President Trump put his national security adviser Mike Waltz on the spot, blaming him for the Signal leak that has led to criticism of the president's national security team.
"It was Mike, I guess. I don’t know, I always thought it was Mike," Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.
Still, Trump maintained that the controversy over the leaked chats is a "witch hunt" and he offered no indication he wants Waltz to resign.
Trump's latest comments mark a shift in tone after he fulsomely defended Waltz and blamed a staffer for the situation. Waltz has taken responsibility for accidentally adding a liberal journalist to a Signal chat about military strikes in Yemen.
The chat group included Waltz, Vice President J.D. Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and other top officials. Also included was Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of the anti-Trump magazine The Atlantic.
Democrats have demanded that Waltz and Hegseth resign, but Trump and his top allies have said the criticism of the leak is overblown, pointing to the success of the mission against Houthi rebels.
“How do you bring Hegseth into it? He had nothing to do — look, look, it’s all a witch hunt,” Trump said Wednesday.
The leak has placed Waltz's relationship with Goldberg under scrutiny. Golberg has played a significant role in spreading anti-Trump narratives, such as the sticky claim that Trump called soldiers "suckers and losers," which continued to dog Trump in 2024, four years after Goldberg first shared it.
A photo that resurfaced this week shows Waltz and Goldberg at the same event at the French Embassy in 2021. But Waltz has said he never met Goldberg, suggesting the "loser" journalist somehow broke into the chat.
“I know him by his horrible reputation, and he really is the bottom scum of journalists. And I know him in the sense that he hates the president, but I don’t text him. He wasn’t on my phone. And we’re going to figure out how this happened," Waltz told Fox News' Laura Ingraham.
According to reports, Trump is angry that Waltz had Goldberg in his phone, but the president is reluctant to fire Waltz and hand a victory to The Atlantic, which publishes articles attacking the president on a daily basis.
Trump defended Waltz as a "very good man" and called Goldberg a "total sleazebag" when asked about the Signal leak Tuesday.
The House voted to end President Biden's energy standards for refrigerators and freezers on Thursday.
The vote is part of a wider effort by Republicans and President Trump to roll back Biden-era regulations that targeted common household appliances. The rules would have imposed more strict energy efficiency standards for commercial refrigerators and freezers.
The House voted 214-192 to overturn energy efficiency regulations for commercial refrigerators and freezers and also voted 203 to 182 to get rid of energy regulations on walk-in freezers and coolers.
Both resolutions passed through the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to overturn a recent federal regulation with a simple majority.
The Senate still needs to vote on reversing the refrigerator standards, which were finalized at the end of Biden's term. The Biden administration said the regulations would benefit the climate and save consumers money on their utility bills.
Republicans say the regulations would make products more expensive while limiting choice for consumers.
“Today, House Republicans acted to overturn more last-minute environmental regulations from the Biden Administration. Walk-in coolers and freezers are essential for pharmacies, convenience stores, food processing facilities, food banks, restaurants, and many other establishments nationwide,” said Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Ok), who sponsored the bill on walk-in coolers and freezers.
Under federal law, the Energy Department must periodically review existing energy standards and may only make changes that are "technologically feasible and economically justified and would result in significant energy savings."
The Biden administration focused on using energy regulations to advance a climate agenda, targeting common household products including water heaters, washers and dryers, and, most notably, gas stoves.
Under Trump, the Energy Department is prioritizing freedom of choice. This week, Energy Secretary Chris Wright postponed a trio of energy standards for home appliances, including walk-in coolers and freezers.
“By removing burdensome regulations put in place by the Biden administration, we are returning freedom of choice to the American people, ensuring consumers can choose the home appliances that work best for their lives and budgets," Wright added. "This power should not belong to the federal government."
The House voted last month to overturn Biden's ban on certain types of tankless water heaters. Republican Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) has proposed a bill in the Senate to overturn Biden's ban on gas-powered, non-condensing tankless heaters, which are typically cheaper but less energy efficient than other models.
The issue has led to intense lobbying from water heater companies like Japanese manufacturer Rinnai, which makes the kind of water heaters facing a ban. A.O. Smith, the largest water heater manufacturer in the United States, is in favor of Biden's ban. According to the Washington Free Beacon, the company received $25 million from the Biden administration to invest in climate-conscious electric heat pumps.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Signal chat group about Middle East planning included reporter
Hillary Clinton is scolding the administration of President Donald Trump for allowing a scandal to happen.
