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The Atlantic picked up what some might consider the scoop of the year after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly shared war plans on the unsecured Signal messaging app. Included in the chat was The Atlantic‘s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, and the publication published the full text chat after top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration testified in front of Congress that the information within was not classified.
As seen in The Atlantic, Goldberg was included in a Signal group chat that included Hegseth and U.S. national security advisor to President Trump, Mike Waltz. Waltz unintentionally added Goldberg to the discussion of plans to attack Yemen’s Houthis group, and the text chain included names, details, and expected results of the attack. Goldberg made his media rounds after breaking the story, but previously did not include some of the more sensitive details of the Signal chat.
However, testimony from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard stated that the plans discussed in the chat were not classified in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday (March 25). CIA Director John Ratcliffe added in separate testimony that the chat details were not classified, and President Trump stood by that claim. Hegseth also denied that the discussion was about war plans.
With that testimony on record, the publication saw fit to publish the entire chat to allow the public to make their own determination of the facts and to push back against the attacks from Trump officials that The Atlantic is lying about what the chat is.
“The statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Trump—combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts—have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions. There is a clear public interest in disclosing the sort of information that Trump advisers included in nonsecure communications channels, especially because senior administration figures are attempting to downplay the significance of the messages that were shared,” Goldberg and fellow journalist Shane Harris wrote.
The White House is attempting to downplay and discredit Goldberg’s assessment of the war plans, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attacking the publication’s decision to frame the chat “attack plans” instead of “war plans,” as initially reported and framed that as a retraction.
“The Atlantic has conceded: these were NOT ‘war plans.’ This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin,” Leavitt wrote on X.
On X, many are reacting to The Atlantic calling the Trump administration and its de facto war council’s bluff by publishing the full Signal chat. Check out those reactions below.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / Pete Hegseth / Signal
Donald Trump’s second presidency continues to be a hot a** mess, largely thanks to the people in his administration, like Pete Hegseth.
Trump’s cabinet is full of DEI hires who never miss an opportunity to show the American people they have no business being in the positions that Republicans stupidly allowed them to have.
Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, now Secretary of Defense, a position he has no business in, stupidly attacked the reporter who blew the lid on what could be one of the biggest blunders in national security history.
Jeffrey Goldberg did his job when he reported on the massive blunder of Trump’s national security team members sharing classified war plans on Signal, an unsecured messenger app.
In response, Republicans, especially of the MAGA variety, did what they do best: not take accountability for their actions. Pete Hegseth took things even further and attacked Goldberg even after his Boss’ administration did admit to Goldberg being in the group chat when he he he talking to reporters fresh off a flight to Hawaii.
Per Crooks & Liars:
You’re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again to include the, I don’t know, the hoaxes of Russia, Russia, Russia, or the fine people on both sides hoax or suckers and losers hoax.
So this is the guy that peddles in garbage. This is what he does. I would love to comment on the Houthi campaign because of the skill and courage of our troops.
I’ve monitored it very closely from the beginning, and you see, we’ve been managing four years of deferred maintenance under the Trump administration.
Our troops, our sailors were getting shot at as targets. Our ships couldn’t sail through. And when they did shoot back, it was purely defensively or at shacks in Yemen.
President Trump said no more. We will reestablish deterrence. We will open freedom of navigation, and we will ultimately decimate the Houthis, which is exactly what we’re doing as we speak, from the beginning, overwhelmingly.
Republicans have been downplaying the incident all day, with Trump’s national security team doing a piss poor job answering questions during an Intelligence Committee grilling session on Capitol Hill.
The calls for Hegseth to be fired have been very loud, as have other reactions to the incident. You can see them in the gallery below.
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Greenland and the United States appear to have strained relations after the general perception that President Donald Trump eyes a takeover of the world’s largest island. With reports that President Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz will be visiting Greenland this week along with another visit from Vice President JD Vance‘s wife, Usha Vance, some online are mentioning Vance’s recent comments about the North American Denmark territory.
As reported by The Independent, Greenland’s prime minister Mute B. Egede was quoted by a local news outlet regarding Walz’s upcoming visit with U.S. energy secretary Chris Wright also in tow.
“We are now at a level where it can in no way be characterized as a harmless visit from a politician’s wife,” Egede said to Greenland’s Sermitsiaq newspaper per The Independent. “What is the national security adviser doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us.”
