Trump overhauls US elections in new executive order, including proof of citizenship

National Security adviser Mike Waltz says he created the Signal group chat where details about an upcoming U.S. attack on targets in Yemen were mistakenly shared with a journalist.

Waltz told Fox News Channel, “We made a mistake. We’re moving forward.” He said he was taking responsibility for what occurred and that no staffer was to blame.

Waltz said he’d not spoken to Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief for The Atlantic, who was added to the chain. He said he was trying to add someone else’s number and that Goldberg’s somehow appeared under another name. He wouldn’t say whom he meant to add.

Federal health officials say they were withdrawing the funds sent to recipients, which include public health departments throughout the nation.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement. “HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President Trump’s mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again.”

The statement said the CDC will start recovering the money 30 days after termination notices, which the agency started sending on Monday. They were issued to health departments and other recipients.

American Oversight alleges in the lawsuit that messages on Signal about official government actions “are federal records and must be preserved in accordance with federal statutes, and agency directives, rules, and regulations,” citing the Federal Records Act.

The government transparency advocacy group also alleges using Signal to relay sensitive plans for a military strike against Yemen’s Houthis was “unauthorized,” saying the app can be set up to automatically delete messages and that messages are only stored on an individual’s device, with no back-ups on the company’s servers.

The lawsuit also names Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, among others.

As Washington was roiled by the news that Trump’s national security adviser added a journalist to a group chat discussing military plans, many Republicans going to the polls in Florida to replace Mike Waltz’s old U.S. House seat have brushed off the story.

“I think it was a faux pas, and it was a mistake that somebody made,” said Gary Caples, a Republican voter in DeLand, Florida. “Nobody’s perfect.”

Zelma Cohen, West Volusia’s Republican Party vice president, said none of the early voters had mentioned the report and that in Washington, “they get excitable about everything.”

The muted Republican reaction both in Florida and among many lawmakers nationally reflects how incidents that may have once sparked bipartisan outrage are dismissed as hiccups as Trump stands firm backed by his allies and supporters.

▶ Read more about how Republicans in Waltz’s old district are reacting

Allies of the United States see the group chat between top U.S. officials about a planned attack in Yemen that accidentally included a journalist as a jaw-dropping security breach which casts doubt on intelligence-sharing with Washington and the security of joint military operations.

Neil Melvin, a security expert at defense think tank the Royal United Services Institute, called it “pretty shocking.”

“Scary” and “reckless” was the verdict of one European diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

In public, however, European officials insisted all was well in the trans-Atlantic relationship.

▶ Read more about U.S. allies’ reaction to the attack plans leak

Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old lawful permanent resident who came to the U.S. as a child, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Monday, arguing the government is “attempting to use immigration enforcement as a bludgeon to suppress speech that they dislike.”

Her suit said immigration officials moved to deport her after she was identified in news reports as being one of several people arrested during a pro-Palestinian protest this month.

U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald said the government has not laid out enough facts about its claims against Chung to warrant her detention.

In a statement Monday, the Department of Homeland Security said Chung had “engaged in concerning conduct,” including being arrested at a protest.

▶ Read more about Chung’s lawsuit and the administration’s effort to deport her

The National Security Leaders for America says reports that senior Trump officials used Signal to share top-secret war plans demonstrated a “remarkable disregard for operational security.”

The organization of retired former high-ranking intelligence officials and military officials and officers said in a statement, “These officials risked lives and mission success by sharing highly sensitive information on an unsecure mobile phone app and then inadvertently including a journalist in the message group.”

The statement adds that “this blatant disregard for using established secure communications protocols to execute a military operation reflects poorly on the competence of the United States’ military while potentially benefiting our adversaries.”

The Republican until now had kept up a schedule of in-person town halls even as House Speaker Mike Johnson told lawmakers to skip town halls where protesters have been speaking out against Trump’s downsizing of the federal government.

A crowd beyond of over 1,300 people — many of which booed, shouted and carried protest signs — dominated a Hageman town hall in Laramie on March 19.

The next day, an attendee at a town hall in Wheatland, followed her outside and got into a “physical confrontation” with Hageman’s staff that required police intervention, Hageman said in a statement.

