Happy Tuesday! We all fumble with our phones’ various apps occasionally. But have you ever inadvertently included a journalist in a group chat detailing top-secret plans for an imminent U.S. military operation?
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- The White House confirmed Monday that Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, was added to an encrypted group chat in which administration officials detailed secret plans to carry out imminent attacks on the Houthis in Yemen earlier this month. The text thread, which appeared to include Vice President J.D. Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and other top officials, began four days before the start of a U.S. military campaign targeting the Iranian-backed terrorist organization. In addition to deliberating on the timing of the airstrikes, the officials shared operational details including U.S. deployments, targets, and attack sequencing. Responding to the leak on Monday, Hegseth claimed: “Nobody was texting war plans.”
- Israeli airstrikes on the Nasser Medical Complex in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis killed Ismail Barhoum, a top Hamas official, the terrorist group confirmed Monday. Barhoum is the fourth member of Hamas’ political bureau to be killed since the collapse of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire last Tuesday. His death marked a “blow to the functioning of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. Meanwhile, Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for an intercepted rocket attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip Monday night. There were no reports of casualties from the rocket fire.
- President Donald Trump on Monday announced plans to impose 25 percent tariffs on any country that buys oil or gas from Venezuela. In a Truth Social post unveiling the “secondary tariffs,” Trump accused Venezuela of “purposefully and deceitfully” sending criminals to the United States. China, which has already been singled out by the Trump administration’s tariffs regime, is likely to be among the countries targeted by the new measures; in 2023, Beijing purchased 68 percent of all Venezuelan oil exports. The new levies, along with reciprocal tariffs targeting several U.S. trade partners, are set to take effect on April 2.
- U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg on Monday affirmed his ruling barring President Trump from invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to accelerate deportations of illegal immigrants. In a 37-page opinion, which came ahead of a Monday hearing before an appeals court panel, Boasberg denied a request that he reverse his March 15 order directing the administration to halt its planned removal of hundreds of Venezuelan nationals—deportation flights that went ahead nonetheless. Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Supreme Court “will get involved” in the case and accused Boasberg of judicial overreach.
- President Trump on Monday nominated Susan Monarez, the current acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to lead the agency permanently. The nomination followed the White House’s decision earlier this month to withdraw Dr. David Weldon, a former congressman from Florida and prominent vaccine skeptic, from consideration for the post. Before joining the CDC, Monarez served as the deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, a biomedical research agency. To formally assume the director’s role, she will need to be confirmed by the Senate.
- Mia Love, the first Black Republican woman to serve in Congress, died Sunday following a battle with brain cancer. She was 49. Love, a daughter of Haitian immigrants and convert to Mormonism, represented Utah in the House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019. “With grateful hearts filled to overflowing for the profound influence of Mia on our lives, we want you to know that she passed away peacefully today,” her family said in a statement Monday.
We can end smoking faster.
What Should U.S. Priorities Overseas Be?
On Wednesday, Americans got a rare glimpse into how the federal government’s leaders make decisions on matters of war and peace. The problem? They really, really weren’t supposed to get that glimpse.
In a shocking report, Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, detailed how he had been accidentally added to a group chat of top U.S. officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on March 11. Communicating via the encrypted messaging app Signal, the officials discussed highly detailed and classified plans for large-scale U.S. strikes on the Houthis, the Iranian-backed Yemeni terrorist group responsible for ongoing attacks on international vessels in the Red Sea.
When the military campaign—the largest of President Donald Trump’s second term so far—began four days later, Goldberg knew what to expect. The White House later confirmed the journalist’s account.
The fallout from the bombshell report is still ongoing, but the deliberations over the strikes hinted at a broader debate unfolding within the administration: whether robust overseas military engagements should be ...
As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. You can read our 1,535-word item on the Trump administration’s competing defense priorities in the members-only version of TMD.
Today’s Must-Read
What does J.D. Vance have against Europe? A lot, apparently. There’s a clear through-line in the vice president’s contempt for Europe—from many of our individual allies to multinational organizations like the EU and NATO. That much was clear from his comments in the recent group text thread among senior administration officials that Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was (incredibly) included on.
Toeing the Company Line
Stumped By Stumpage
Canadians stand accused of ... subsidizing hundreds of millions of Americans.
Waiting for Outrage
What will it take?
Why America Should Keep the NATO Command Chair
Surrendering control of NATO’s armed forces would be unwise.
Betrayal of the Law Firms
‘This was an existential threat to the firm.’
Worth Your Time
- Writing for the Deseret News less than two weeks before her death on Sunday, former Rep. Mia Love offered a moving tribute to the American dream. “The America I know isn’t just my story and it isn’t just your story. It is our story. It is a story of endless possibilities, human struggle, standing up and striving for more. Our story has been told for well over 200 years, punctuated by small steps and giant leaps; from a woman on a bus to a man with a dream; from the bravery of the greatest generation to the explorers, entrepreneurs, reformers and innovators of today. This is our story. This is the America we know — because we built it — together,” she wrote. “As my season of life begins to draw to a close, I still passionately believe that we can revive the American story we know and love. I am convinced that our citizens must remember the principles of our story so that our children, and those seeking freedom around the world, will know where to look to find a place for their story. We must fight to keep the America we know as that shining city on a hill — truly the last best hope on earth. Like Benjamin Franklin and countless patriots down through the ages, I believe the American experiment is not a setting sun but a rising sun.”
- Could the Trump administration’s cuts to research grants threaten U.S. security? In the Washington Post, Republican Sen. Todd Young and former deputy National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger argued that robust investment in research and development is crucial if the U.S. hopes to compete with its global adversaries. “As President Donald Trump pledges to win the artificial intelligence race, send Americans to Mars and sustain U.S. military dominance, we would do well to remember a key reason the United States achieved its technological edge in the first place: federal investment in ambitious research and development. The U.S. is racing against its adversaries to lead not only in artificial intelligence but also biotech, quantum computing, robotics and other technologies that will be pivotal for U.S. prosperity and security,” they wrote. “Our policymakers should lock arms with the science-and-technology dreamers and doers across the country — from Silicon Valley to the Silicon Prairie — and recognize that basic research isn’t a federal handout to help sustain academia. Instead, it is a vital ingredient in our innovation future, economic and geopolitical competitiveness, and national security.”
Presented Without Comment
Axios: Trump's Colorado Capitol Portrait Will Be Removed After President’s Outcry
Colorado House Democrats issued a statement Monday saying the painting, on display since 2019, will come down at the request of Republican leaders.
“If the GOP wants to spend time and money on which portrait of Trump hangs in the Capitol, then that’s up to them,” the statement reads.
…
Russian leader Vladimir Putin sent Trump a “personal gift” during a meeting with administration special envoy Steve Witkoff last week, the Kremlin said Monday after it emerged he gave him a portrait.
Witkoff had earlier described the painting of the president by a “leading Russian artist” as “beautiful” during an interview with Tucker Carlson.
In the Zeitgeist
Cass McCombs, a vital voice in the indie-folk music scene, debuted his new single “Priestess” during an NPR Tiny Desk Concert on Monday. But we think the entire set, which revives the singer’s discography dating back to 2002, is worth a listen.
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