It developed when an executive at the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added to a Signal chat group that the administration was using to chat about its dealings, including possible attacks, regarding terrorists in Yemen.
The administration has said there was no classified information shared, while Trump's critics say there was.
"You have got to be kidding me," Clinton claimed.
Exactly what she meant isn't clear, but her experience with scandals in government runs long and deep.
Even leftists online noted, "Clinton's use of a private email server at the State Department and accusations she mishandled classified information dogged her unsuccessful 2016 presidential campaign."
In fact, that campaign was the second time voters had rejected her agenda to install herself in the White House as president. Years earlier, even Democrats had picked upstart Barack Obama over Clinton.
But Clinton's history also includes the Whitewater scandal in Arkansas, the followup to a real estate investment scandal that saw Hillary Clinton the first spouse of a U.S. president to be subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury.
The scandal's conclusion as that there wasn't enough evidence that Hillary, or husband Bill, had engaged in criminal activity.
Yet another scandal involved the White House travel office when Hillary was living there.
It became known as "Travelgate."
Another scandal involved Hillary Clinton's financial involvement with cattle futures.
Some accused her of misbehavior and said her trading records showed a conflict of interest and possibly even bribery.
But there was no formal investigation.
Further, one byproduct of "Travelgate" was "Filegate," when the White House during the Clinton era accessed, improperly according to accusations, hundreds of FBI background reports on former White House employees who are Republican.
There even was a dispute over the furnishings in the White House. While many considered those items to be government property, a number of "gifts" were shipped to the Clinton's private resident before Bill left office.
And there were the Americans killed in Benghazi, under Hillary Clinton's watch.
A report from Fox News explained how now Hillary Clinton is calling the Trump administration "dumb."
Her words come from a "blistering essay" the New York Times gave her space to publish.
She challenged, "It's not the hypocrisy that bothers me; it's the stupidity. We're all shocked — shocked! — that President Trump and his team don't actually care about protecting classified information or federal record retention laws. But we knew that already. What's much worse is that top Trump administration officials put our troops in jeopardy by sharing military plans on a commercial messaging app and unwittingly invited a journalist into the chat. That's dangerous. And it's just dumb."
Hillary Clinton, in fact, also was investigated even as she was running for president for possibly violating the law by running national security secrets into her unsecure computer server she set up in her home.
Her essay appeared to have a theme, as she used descriptives for the Trump administration including "not smart," "dumb power," "dumb," "dumb and dangerous" and more.
The private information of National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and other top national security officials is available online, as the Trump administration faces scrutiny over leaked Signal messages.
The German outlet Der Spiegel identified e-mails, phone numbers, and some passwords belonging to national security adviser Waltz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Some of the data was commercially available, while other information was leaked by hackers online.
The administration's critics say the private data could be leveraged by counterintelligence operatives to spy on the White House, which has been engulfed in controversy after a journalist was inadvertently included in a sensitive conversation about a military strike in Yemen.
The Trump administration has said the situation is being blown out of proportion, with Trump calling it a "witch hunt."
Using commercially available data, Der Spiegel tracked down an email address that was active until a few days ago, and a phone number that was associated with a recently deleted WhatsApp account. The WhatsApp account had a profile picture of Hegseth with his shirt off. The email address was also found, along with its password, in databases containing hacked user data.
Similarly, Der Spiegel got Waltz's phone and e-mail, and some passwords, linking the information with his Microsoft Teams, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Signal accounts.
Gabbard's information was more closely guarded, but her leaked email address was reportedly obtained through WikiLeaks and Reddit.
A spokesperson for Waltz told the outlet that his passwords and accounts were changed before he entered Congress in 2019. A spokesperson for Gabbard similarly said that she has updated her passwords several times since her personal data was compromised 10 years ago.
Der Spiegel sent messages to the Signal and WhatsApp accounts associated with Gabbard and Walz, and they were apparently delivered.
The outlet conceded that it is not clear if the Signal accounts are the same ones that were used in the chat about strikes in Yemen.
