House Intelligence Committee Democrats are urging Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to conduct an independent review after a journalist inadvertently added to Signal chat about a military attack, WPRI-TV reported. Ranking member Jim Himes (D-CT) sent a letter to Gabbard Monday demanding a written response.
The issue occurred because National Security Advisor Mike Waltz accidentally added an Atlantic journalist to the Signal chat with officials. They were discussing a strike on Houthi terrorists, and a recent Wall Street Journal report later noted that Israel provided the intelligence for the attack.
"The U.S. ally complained to the United States that Mr. Waltz’s texts had become public. The Wall Street Journal’s reporting, if accurate, is deeply concerning. These developments underscore the need for the intelligence community, under your leadership, to conduct a parallel inquiry into the chat," the letter from Himes and 11 other members said to Gabbard on Monday.
HPSCI Democrats are calling on the intelligence community, led by DNI Tulsi Gabbard, to conduct an independent investigation into the Signal chat in which participants discussed plans for an impending US military attack in Yemen. pic.twitter.com/RiXzESIX93
— House Intelligence Committee (@HouseIntelDems) March 31, 2025
The White House has already cleared up the matter of the group chat and moved on. "This case has been closed here at the White House, as far as we are concerned," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday.
However, the committee members believe the new information about a reaction from Israel warrants further investigation. "Since you and other intelligence community leaders testified about the group chat before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence last Wednesday, there have been new developments," the letter said.
The letter cited the Wall Street Journal's assertion that "Waltz sent texts on the Signal chain following the attack—noting the U.S. had ‘positive ID’ that the building in which the operative was located had collapsed—that may have been linked to information from that source." Himes and the undersignors noted that Israel was not happy that the information "became public."
According to the Wall Street Journal, Waltz gave specific information that was later disclosed to the public because of the Signal chat. "The first target—their top missile guy—we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it is now collapsed," Waltz had written in the chat.
However, Waltz has insisted, "No classified information was included in the thread." Waltz added that "the messages have no locations, no sources and methods, and no war plans. Foreign partners had already been notified strikes were imminent."
National security is of the utmost importance, and a blunder like this one is certainly worth investigating. However, it appears the left is hammering President Donald Trump with this story for political points.
The Hill reported that Trump called out the media for this in a post to his Truth Social on Sunday, calling their "never-ending" fascination with it "old and boring." He lauded Senate Armed Services Committee member Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) for coming to his defense.
"A GREAT job by Senator Markwayne Mullin on beating back Kristen Welker’s, and the Radical Left’s Witch Hunt, on the never ending Signal story," Trump said Mullin's response to NBC's Welker. "They just don’t stop – Over and over they go!" Trump added.
"This story and narrative is so old and boring, but only used because we are having the most successful ‘First One Hundred Presidential Days’ in the history of America, and they can’t find anything else to talk about. The Fake News Media has the lowest Approval Ratings in history, and for good reason," Trump said.
Democrats and their accomplices in the media will continue to pursue this story as long as it is politically expedient. Though serious, this mishap certainly was not as severe as they're making it out to be to rile up their anti-Trump base.
During an appearance on Fox News's "Sunday Morning Futures," Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow addressed the phenomenon of Democrat-tied judges blocking President Donald Trump's agenda, calling it a "national disgrace" and saying the rules regarding "judge-shopping" need to change.
Host Maria Bartiromo asked Marlow whether it was a coincidence that Federal Judge James Boasberg has gotten four cases involving the president.
Marlow answered, “Of course not. It’s not a coincidence, Maria, what’s going on is judge shopping. This is a practice that’s been in play since 1988 when Congress changed laws so that you don’t have to have any connection to the jurisdiction where you’re filing cases."
He called the numerous cases against Trump and the administration seeking injunctions to stop their actions an attempted "judicial coup."
"The Democrats have figured this out, their lawfare machine which is very well funded, very well organized, and they’re targeting specific judges to try to have a judicial coup against the President of the United States.”
So far, judges have blocked Trump's executive actions 15 times on a nationwide level, more than during the entire administration of his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Judges have ordered planes carrying imprisoned illegal immigrants to turn around in the sky, prevented Trump from cutting staff or firing people at various government agencies, and stopped various budget cuts suggested by DOGE but implemented by agency heads.
“It is now the point now where Donald Trump, if he wants an executive action, he needs unanimous consent from 700 odd judges essentially," Marlow pointed out.