Egede continued, “He is Trump’s confidential and closest advisor, and his presence in Greenland alone will certainly make the Americans believe in Trump’s mission, and the pressure will increase after the visit.”
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That sentiment is an increasingly notable one considering the vice president’s comments about annexing Greenland for American needs. In a February Fox News interview, Vance said, “Here’s the thing which I think a lot of folks don’t appreciate about Greenland. It’s really important to our national security.”
For years, the United States and Denmark have held an agreement to allow the U.S. military to have a presence on the island. However, Trump wants to absorb both the island and Canada as part of the States.
On Monday (March 24), Trump continued his stances, telling reporters after a Cabinet meeting, “I think Greenland is going to be something that maybe is in our future.”
On X, the reactions to Usha Vance, Mike Waltz, and Secretary Chris Wright’s Greenland visits are in and we’ve got them listed below.
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Photo: JEFF KOWALSKY / Getty
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Source: Niall Carson – PA Images / Getty / Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
We are truly in the upside down. Donald Trump said he would let crackpot Health and Human Services head Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “go wild on health,” and he is not letting Orange Mussolini down with his bird-brained idea to tackle bird flu in the country.
Honestly, we wished we were making this up.
Speaking on Fox News, the white Dr. Sebi suggested a ridiculous idea, with no pertinent data to back him up, that farmers “should consider maybe the possibility of letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune to it,” instead of doing the right thing and humanely killing the diseased birds to keep the contagious virus from spreading.
Letting bird flu spread is precisely the kind of idea from someone who is way over their heads, and that is precisely the case with the former environmental lawyer who made a living peddling junk medical theories.
The New York Times reports that even if Kennedy stupidly pushes this idea to farmers, they don’t have to follow it because he has no jurisdiction over them. To make matters worse, the current and equally unqualified agricultural secretary, Brooke Rollins, believes Kennedy’s dangerous and dumb idea is worth trying.
“There are some farmers that are out there that are willing to really try this on a pilot as we build the safe perimeter around them to see if there is a way forward with immunity,” per the New York Times.
The Real Experts Sound The Alarm
Of course, the real experts all say RFK Jr.’s plan is complete horse sh*t.
“Veterinary scientists said letting the virus sweep through poultry flocks unchecked would be inhumane and dangerous and have enormous economic consequences,” according to the New York Times.
Dr. Gail Hansen, a former state veterinarian for Kansas, sounded the alarm, calling the plan what it obviously is, “a recipe for disaster.”
Per The New York Times:
Every infection is another opportunity for the virus, called H5N1, to evolve into a more virulent form. Geneticists have been tracking its mutations closely; so far, the virus has not developed the ability to spread among people.
But if H5N1 were to be allowed to run through a flock of five million birds, “that’s literally five million chances for that virus to replicate or to mutate,” Dr. Hansen said.
Large numbers of infected birds are likely to transmit massive amounts of the virus, putting farm workers and other animals at great risk.
“So now you’re setting yourself up for bad things to happen,” Dr. Hansen said.
Hilariously, this isn’t the first dangerous idea Kennedy has floated regarding contagious viruses. He also suggested that it was better for people to catch measles instead of getting the highly effective vaccine that helped eradicate the virus in the United States, but he has since made a return as vaccination rates among Americans continue to drop.
We clearly haven’t learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
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Source: Star Tribune via Getty Images / Getty / Tim Walz
Minnesota Governor and former Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz showed off his comedic chops during a Wisconsin town hall, making light of Elon Musk’s current financial woes.
Tim Walz is currently out on the road reminding us what we could have had in the White House instead of Donald Trump, JD Vance, and unelected President Elon Musk on what he calls the “most unsatisfying I Told You So tour in the history of politics.”
Speaking to a packed house, Walz told the crowd that his new mood booster is the Stocks app on his phone, where he watches Tesla’s stock drop.
“I was saying. on my phone, I know some of you know this, on the iPhone,” Walz begins. “They’ve got that little stock app. I added Tesla to give me a little boost during the day. 225 and dropping.”
He continued, “I’m not a vindictive person or anything, but I take great pleasure in the fact that this guy’s life is going to get very, very difficult.”
He also gave some advice to people who still own Tesla vehicles.
“And if you own one, we’re not blaming you. You can some dental floss and pull the Tesla thing off you know.”
