders, ignored the Supreme Court, and challenged the Constitution in order to advance his nativist immigration agenda.

In March, the Trump administration deported more than 200 alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador by invoking a Japanese internment-era wartime policy. That gave the administration the cover to deport the men without due process, a critical error that has only continued to mire the administration in more controversy, as it has become increasingly apparent that some members of the charged group—such as Kilmar Abrego Garcia—had never been convicted of a crime.

The administration has since had to admit that it mistakenly deported Garcia, though it has simultaneously appeared unable to retrieve him from the crowded foreign prison where the government is paying El Salvador $6 million to house the alleged gang members.

The YouGov/Economist poll found that 50 percent of Americans wanted Trump to bring Garcia back, while 28 percent agreed with the president’s actions.

The White House has said that Garcia “will never live” in the U.S. again.

“When President Trump declared MS-13 to be a foreign terrorist organization, that meant that (Abrego Garcia) was no longer eligible, under federal law … for any form of immigration relief in the United States,” said White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller last week.

Despite the White House’s insistence, just 27 percent of Americans are convinced Abrego Garcia’s a member of MS-13, according to the YouGov survey.

In a meeting with Trump, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele referred to a question regarding Garcia’s potential release as “preposterous.”

“How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” Bukele said, claiming that he did not have the authority to return Garcia to his family in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has pitched immigration alternatives such as the “gold card” that seem to be little more than opportunities to sell American democracy to the “highest bidder,” allowing America’s longtime adversaries—including Russian oligarchs—to effectively buy their way into the country.

Donald Trump’s most recent attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy over Crimea couldn’t be more pro-Russian if it had been written by Vladimir Putin himself.

In an angry post on Truth Social Wednesday, Trump criticized Zelenskiy for refusing to recognize Russia’s occupation of Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014, after the U.S. president pushed for a peace deal that would allow Russia to keep all of the territory it had seized from Ukraine.

“This statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia in that Crimea was lost years ago under the auspices of President Barack Hussein Obama, and is not even a point of discussion,” Trump wrote. “Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory but, if he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?”

This is coming from the same person who has repeatedly attempted to rewrite history to place Ukraine at fault for Russia’s invasion. Trump has also totally abdicated any responsibility in the situation. During his first term, Trump repeatedly undermined Zelenskiy and emboldened Putin. Crucially, after Trump’s first term, the situation in Ukraine was largely the same as it was under Obama. During peace negotiations, Trump has continued to barter on behalf of Russia, carving out a deal that punishes Ukraine for accepting U.S. military aid.

On some level, Trump must’ve realized how inane he sounded, because he quickly jumped on the defensive. “I have nothing to do with Russia,” he wrote. “But have much to do with wanting to save, on average, five thousand Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, who are dying for no reason whatsoever.

“The statement made by Zelenskyy today will do nothing but prolong the ‘killing field,’ and nobody wants that! We are very close to a Deal, but the man with ‘no cards to play’ should now, finally, GET IT DONE,” Trump added.

Russia currently controls roughly 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory.

Trump’s latest attack comes as Vice President JD Vance issued a stark ultimatum for the two European countries to come together over peace talks or risk the U.S. walking away. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump envoy Steve Witkoff decided not to attend a planned meeting in London between the U.S., Ukraine, and other European leaders, due to what Rubio’s spokesperson called “logistical issues.”