In other words, all Democrats need to do is find a sympathetic judge on the opposite side of the aisle politically, and they can block whatever Trump is trying to do with an emergency injunction, then tie up the action for months or years while the lawsuit plays out.
"This is tyranny, but unfortunately there’s no quick way to stop it," Marlow said.
He suggested a rules change that would disallow judge-shopping or block injunctions from being effective nation-wide rather than only in the jurisdiction where the case was filed.
"We need to change these rules right away. They’re targeting these judges and it’s blocking just about every element of the agenda from what DOGE is doing to DEI to rolling back some of the trans stuff to deregulation to trying to deport illegally child molesters," he concluded. "They can’t do any of it unless all these judges sign on to it which they’re not."
Instead of ruling fairly, the judges are bending to the will of partisans and using the law to do things it was not intended to do, like thwart the will of the voters by blocking the agenda of the president they elected.
"They’re Democratic-tied. You all know what’s going on. This is truly a national disgrace,” Marlow said.
President Donald Trump has made no secret of his intention to deport non-citizens engaged in illegal activity or those who support or promote terrorist organizations.
Not surprisingly, however, the Trump administration has encountered obstacles erected by federal district court judges who are increasingly asserting a controversial degree of authority over the executive branch, as evidenced by a Friday ruling preventing the deportation of a Tufts University graduate student, as Fox News reports.
At issue late last week was the case of Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, an international student from Turkey living in Somerville, Massachusetts, who was detained by federal authorities near her off-campus apartment.
A representative from the Department of Homeland Security asserted that Ozturk has been “engaged in activities in support of Hamas,” and according to Fox News, she co-authored an op-ed piece last year in the Tufts Daily blasting the school's stance on Israel's actions in Gaza.
Ozturk and her co-authors demanded that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and adjust its financial affairs based on other entities' ties to the Jewish state.
After her arrest, Ozturk was taken to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center, presumably in preparation for eventual deportation, a move her attorneys said was improper due to her status as a F-1 visa holder with no pending criminal charges.
U.S. District Judge Denise Casper halted any deportation plans, saying, “To allow the Court's resolution of its jurisdiction to decide the petition, Ozturk shall not be removed from the United States until further order of this court,” referencing an updated complaint filed by the student's attorneys to which the government has until Tuesday to file a response.
It was in January that Trump signed an executive order mandating the revocation of student visas for those advocating in support of Hamas.
The order came in response to what the president said was an “unprecedented wave of vile, antisemitic discrimination, vandalism, and violence against our citizens, especially in our schools and on our campuses.”
As NBC News reports, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has indicated that several hundred student visas have already been pulled as a result of the executive order.
“It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas,” Rubio said.
Rubio also opined, “We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to be a social activist that comes in and tears up our university campuses. If you invite me into your home because I say, 'Oh, I want to go to your house for dinner,' and I come into your house and I start putting mud on your couch and spray-painting your kitchen, I bet you you're going to kick me out.”
While Ozturk's case continues its journey in the courts, another high-profile matter involving Columbia University protest leader and alleged Hamas supporter Mahmoud Khalil is making headlines after the activist was detained over two weeks ago by ICE agents.
During a hearing on Friday, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz ruled that Khalil will remain in the aforementioned Louisiana ICE facility for the time being amid unsettled jurisdictional arguments, leaving the fate of his and several other similar cases uncertain as complex legal wrangling appears poised to continue.
President Donald Trump's administration is considering allowing tax cuts to expire for high-income earners to overcome possible shortfalls without cuts, Axios reported. The outlet claimed an unnamed senior White House official said that Trump would be forced to do so as a concession to Democrats in exchange for the tax cut extensions.
Axios called this an amazing "scoop" but did not name inside sources who allegedly dished this information. However, the report made it clear that the sources also claimed this was still in the works and not "set in stone."
The top tax rate for individuals earning more than $609,351 and married couples earning $731,201 is 35% with Trump's tax cuts still in effect. With this concession, the top tax rate will go back to 39.6% with a lower income threshold, just as it was before 2018.
This would defang Democrats' main arguments, including slamming Trump for looking to cut Medicaid while cutting taxes for the rich. "If we renew tax cuts for the rich paid for by throwing people off Medicaid, we're gonna get f--king slaughtered," the White House official reportedly claimed.
Democrats have used class warfare as a major party platform point for decades. Part of their appeal has always been to make the rich pay their "fair share" to redistribute wealth to lower earners, which is exactly what the punishingly high top tax rate has done.