Elon Musk Has Lost Billions
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for Elon Musk. Phony Stark has lost billions, and Tesla shares took a tremendous hit in the wake of DOGE’s firings of federal workers under the guise of cutting government waste.
Tesla cars, factories and showrooms have been subject of unrest, with fed up Americans either vandalizing vehicles or holding protests at Tesla showroom locations.
Per USA Today:
Forbes, which maintains a real-time billionaire wealth tracking tool, estimates the 53-year-old was worth $342.4 billion as of the close of business Thursday, down a whopping $121.2 billion from its all-time high of $464 billion, set Dec. 17. He’s still the richest person in the world, however.
That estimate is in line with one from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which puts Musk’s wealth at $330 billion as of the close of business Friday, when Tesla stock skidded even lower. Shares are down 35% from the start of the year.
Welp.
To help him out, Elon Musk’s buddy, Donald Trump, reduced himself to an EV salesman holding, turning the White House lawn into a makeshift Tesla showroom. He announced he was going to buy one of the vehicles in hopes it would give Musk’s company a vote of confidence from the American people.
Spoiler alert: it did not. In fact, it even rubbed some of Trump’s most loyal supporters the wrong way because it came as the stock market nosedived in the wake of Trump’s stupid tariffs, which currently have us in the middle of a trade war with Canada, Mexico, and China.
Social media is loving Walz’s comedic energy and, of course, seeing Elon Musk suffer financially. You can see those reactions in the gallery below.
Dropkick Murphys singer Ken Casey has never been shy about his disdain for Donald Trump. The vocalist for the “Warriors Code” band was at it again on St. Patrick’s Day on Monday (March 17) when he dissed the commander-in-chief for being what he described as the opposite of a member in good standing of his Massachusetts-bred “Wicked Sensitive Crew.”
“One other thing Dropkick Murphys has always been about is a lot of songs about standing with your friends and family and the things you believe in, whether it’s politics, or just how you were raised. And Donald Trump is the exact opposite of everything we sing about,” Casey told Meidastouch in an interview.
“He’s turned on his friends. He’s turned on America’s friends and our allies. He’s a rat and a coward when you think of it that way,” Casey said of the second-term Republican who has spent his first two months in office launching trade wars with Canada and Mexico, pulling out of international climate and aid pacts and siding with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in his unprovoked war against Ukraine.
“America shouldn’t be turning on our allies,” Casey added.
The latest broadside from Casey against Trump is in keeping with the singer’s disdain for 47, which lately has come in the form of calling out fans who rock Trump gear at the group’s shows. Last month at a gig in Clearwater, FL, Casey called out a man wearing a shirt and hat supporting Trump and noted that the Murphys merch is all made in America before making a “friendly” $100 bet about where the MAGA gear was manufactured.
“If you lose the bet, we switch shirts, OK? If you win the bet, I give you $100 and the shirt,” the singer told the man before revealing to fans that the MAGA shirt was made in Nicaragua. “He’s taking the shirt off. We’re taking crime off the streets,” Casey joked.
Then, during one of their annual St. Patrick’s Day shows at MGM Music Hall at Boston’s Fenway Park on Sunday (March 16), the singer called out an attendee who waved around a MAGA hat the gig.
“If you’re in a room full of people and you want to know who’s in a cult, how do you know who’s in a cult?” Casey asked the crowd. “They’ve been holding up a f—ing hat the whole night to represent a president.” He then spoke to Trump-supporting fans in the house directly. “This is America, there’s no kings here,” he said, adding, “Anyway, if you mind, sir, we’re gonna play a song about our grandparents and people who fought Nazis in the war and s—. So if you could just shut the f— up for five minutes.”
Casey also described the man’s MAGA hat as the “Elon Musk True Nazi edition,” seemingly in reference to the style of hat billionaire and X owner Musk has been wearing as he leads the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) dismantling of the federal government. As of Tuesday morning (March 18), the official Dropkick X account had been suspended, with no clear explanation offered for why the action was taken. A spokesperson for the band had not returned a request for comment at press time about the suspension.
During Trump’s inauguration in January, Musk twice made what was widely described as a Nazi-like salute, throwing up two rapid, straight-armed hand gestures during a celebration of Trump’s second swearing-in, drawing comparisons to the signature “Sieg Heil” salute of reviled Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. And on Friday, Musk shared a post by an X user that falsely claimed that Hitler, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and People’s Republic of China founder Mao Zedong were not responsible for the deaths of millions of people under their watch, but that “public sector workers” were; Musk later deleted the post.