“The continuation of in-person town halls will be a drain on our local resources due to safety concerns for attendees,” she said in the statement.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is calling for Trump to fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after he discussed military plans on an unclassified Signal chat with other top national security officials.

In a letter to Trump, Jeffries says that Hegseth “threatens the nation’s security and puts our brave men and women in uniform throughout the world in danger.”

Hegseth “should be fired immediately,” adds Jeffries.

But the defense secretary has been defiant, and though Republicans have been critical of the episode, none have joined the call for his dismissal.

Tuesday’s order demands documentary proof of citizenship be added as a requirement for federal voter registration. It also requires that all ballots be received by Election Day throughout the country

The order says the U.S. has failed “to enforce basic and necessary election protections” and calls on states to work with federal agencies to share voter lists and prosecute election crimes. It threatens to pull federal funding from states where election officials don’t comply.

The move is consistent with Trump’s long history of railing against election processes.

He says more election actions will be taken in the coming weeks.

President Donald Trump has taken aim at another law firm over legal work he doesn’t like.

An executive order issued Tuesday targets the law firm of Jenner & Block because one of the attorneys who used to work there previously served on the special counsel team of former FBI Director Robert Mueller that investigated Trump and his 2016 campaign during his first term.

The executive order is similar to ones he’s issued against other firms, including Covington & Burling, Perkins Coie and Paul Weiss. It threatens the suspensions of security clearances and the termination of federal contracts.

The case was brought by several long-serving transgender military members who say the ban is insulting and discriminatory. They say their firing would cause lasting damage to their careers and reputations.

A Justice Department lawyer argued the president was entitled to deference in military affairs. The judge peppered him with questions, noting the government had offered no evidence that allowing transgender troops to serve openly has caused any problems for military readiness.

The judge said he will rule by 5 p.m. Thursday.

Last week a judge in Washington, D.C., issued an order blocking enforcement of Trump’s executive order, but then put her own ruling temporarily on hold. Following additional legal briefing, she is expected to make a final decision by Thursday.

Tuesday is Medal of Honor Day, and the president spoke in the White House East Room with a group of recipients of the nation’s highest military honor.

“We’ll do it again,” he said. “I like to do it, I feel good. I feel brave among you people.”

The meeting wasn’t on the president’s public schedule. An aide posted a brief video clip of the interaction on social media.

The National Medal of Honor Museum was set to open Tuesday in Arlington, Texas, to highlight the lives and service of the more than 3,500 Medal of Honor recipients from the Civil War to the global war on terrorism.

In a video announcement, Vance said there’s been so much excitement about Usha Vance’s visit to Greenland on Friday that “I decided that I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself and so I’m going to join her.”

Vance said he’ll visit U.S. Space Force members based on the northwest coast of the self-governing region of Denmark “and also just check out what’s going on with the security there of Greenland.”

Trump wants the U.S. to take control of Greenland and cites national security concerns as a reason.

The White House announced this week that Usha Vance was visiting with her 7-year-old son to attend the national dogsled race. Separately, Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright will visit a U.S. military base in northern Greenland.

A federal judge temporarily halted the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s cancellation of millions of dollars in grants that went to nonprofits that enforce the federal anti-discrimination law.

Those nonprofits field the majority of fair housing complaints, most of which concern discrimination based on a disability, and use the grants to help investigate and litigate the cases for Americans nationwide.

The Associated Press first reported last month that HUD sent letters of termination to over 60 of the nonprofits. The department said the terminated grants were incompatible with President Donald Trump’s executive orders, which partly targeted funding awards that included diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, language.

The judge ordered the money to keep flowing to the nonprofits for now, saying that he wanted to see how other, similar cases over funding cuts by the Trump administration proceed.

Trump said what happened with Signal is “one of the prices you pay when you’re not sitting in the Situation Room with no phones on, which is always best.”

Asked about the possibility of an FBI investigation, Trump said, “It’s not really an FBI thing,” but added that “we’ll look into it” and “it’s something we should look into.”

The Situation Room is a secure space in the White House where the president and his top national security advisers often meet to discuss classified matters.

President Donald Trump suggested that he could soon take executive action to end “sanctuary cities,” which generally are described as areas that limit cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“We’re gonna end sanctuary cities for some of these jurisdictions that aren’t cooperating with law enforcement,” Trump said during a White House meeting with his administration’s ambassadors to various overseas posts.