Separately, WIRED reported that Waltz's friend list on the mobile payment app Venmo was publicly available.
The account, which has since been made private, listed several journalists and government officials, including Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles.
Waltz has taken responsibility for the leak of the administration's communications over Signal. Democrats have called on Waltz and Hegseth to resign.
Trump, after defending Waltz, appeared to shift tone on Wednesday as he blamed him for the leak.
"It was Mike, I guess. I don’t know, I always thought it was Mike," Trump said, adding the scandal is a "witch hunt."
Tucker Carlson has announced that his father, Richard Warner Carlson, has died.
In an obituary posted on X, Carlson said his father died at home on Monday in Boca Grande, Florida at the age of 84 after six weeks of illness.
"He refused all painkillers to the end and left this world with dignity and clarity, holding the hands of his children with his dogs at his feet," Carlson wrote.
Richard Carlson possessed an "outlaw spirit tempered by decency" that led him on an adventurous career in journalism and government affairs - all while remaining dedicated to two sons he raised on his own, Tucker Carlson wrote.
In his time as an investigative reporter for ABC News in California, Carlson knew the most interesting personalities of the day, including Jim Jones, Patty Hearst, Eric Hoffer, and Jerry Garcia, "as well as Mafia leaders and members of the Manson Family," Tucker Carlson wrote.
Richard Carlson later took on government roles, moving to Washington in 1985 to work in the Reagan administration as director of Voice of America and then as U.S. ambassador to Seychelles under the George H. W. Bush administration. In the 1990s, Carlson became CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and also led a division of King World television.
Obituary for my father.
Richard Warner Carlson died at 84 on March 24, 2025 at home in Boca Grande, Florida after six weeks of illness. He refused all painkillers to the end and left this world with dignity and clarity, holding the hands of his children with his dogs at his… pic.twitter.com/4lMygMkSIT
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 26, 2025
In his later years, Carlson traveled the world and got involved in "countless intrigues" in dozens of countries, his work remaining a mystery to his own family.
"He spoke to his sons every day and had lunch with them once a week for thirty years at the Metropolitan Club in Washington, always prefaced by a dice game. Throughout his life he fervently loved dogs," the obituary read.
Born February 10, 1941, Richard Carlson was left at an orphanage in Boston, where he developed rickets. His adoptive father, a tannery manager, died when he was 12.
After a volatile youth that saw him jailed for car theft, he set out for California in 1962, where he worked as a merchant seaman for one year before entering journalism as a copyboy at the Los Angeles Times, later becoming a wire service reporter for UPI and an investigative reporter and anchor for ABC News.
In 1975, Carlson became a single father to his two sons, Tucker and Buckley, after splitting from their mother, artist Lisa McNear Lombardi. She left for Europe, never to return, and Carlson raised the boys in San Diego, California.
"He threw himself into raising his boys, whom he often brought with him on reporting trips," Tucker Carlson wrote.
Richard Carlson married frozen dinner heiress Patricia Swanson in 1979, and they were happily married until her death sixteen months before Carlson's own, according to the obituary.
He is survived by his sons, Tucker and Buckley, his beloved daughter-in-law Susie, and five grandchildren.
"He was the toughest human being anyone in his family ever knew, and also the kindest and most loyal. RIP," Tucker Carlson wrote.
Political intrigue is hardly a new phenomenon, but D.C. Beltway drama takes on a new color when politicians find themselves in post-election relationships.
Such is the case with one Republican lawmaker who has dissolved his marriage and is now reportedly in a relationship with a FOX News reporter covering politics.
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.) 41, is dating FOX News digital correspondent Brook Singham, 32, as was confirmed to DailyMail.com.
According to a recent report by the outlet, the influential Republican from Pennsylvania has split with his few and is dating the up-and-comer.
The pair, whose paths would naturally cross in their Washington D.C.-centric work environments, have been spotted around town, according to a number of sources who confrimed as much to Page Six.
"The dynamic looked romantic in nature," one of the sources told the outlet, confirming what was said by others who observed the pair.
In addition to outside of the capitol building, Reschenthaler and Singman have also been seen together at an event at the Library of Congress and had dinner together at the event.
The Pennsylvania Republican is the chief deputy whip for House Republicans and is rising through the party's ranks, despite his seeming ignorance of the group's family values.