Republicans have historically opposed such a strategy and have run and won on precisely that. For example, President Ronald Reagan left office with the top tax rate at 28%, down from 70% when he was sworn in in 1981 which lead to another GOP victory in 1988.
President George W. Bush also lowered the 39.6% top marginal tax rate under President Bill Clinton down to 35% during his administration. If Trump reverses that trend, it would be a break from conventional Republican governance.
Although Trump has not been much of a fiscal conservative in his spending, he has championed his tax cuts and the positive economic impact they have. Meanwhile, some have claimed that his imposition of tariffs is the same thing as a tax increase, NPR reported.
Since taking office, Trump has imposed 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada and 10% to 20% on goods from China. Trump sees this as a way of forcing companies to make products in the U.S., while his detractors claim it will simply be another cost passed on to consumers.
The chatter from unnamed officials about a tax hike comes as Republicans worry about the serious ramifications of such a move. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned of "economic calamity" if lawmakers fail to extend the cuts.
During his confirmation hearing, Bessent said they must extend the cuts to avoid imposing a "crushing $4 trillion tax hike" on the nation. He made his case to the Senate Finance Committee before ultimately being confirmed.
"Today, I believe that President Trump has a generational opportunity to unleash a new economic golden age that will create more jobs, wealth, and prosperity for all Americans. We must make permanent the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and implement new pro-growth policies to reduce the tax burden on American manufacturers, service workers and seniors," Bessent said.
"This is the single most important economic issue of the day. If we do not renew and extend, then we will be facing an economic calamity and, as always with financial instability, that falls on the middle and working class people," Bessent added.
Even if Trump is in discussions about allowing the higher earners to pay more taxes, it doesn't mean it will happen. These kinds of reports are meant to demoralize supporters and give ammo to his opposition, but only time will tell whether any of this is true.
The Senate voted 52-48 on Thursday to overturn a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule that would limit overdraft fees for credit unions and major banks, the Washington Examiner reported. This comes as President Donald Trump's administration reviews the agency for cuts.
The original rule capping the fees was enacted during then-President Joe Biden's term. With the Senate approving the resolution, introduced by Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC), the measure will go to the House of Representatives.
While limiting the fees is sold as a measure to help the poor, many believe that it would disincentivize banks from doing business with financially risky customers and be a net negative to the impoverished. Scott said as much when introducing the resolution.
"This overdraft conversation is a critically important conversation if you are like me, a guy who grew up in poverty, a single-parent household, who understands the difficulty, the challenge, of single moms making those ends meet. I want every single hardworking American to have access to our financial system," Scott said.
Scott's Senate resolution was a remedy for the unintended ramifications of the cap while a similar resolution was introduced in the House of Representatives for the same reason. House Financial Services Chairman French Hill (R-AR) called the fee cap a CFPB overreach.
"As I have consistently said, the CFPB needs guardrails on its enforcement and rulemaking powers, and this rule is another clear example of why. The CFPB’s actions on overdraft is another form of government price controls that hurt consumers who deserve financial protections and greater choice," Hill said in a statement.
The original rule came about when Biden, to buy votes, fixated on eliminating so-called "junk fees." One type he addressed was overdraft fees, which he capped as low as $5 for institutions with $10 billion in assets, was done ostensibly to help the poor, who are disproportionately the ones left paying these fees, according to the Associated Press.
The fees charged for an overdraft, which happens when a debit comes through for more than the balance in the account, were upwards of $35. Biden called them "exploitive," though it's a way for banks to collect on poor financial risks that would otherwise be turned away.
Biden's CFPB focused solely on the dollar amount of the fees, touting $5 billion in annual overdraft fees that would not have to be paid. This translated to $225 per household for those whose balances typically hovered between $237 and $439, which make up 70% of overdraft fees paid.
Even before the latest resolutions undoing Biden's legacy, Trump signaled that there could be cuts to the CFPB. Last month, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency met with federal employees from the CFPB to let them know most of the 1,700 employees would be cut as they were "winding down" its operations, NBC News reported.
One employee, who identified himself by the pseudonym Alex Doe, said that he had orders to clean house. "My team was directed to assist with terminating the vast majority of CFPB employees as quickly as possible," he told the news outlet.
The three-phase plan would go as many other agencies with probationary and term employees the first out, followed by massive cuts to 1,200 jobs. "Finally, the Bureau would ‘reduce altogether’ within 60-90 days by terminating most of its remaining staff," Doe explained.