Trump didn’t provide details, but he has spent years criticizing Democrat-led jurisdictions for failing to impose harder-line immigration policies.

He added, “We may be presenting you very shortly with an executive order ending sanctuary cities.”

Asked if Waltz owed an apology, Trump said, “I don’t think he should apologize. I think he’s doing his best.”

Trump added that he thinks “we won’t be using it very much,” referring to the Signal app.

National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said the team is looking into “how in the heck” a journalist ended up in a group text chain on the Signal app where top officials were discussing plans for military strikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Waltz appeared at the White House with Trump as the president met with individuals he’s nominated for U.S. ambassador posts around the world.

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, reported Monday that he had been invited to the chat group by Waltz.

Waltz said of Goldberg, “This one in particular, I’ve never met, don’t know, never communicated with.”

Hey, Mike. Assuming you’re talking about the app used by Trump’s national security officials, they were communicating through an app called Signal. It’s an app that can be used for direct messaging and group chats as well as phone and video calls.

AP’s Kelvin Chan did a deeper dive into Signal. Here’s his reporting.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is calling for a “full investigation” in the Senate, challenging Republicans to join in probing how national security leaders came to discuss wartime plans on a secure messaging app chat that also included the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic.

However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters an investigation is “already happening,” with the Trump administration’s intelligence leaders facing tough questioning at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday.

Thune added that the Senate Armed Services Committee “may want to have some folks testify and have some of those questions answered as well.”

The top Republican and Democratic senators on the Armed Services Committee have been discussing how to proceed with an investigation.

President Donald Trump says he would “love” to strip PBS and NPR of any federal funding.

Trump told reporters that he thinks both outlets are “very unfair” and “very biased.”

Looking at the assembly of reporters around him, Trump said, “Right now, there’s plenty of coverage,” stressing that the two outlets that also depend on donations were “from a different age.”

“It’s a waste of money,” Trump said of PBS and NPR.

Republicans are criticizing Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett for referring to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who uses a wheelchair, last weekend as “Governor Hot Wheels.”

“You all know we got Governor Hot Wheels down there. Come on, now,” Crockett, a Dallas Democrat, said about Abbott, a Republican, while addressing the Human Rights Campaign event. “And the only thing hot about him is that he is a hot ass mess, honey.”

Crockett, a Dallas Democrat elected in 2022, made the comments Saturday while speaking at a weekend banquet for civil rights group Human Rights Campaign, according to video posted on the group’s YouTube channel.

Abbott, elected in 2014, was paralyzed in 1984 after a tree fell on him while he was running. The accident severely damaged Abbott’s spinal cord, requiring him, now 67, to use a wheelchair for more than 40 years.

“Crockett’s comments are disgraceful,” Texas Sen. John Cornyn posted on the social platform X. “Shameful.”

It is designed to “cut down” on the number of immigrants in the country illegally who are on the voter rolls and would “fully weaponize” Department of Homeland Security data to ensure such migrants aren’t casting ballots.

The action seeks to include a “citizenship question” on federal voting forms and reduce federal election funding to states that don’t take “reasonable steps” to secure their balloting.

It also revokes a Biden administration order from 2021 designed to promote access to voting.

The administration is calling it “the farthest-reaching executive action taken in the history of the Republic to secure our elections.”

After signing, Trump said more election actions would be taken in the coming weeks.

“I think he was treated very unfairly,” Trump said before he signed the pardon. “He was a victim of a crime, as far as I’m concerned.”

Archer was convicted of securities fraud in 2018. A Trump aide told the president on Tuesday that the “tone and tenor” of the prosecution changed after Archer began to cooperate and serve as a witness against Hunter Biden, former President Joe Biden’s son.

Archer’s conviction was overturned later in 2018, but the court of appeals in New York reinstated it in 2020. The U.S. Supreme Court later rejected Archer’s appeals to overturn the conviction.

“Congratulations, Devon,” Trump said after he signed the pardon document.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order telling the U.S. Treasury Department to issue more electronic payments instead of paper checks.

“It’s basically modernization of equipment and methods,” said Trump after an aide told him that paper checks were likely to be tied to fraud.