As for Singman, who began her career as an assistant to Fox News President Jay Wallace, she later became a reporter for the online edition of the nation's most popular news outlet.
In addition to the run-of-the-mill reporting that many take part in within the digital space, Singman was able to land herself an exclusive interview with President Donald Trump. Since that career coup, Singman now appears frequently on-air for the TV news station.
Based on what a source told DailyMail.com, the connection does not pose a conflict of interest since Singman does not cover Congress, which is where Reschenthaler works. However, at one time, Singman interviewed Reschenthaler for an article titled "Kamala harris 'has become toxic' for Pennsylvania, top Keystone State lawmaker says.'
Two sources told Page Six that the reporter from Fox News and the lawmaker met for the first time while Singman was following Trump's campaign.
They met at a Pennsylvania McDonald's during Trump's campaign stop in October. The Republican served burgers and fries to a small group of hungry patrons
Singman shared pictures of her at a fast food joint where she was campaigning. The pictures show her with the president and the lawmaker.
Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard revealed an interesting and disgusting discovery she and her team made as she works to overhaul the intelligence agencies she oversees.
According to Fox News, Gabbard revealed that the Biden administration was aware of "very sexually explicit, highly inappropriate and unprofessional chatter" across agency message boards, and obviously did nothing about it.
The inappropriate messaging apparently went on for "years" according to Gabbard, calling into question why the Biden administration allowed such disgusting behavior within the U.S. intelligence community.
Gabbard said several whistleblowers had come forward during the Biden presidency to call out the issue, but it was reportedly never addressed.
Gabbard, in an interview with Fox News Digital, explained what she had come across and what she found out.
"I've had whistleblowers come forward just in the last few days who work in the [National Security Agency] and who said, ‘Hey, we saw this, and we reported it through official channels under the Biden administration,’" Gabbard told the outlet.
Gabbard added, "And essentially they were told this is no issue, step aside."
Fox News noted:
It all comes back to "the Biden administration's obsession with" diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), according to the new Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The chatrooms "were set up because of DEI policies," she said.
Trump's DNI -- a former lawmaker -- said the chat rooms "were shut down immediately after President Trump issued his executive order shutting down the DEI across the federal government."
Not only were the chat room shut down right away, she also ordered the termination of many of those involved in the inappropriate chatting, which she said totaled over 100 people.
Gabbard explained that the people involved in the disgusting chats "violated the trust that the American people placed in them to work in these highly sensitive jobs that are directly related to national security."
Gabbard fully supports the Trump administration's efforts to save taxpayers as much money as possible, and she noted that getting rid of DEI initiatives in the intelligence agencies has already saved taxpayers millions.
"Getting rid of the DEI center that was stood up under the Biden administration, we immediately saved taxpayers almost $20 million," she told Fox News Digital.
Thank goodness Trump picked people who aren't afraid to make the calls that need to be made to get America back on track.
As a result of the high winds that swept throughout Southwest Washington and the majority of Oregon on Monday night, tens of thousands of houses were left without electricity.
Following the issuance of a succession of thunderstorm and high wind warnings by forecasters with the National Weather Service on Monday afternoon, the power outages occurred as Fox 13 reported.
Wind gusts of up to fifty miles per hour could cause damage in certain regions, including portions of the Willamette Valley and the wider Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area, according to a warning issued by the National Weather Service (NWS).
When everything is taken into consideration, Portland General Electric (PGE) estimated that there were more than 1,000 active outages that affected about 100,000 people as of Monday evening at eight o'clock.
“PGE crews are out right now assessing damage and making repairs and will work as quickly as safety allows to restore service,” said John Farmer, a PGE spokesperson.
“We encourage customers to stay prepared for potential outages this evening as forecasted windy weather conditions continue.”
There were also large and dispersed power disruptions at Pacific Power. After midnight on Monday, the electric utility company stated that there were at least 200 current outages that affected more than 30,000 consumers.
The majority of the power outages are still being investigated, but officials with Pacific Power have stated that it is highly likely that many of the power outages are the result of trees that have fallen or branches that have fallen on power lines.
Clark Public Utilities reports that over 8,000 consumers in Clark County are currently without electricity.