The ultimate goal was to get to just a handful of employees who might be absorbed into another agency. "One Senior Executive said that CFPB will become a ‘room at Treasury, White House, or Federal Reserve with five men and a phone in it,'" Doe claimed.
It is a good decision to allow banks to do business in a way that keeps them solvent so they can continue to service all kinds of customers. The fact that Trump is also looking to cut the CFPB is a bonus for businesses and consumers.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a scathing dissent after the court's 7-2 ruling allowing so-called "ghost guns" to be regulated, the Daily Caller reported. The law, which Thomas called an "overreach," was enacted during President Joe Biden's term.
Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito dissented from the majority opinion, which struck down a lower court's decision to block the statute the high court determined was in line with the Gun Control Act. The majority opinion was penned by Justice Neil Gorsuch, who President Donald Trump appointed.
"The GCA embraces, and thus permits ATF to regulate, some weapon parts kits and unfinished frames or receivers, including those we have discussed. Because the court of appeals held otherwise, its judgment is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion," Gorsuch wrote.
FPC LEGAL ALERT: The Supreme Court has upheld the ATF's "frame or receiver" rule. You can read the opinion here: https://t.co/qcBmmWGcBX pic.twitter.com/uMCAxV9gUq
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) March 26, 2025
Ghost guns, which are sold as separate parts that can be assembled into a firearm, could potentially fall into a regulatory gray area. The case before the Supreme Court was supposed to answer that category question.
While the majority of the court believed that parts could be regulated, Thomas didn't see it that way. “The statutory terms ‘frame’ and ‘receiver’ do not cover the unfinished frames and receivers contained in weapon-parts kits, and weapon-parts kits themselves do not meet the statutory definition of ‘firearm,'” Thomas wrote in his dissent.
"That should end the case. The majority instead blesses the Government’s overreach based on a series of errors regarding both the standard of review and the interpretation of the statute," Thomas charged.
The 76-year-old justice worries that such a broad application of the law goes beyond this case. "Employing its novel ‘artifact noun’ methodology, the majority charts a different course that invites unforeseeable consequences and offers no limiting principle," Thomas wrote.
Alito's dissent noted that the court could have struck down specific applications of law without threatening the entirety of the legislation. "A law passed by Congress or a State Legislature should not be held to be entirely unenforceable just because it would be unconstitutional to apply it in just a few situations," Alito wrote.
Proponents of rules requiring registration for these do-it-yourself gun kits believe it's necessary and not at all an infringement on Second Amendment rights. According to CNN, the law in question requires that ghost guns be traceable and registered without banning them.
In fact, some believe that the draw of these kits is precisely due to a lack of regulation. "Ghost guns are the gun industry’s way of skirting commonsense gun laws and arming dangerous people without background checks," David Pucino, Giffords Law Center deputy chief counsel and legal director, said.
"We are thrilled that the Supreme Court has upheld the ATF rule that treats ghost guns as what they are: gun," Pucino added. The 2022 legislation came after these weapons were increasingly showing up in crimes.
According to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives statistics, the number of kit guns recovered at crime scenes went from 1,600 in 2017 to more than 19,000 four years later. This led to the necessity of addressing the problem and what to do about it.
Ghost guns are difficult to trace and regulate because of how they are sold. However, if the government has any ability to regulate firearms, then it's necessary to make sure there are no workarounds for people who would otherwise not be able to own or use firearms.
The United States Senate has confirmed investment banker and Trump donor John Phelan as the 79th Secretary of the United States Navy, Breitbart reported. The 62-30 vote Monday showed bipartisan support as Phelan received all 51 GOP senators plus 11 Democrats.
President Donald Trump nominated Phelan for the job despite his lack of military experience. Instead, Phelan brings his Harvard Business School education and experience with several investment firms to improve the Navy.
I am honored to be confirmed as the 79th Secretary of the Navy. Thank you to President Trump @WhiteHouse for the trust and confidence he has placed in me, and to @SecDef for his steadfast support. It is the honor and privilege of a lifetime to lead the world’s finest Sailors and… pic.twitter.com/p8UyR5d2TN
— Secretary of the Navy (@SECNAV) March 25, 2025
Former President Joe Biden has left the military in shambles after four years in office. After pushing destructive initiatives like diversity, equity, and inclusion and other ridiculous woke agenda items, morale is at a low point for the armed services.