Trump also signed an order to centralize more government payments through the Treasury Department. Trump, during his first term, famously issued COVID-19 pandemic relief checks with his name on them, something that may have helped him politically. But while signing the order, Trump suggested that paper checks should have ended decades ago.

“It’s something that should have been done 25, 30 years ago,” Trump said.

Thanks for the question, Dan. The Trump administration on Monday invoked a “state secrets privilege” and refused to give a federal judge any additional information about the deportation of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under an 18th-century wartime law — a case that has become a flashpoint amid escalating tension with the federal courts.

AP’s Michael Kunzelman wrote about the Trump administration’s efforts to fight Judge Boasberg’s order, including asking an appeals court on Monday to lift it. Here’s his reporting.

Refugees conditionally approved before President Donald Trump took office must still be processed under the order from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but it allows the Republican administration to suspend new approvals.

The appeals court panel halted a ruling from U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead. He found that Trump could not nullify the law passed by Congress establishing the program.

During the 2 1/2-hour hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Elizabeth Warren illustrated a scenario of an individual with limited internet access and mobility issues being turned away from an understaffed Social Security office hours away from their home.

The agency has announced a series of federal worker layoffs, cuts to programs, office closures and a planned cut to nationwide Social Security Administration phone services as part of an overhaul by the Department of Government Efficiency.

The Massachusetts Democrat ended with a question for Frank Bisignano, who is tapped to lead SSA: “Isn’t that a benefit cut?”

Bisignano responded, “I have no intent to have anything like that happen under my watch.”

Republicans were largely in favor of Bisignano’s nomination.

“If confirmed, you will be responsible for leading an agency with a critical mission and numerous operational and customer service challenges,” said Senate Finance Chairman Mike Crapo, an Idaho Republican. “Based on your background, I am confident you are up to the task.”

The portrait of President Donald Trump by a Colorado artist that had been hanging in the Colorado Statehouse since 2019 was taken down at the request of Republican leaders in the Legislature.

Colorado Republicans had raised more than $10,000 to commission the oil painting, but Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Sunday that he would prefer no picture at all over that one.

By Tuesday morning, it was no longer hanging next to other presidents’ portraits and was placed in storage. The portraits are under the purview of the Colorado Building Advisory Committee.

Filling a space on the wall of presidential portraits in the Colorado Capitol with a new painting of Trump could take time.

It’s not clear when lawmakers will have a chance to make decisions on a new painting. The Legislature is focused on the state budget. A spokesperson for Republicans in the Colorado Senate said it’s also yet to be seen whether Trump will get a chance to approve a new portrait.

The departures were announced at a meeting of agency senior leaders. The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has two dozen centers and offices. The heads of five of them are stepping down, and that follows three other departures in recent weeks. This means close to a third of the agency’s top management is leaving or has left recently.

The departures — described as retirements — were not announced publicly. The Associated Press confirmed the news with two CDC officials who were not authorized to discuss it and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The announcements come a day after the White House announced it is nominating Susan Monarez to be CDC director. But it’s not clear how much, if any, influence that had on the leaders’ decision to leave.

The Trump administration earlier this month withdrew its nomination of former Florida congressman Dr. David Weldon just before a Senate hearing.

If confirmed by the Senate, Thomas March Bell will oversee fraud, waste and abuse audits of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which taxpayers spend more than $1 trillion on every year.

Bell serves as general counsel for House Republicans and has worked for GOP politicians and congressional offices for decades. His nomination is a brazenly political one for a job that has long been viewed as nonpartisan and focuses largely on accounting for and ferreting out fraud in some of the nation’s biggest spending programs.

Bell was terminated from his role at Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality in 1997 after a state audit showed he improperly authorized a nearly $8,000 payment to the agency’s former spokesman, according to Washington Post reporting at the time.

He also has a history of launching investigations against abortion clinics.

Kevin Cabrera, President Trump’s pick for ambassador to Panama, faced a call from Democrats in his confirmation hearing to commit to upholding Panama’s sovereignty and advising the president to do the same. But Cabrera responded that he would defer to Trump.

Cabrera pointed out that Trump has said “all the options are on the table” when asserting U.S. control over the Panama Canal, but added that part of that included “diplomacy.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said she appreciated a “focus on diplomacy,” but was worried by the threats of sending military force or coercing Panama to relinquish control over the canal.