Officials are advising individuals to refrain from traveling if feasible due to numerous downed trees and utility lines. Additionally, electric utilities advise individuals who encounter a downed powerline to keep away.
This outage comes just a few weeks after Washington Gov. Jay Inslee made his formal request for a federal disaster declaration in mid-Janurary following "bomb cyclone" storms that impacted the area.
Damage totaling millions of dollars was caused over the region by the storms, which featured hurricane-force winds.
Damage to public infrastructure in King County alone exceeded $11 million, according to King County Emergency Management.
This level of damage caused there to be serious debris and cleanup still underway when the more recent storms crashed into the area, furthering the damage.
Former President Barack Obama and the people who helped him launch the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or sometimes referred to as "Obamacare," are not going to be happy with President Donald Trump's latest actions.
According to The Hill, the president's administration announced that it's slashing funding for ACA navigators by a staggering 90%.
The health insurance navigators assist people in signing up for Obamacare on various exchanges, according to the report.
News of the deep cuts in funding came on the heels of Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continuing its winning streak with eliminating government waste and finding ways to streamline it all.
In a bombshell announcement from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Friday, it was revealed that health insurance navigators will only receive $10 million per year for the next four years.
The same navigators, under President Joe Biden, received a whopping $98 million in 2024 alone, marking a major cut-down on funding on Trump's watch.
The Hill noted:
CMS said the cut will allow the exchanges to focus on more effective strategies to improve outcomes and to reduce premiums for people who don’t qualify for subsidies.
The health agency justified the cut by noting navigators enrolled only 0.6 percent of plan selections on the federal exchange during the open enrollment period — at a cost of $1,061 per enrollment.
CMS officials released a statement defending its move, citing a lack of return on investment for the previous sums sent to the navigators.
"Overall, Navigator performance data shows that the current level of funding does not represent a reasonable return on investment. These numbers indicate that Navigators are not enrolling nearly enough people to justify the substantial amount of federal dollars previously spent on the program," they wrote.
The decrease in funding for health insurance navigators, according to experts, will save U.S. taxpayers some $360 million over the next four years.
Trump, during his first term in the White House, cut funding to ACA navigators in the same manner.
He also slashed funding for ads pointing to Healthcare.gov, the primary website where people can sign up for ACA health care plans.
Interestingly, had Biden -- or Harris -- won the election, their administration was set to up the amount of funding to a mind-blowing $500 million over the next five years.
Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) made a surprise move this week with regard to Sen.-elect Adam Schiff (D-CA).
According to Breitbart, Schumer, who still leads the upper chamber for a few more weeks, appointed Schiff to the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees judicial appointments.
Schiff's appointment will echo his time in the House, where he served on the House Judiciary Committee for years.
The California lawmaker also served on the California Senate Judiciary Committee while serving in the state Legislature.
Schiff received a number of plum appointments from Leader Schumer, including a seat on the Judiciary; Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; Environment and Public Works; and Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
The California Democrat released a statement on his X account following the assignments.
"I just received my Senate committee assignments: Judiciary, Agriculture, Small Business, and Environment & Public Works. These assignments will allow me to help build a stronger economy, support our agriculture industry and small businesses, and protect our democracy and planet," Schiff wrote.
I just received my Senate committee assignments: Judiciary, Agriculture, Small Business, and Environment & Public Works.
These assignments will allow me to help build a stronger economy, support our agriculture industry and small businesses, and protect our democracy and planet.
— Adam Schiff (@SenAdamSchiff) January 2, 2025
He also released a longer statement thanking Schumer for the assignments.
"I am grateful for the opportunity to serve on four committees of keen interest to all Californians," Schiff said in a statement.
He added, "These assignments will allow me to work directly on the high cost of housing and other inflation issues, to support our critical agriculture industry, to address crime and public safety concerns, to support our small businesses, to attack fentanyl, to reform our broken immigration system, to preserve and protect our environment, to deliver vital water and transportation infrastructure, to protect our democracy, rights and our freedoms, and so much more. I’m committed to working across the aisle to deliver for Californians in the U.S. Senate and eager to get started."
Many across social media torched Schiff after he announced the news.
"You belong in jail," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "Your actions on the Russia hoax should disqualify you from Judiciary."