Phelan promised to address several problems as he believes the Navy is at a "crossroads," the businessman said during his Feb. 27 confirmation hearing. He cited several personnel challenges, including poor housing, record-high suicides, and extended deployments for seamen.
There are also equipment problems, including deferred maintenance on existing vessels and delays in building new ships, not to mention ballooning costs. "These are systemic failures that have gone unaddressed for far too long. Frankly, this is unacceptable," Phelan said.
"The Navy and the Marine Corps already possess extraordinary operational expertise within their ranks. … My role is to utilize that expertise and strengthen it, step outside the status quo and take decisive action with a results-oriented approach," he added.
Phelan is expected to be sworn in within the next couple of days. He is the second armed service secretary to take over following Army Secretary Dan Driscoll's confirmation.
Phelan received praise from President Donald Trump, who had high hopes for his time in the Navy leadership. "John will be a tremendous force for our Naval Servicemembers and a steadfast leader in advancing my America First vision," Trump said during his nomination in November.
"He will put the business of the U.S. Navy above all else. John has excelled in every endeavor, from founding and leading Rugger Management LLC to co-founding MSD Capital, LP, the Private Investment Firm for Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Technologies," Trump went on.
"His Record of Success speaks for itself – A true Champion of American Enterprise and Ingenuity!" the president said. Several other lawmakers and officials praised Phelan after his confirmation, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
"Congratulations John Phelan on being Confirmed as the 79th Secretary of the Navy! Looking forward to supporting our warfighters together," Hegseth wrote on X.
Trump is great at choosing the right people to staff his administration even if his choices are sometimes unconventional. It's difficult to know how Phelan will perform since he comes from business and not the government, but perhaps that will make him all the better for it.
FBI Director Kash Patel dispelled the CNN-created myth of a "major cutback" of agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Fox News reported. Patel was forced to issue a memo after the network published a report Saturday with the erroneous information.
The report claimed that Patel "had outlined plans to move as many as 1,000 ATF agents to the FBI" and that he would be "cutting ATF’s agents by more than a third." CNN claimed it had three unnamed sources that shared this information.
The left-leaning network explained that the ATF is unpopular with Second Amendment advocates and has been in the "crosshairs of gun rights groups" for some time. "The ATF has about 2,600 agents and more than 5,000 employees, a number that has remained largely unchanged for years," the report said.
CNN later added that it was forced to roll back the information after "pushback," which is also known as the truth. "After the publication of this story and resulting pushback including from Republican allies, FBI officials began to back off aspects of their plan, according to a US official familiar with the matter," CNN's report clarified.
Patel issued the memo to ATF personnel that was later shared with Fox News Digital. "I want to address a report from this weekend speculating about the intentions of FBI leadership with personnel decisions at the ATF," Patel wrote.
"This weekend, CNN reported news of a plan on the part of our leadership to ‘cut as many as one third’ of ATF agents and reallocate 1,000 agents over to the FBI. The report even suggested our leadership team altered course after reading a news report, and ultimately backed off certain aspects of changes," the memo went on.
"This ‘report’ is entirely false," he added. "The fake news will NEVER be responsible for operational command authority over the ATF, we are," Patel continued.
"The brave men and women of the ATF who courageously dedicate themselves to protecting the American public will not have their security jeopardized by the media’s disinformation campaigns. When we make decisions, they will be final, regardless of the input of CNN or any other news organization," Patel added.
This news comes a month after President Donald Trump charged Patel with fixing the problems at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He's also serving as the acting director of the ATF and would be within his rights to make personnel changes to the agency, though it appears it was never true.
Patel has infamously sparred with the media as he fearlessly defended himself against their attacks. He was sworn in as FBI director on Feb. 21 and had strong words for his detractors in the press.
"You have written everything you possibly can about me that's fake, malicious, slanderous and defamatory. Keep it coming," Patel said at the time.
"Bring it on, but leave the men and women of the FBI out of it. They deserve better," Patel challenged the media. The clip was shared widely on X, formerly Twitter, including by conservative commentator Benny Johnson.
🔥BANG! Kash Patel sends DIRECT message to the Fake News:
“You've written EVERYTHING you possibly can about me that's fake, malicious, slanderous, and defamatory. Keep it coming. Bring it on. But leave the men and women of the FBI out of it.”
pic.twitter.com/UoC1n79AzD— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 21, 2025
The media is in full attack mode with Trump once again in the White House. Wherever this information about cuts at the ATF came from for CNN, it's clear they're unreliable and willing to believe whatever best suits their narrative whether it's true or not.