Cabrera responded, “President Trump is our commander in chief, and I stand behind him and his policies.”

“I won’t speak to this because it’s under review by the National Security Council,” Gabbard said during Tuesday’s hearing.

Gabbard was one of several top U.S. security officials who participated in a Signal group chat that included a journalist where information about an upcoming strike in Yemen was shared.

Gabbard was on an overseas trip when the group chat occurred, she said in response to a question from Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., who also asked if she was using a personal phone or a government phone.

As a devastating wildfire burned through a Maui town, killing more than 100 people, emergency management employees traded dozens of text messages, creating a record that would later help investigators piece together the government’s response to the 2023 tragedy.

One text exchange hinted officials might also be using a second, untraceable messaging service.

“That’s what Signal was supposed to be for,” then-Maui Emergency Management Agency Administrator Herman Andaya texted a colleague.

Signal is one of many end-to-end encrypted messaging apps that include message auto-delete functions.

While such apps promise increased security and privacy, they often skirt open records laws meant to increase transparency around and public awareness of government decision-making. Without special archiving software, the messages frequently aren’t returned under public information requests.

▶ Read more about government use of encrypted messaging apps

Frank Bisignano, a self-professed “DOGE person,” is facing the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday for his confirmation hearing to serve as commissioner of the beleaguered Social Security Administration.

Bisignano was asked by several Democratic lawmakers during the hearing whether the Trump Administration plans to privatize Social Security or cut recipients’ benefits.

When asked by one lawmaker, “Do you think social security should be privatized?” Bisignano responded: “I’ve never heard a word of it, and I’ve never thought about it.”

The agency has taken center stage in the debate over Department of Government Efficiency cuts to taxpayer services.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, asked Ratcliffe and Gabbard whether the chat mentioned targets, weapons, specific units or timing of the strike on Yemen.

“I don’t remember a mention of specific targets,” Gabbard said. “I believe there was discussion around targets, in general.”

“I think that’s consistent with my recollection,” Ratcliffe said when Kelly asked him the same question.

Democrats have asked for an investigation into the leak, which Ratcliffe and Gabbard have said contained no classified information.

Senate Democrats are calling for further investigations and possible resignations following news that top national security officials texted military plans to a group chat that included Jeff Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine.

Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, told CIA Director John Ratcliffe that the leak was an “embarrassment” and asked whether it was “just a normal day at the CIA?”

“Don’t insult the intelligence of the American people,” Bennet told Ratcliffe before asking how Goldberg was added to the chat. “Did he invite himself to the Signal thread?”

“I don’t know how he was invited,” Ratcliffe said in response. “Clearly, he was added to the Signal group.”

The video of the joke German group chat, posted on Tuesday to social media, is chasing clout from the fallout over a story published by The Atlantic about top U.S. security officials texting war plans to a group chat that included a journalist.

In the satire, five government bureaucrats message with “Chef” — German for “boss” — in a chat that spans from the rare good weather to the intricacies of Tuesday’s transition between the old and new parliamentarians.

Naturally, Germany’s infamous bureaucracy — which the texters are proud of — plays a starring role.

The chat closes with the colleagues lamenting their lives in civil service and sending emojis that included a superhero and a hand’s nails being painted — a nod to Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, and his use in his chat of the emojis for a fist, an American flag, and fire.

Four protesters interrupted the hearing in Congress to decry former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s ardent support for Israel.

One blew a shofar, and another shouted, “I am a proud American Jew!” and then “Let Palestinians live!”

Police quickly grabbed the protesters, but their shouts could still be momentarily heard in the Senate hallway.

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said on Tuesday he would defer to the White House on whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or National Security Adviser Michael Waltz should face repercussions over war plans that were texted in a group chat that included a journalist.

“But I think we should be critical,” he said.

“The fact that classified information was put on an unclassified system, I think the secretary of defense needs to answer for that,” Bacon added.

He dismissed the need for an Armed Services committee investigation.

Bacon also called the White House’s saying that no war plans were shared “baloney.”

“They ought to just be honest and own up to it,” Bacon said.

Bacon served nearly thirty years on active duty in the U.S. Air Force, specializing in electronic warfare and intelligence.