The Trump administration is ending a Biden parole program that gave legal status to more than 500,000 migrants who flew to the U.S. from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela with work permits and other benefits as well as protection from deportation.
According to CBS News, 532,000 migrants entered the country under the program, called CHNV after the initials of the countries involved.
A notice will be published by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that it would be “terminating the categorical parole programs for inadmissible aliens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela and their immediate family members.”
The migrants admitted under the program have 30 days from when the notice is published in the Federal Register to leave the country on their own or pursue other legal avenues of immigration to the U.S.
The notice is scheduled to be published on March 25, 2025.
The parole program did have expiration dates for benefits, but those will not be honored with the program's termination.
Similar programs for Afghan and Ukrainian parolees will not be affected at this time.
The CHNV program was adopted by Biden in 2022 and 2023. It was frozen in August 2024 when evidence came to light that many of the applications for sponsorship were fraudulent.
Still, up to 30,000 migrants from each of the four countries per month came into the U.S. largely unvetted, and Trump's DHS wants them to depart in much the same way.
Ostensibly, migrants who ignore this new directive would be subject to deportation if they are caught. They may also lose their livelihoods with their work permits, since employers will have no way to legally employ them.
Some of these moves by Trump and his administration may seem cruel, but it's important to reverse the tide of illegal immigration set off by Biden when he reversed all of Trump's immigration policies.
The longer the millions of illegal immigrants who came in during former President Joe Biden's tenure stay in the U.S., the harder it will be to deport them.
Not only that, but it will be more likely that if Democrats get enough power again one day, they would make them all legal citizens with voting rights.
If this happens, Republicans will never get a majority again because most of them will vote Democrat.
The country as we know it will be over. Trump knows this, and he is willing to withstand being called a meanie for a little while to get the job done.
During his 2024 campaign, Donald Trump pledged to usher in a new era of readiness and lethality for the United States military, and just two months into his second term, he is fulfilling that promise.
As the Associated Press reports, on Friday, Trump announced that Boeing had been awarded the contract to build what will be known as the F-47 Air Force fighter jet, a sixth-generation aircraft poised to replace the F-22 Raptor, built by Lockheed Martin.
During an event in the Oval Office, Trump, joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, revealed the administration's decision to move forward with production of the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter jet platform, as a release from the Pentagon explained.
The platform is described as a “network-connected family of systems -- including a stealth fighter jet component, drone technology and others – that simultaneously interact to ensure air superiority.”
“Nothing in the world comes even close to it,” Trump said of the platform, the aircraft component of which will be dubbed the F-47 in a nod to his current term in office.
Trump added that the contract to build the NGAD is evidence of his commitment to making a “historic investment in the country's defense industrial base, keeping the U.S. on the cutting edge of aerospace technology.”
Hegseth was equally enthusiastic, declaring that the F-47 “sends a very direct, clear message to our allies that we're not going anywhere and to our enemies that we can, and we will, be able to project power around the globe, unimpeded, for generations to come.”
The advanced technology set to be embodied by the project was outlined by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin as part of the administration's announcement.
Allvin explained that NGAD “is allowing us to look into the future and unlock the magic that is human-machine teaming.”
He went on, “We're going to write the next generation of modern aerial warfare with this” and noted that the program's structure will afford the government greater control to update and adapt the platform “at the speed of relevance [and] at the speed of technology.”
The F-47 is projected to cost less than the aging F-22, boast greater adaptability to threats and “have significantly longer range, more advanced stealth, be more sustainable, supportable, and have higher availability than our fifth-generation fighters."
Notably, cost estimates and timelines for production were omitted from the Oval Office announcement event, though Trump did indicate his belief that a fleet of F-47 aircraft would be “built and in the air” before his term ends.
Offering high praise for the project outlined by Trump and Hegseth was Dr. Rebecca Grant of the Lexington Institute, a defense and security policy think tank in Arlington, Virginia, who said, “By moving swiftly, the Trump administration has corrected yet another inexplicable Biden-era slip that delayed a program decision last summer,” Grant noted, adding that the move “comes not a moment too soon,” given China's massive existing investments in sixth-generation designs.
Grant concluded her words of support for the program by echoing Trump's bluntly stated belief that, when it comes to this type of advancement in an increasingly dangerous world, “You have to have it.”