Watch Casey call out Trump supporters during the Boston show and see his interview below.
Dropkick Murphys’ lead singer, Ken Casey: Dropkick Murphys has always been about standing with your friends, your family, and the things you believe in.Trump is the exact opposite of everything we sing about. He’s turned on America’s friends and allies—he’s a rat and a coward. pic.twitter.com/aDNTffHc9n— Acyn (@Acyn) March 17, 2025
The Dropkick Murphys’ Ken Casey paused one of the band’s annual St. Patrick’s Day shows at MGM Music Hall at Boston’s Fenway Park over the weekend to call out an attendee holding up a black MAGA hat. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The black version of […]
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Source: Kayla Bartkowski / Getty
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer declared that he would vote with Republicans to avoid a federal shutdown, drawing anger from the public.
As the federal government is on the brink of a shutdown, Senate Minority Leader Charles “Chuck” Schumer is facing serious backlash from the public and fellow Democrats for declaring he’d vote for a GOP spending bill to keep the government open. In an op-ed for The New York Times, the New York senator explained that his decision didn’t come lightly as he sees a shutdown as a way for President Donald Trump and his ally, tech billionaire Elon Musk to use DOGE to effectively get more control.
“For sure, the Republican bill is a terrible option,” Schumer wrote. “It is deeply partisan. It doesn’t address this country’s needs. But even if the White House says differently, Mr. Trump and Elon Musk want a shutdown. We should not give them one. The risk of allowing the president to take even more power via a government shutdown is a much worse path.” The spending bill to avert a federal shutdown needs 60 votes. The Republicans currently have the majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, but all Democrats except one – Representative Jared Golden of Maine – voted against the bill. Presently, Schumer and Pennslyvania Senator John Fetterman have openly declared their support for the continuing resolution, while several other Democrats have declared their opposition. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told the press that she was mobilizing other members to push Schumer to change his vote. Other Democrats have also begun to push her to primary Schumer, to which she offered no comment. Nancy Pelosi spoke out against Schumer without naming him in a statement, saying “Democratic senators should listen to the women.”
Schumer’s choice has incurred ire from many on social media who are calling for him to step down from his post as Senate Minority Leader. Columnist Max Kennerly wrote online, They’re not ‘taking one for the team,’ they’re giving up leverage against Republicans so they can give Republicans a blank check to continue doing everything they’ve been doing — including wrecking the country illegally shutting down every part of the federal gov’t they don’t like.”
Vice President JD Vance was greeted with a loud round of boos when attendees spotted him at a performance of Stavinsky’s Petrushka at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. on Thursday night (March 13). Video of the incident appeared to show other attendees expressing their displeasure with the veep as he took a seat in a box next to wife Usha Vance and sipped on a beverage before the start of the performance.
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Seemingly not reacting to the nearly 30 seconds of boo birds, Vance was seen waving and smiling during the VP’s first appearance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts since Donald Trump appointed himself chairman of the Kennedy Center and controversially filled its board with MAGAloyalist last month.
According to the New York Times, the concert started nearly 20 minutes late because of added security measures related to the VP’s attendance. The Trump takeover of the Kennedy Center leadership featured a purge of the previously bipartisan board, with appointments that included other Trump loyalists appointees, including his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, Fox News host Laura Ingraham and attorney general Pam Bondi.
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After the Trump purge of the board at the Center, the backlash from performers and former supporters was swift. Among those resigning from the Center were Ben Folds, soprano Renée Fleming and producer Shonda Rhimes, with actress Issa Rae, singers Rhiannon Giddens and Peter Wolf and a production of Hamilton all calling off previously scheduled performances in protest.
J. Geils Band singer Wolf said he’d decided to pull his planned March 21 stop at the Center due to the “egregious firing of staff by the new administration,” while Gidden explained her decision by saying, “I cannot in good conscience play at The Kennedy Center with the change in programming direction forced on the institution by this new board.”
In addition, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington cancelled a planned Pride Month performance and Philly band Low Cut Connie canceled a booked February show.
Posting about the board putsch on his social media feed last month, Trump promised that the new bookings at the Center would be free of “ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA.” In his first term as president, Trump broke with precedent by not attending the annual Kennedy Center Honors, something all previous presidents had done since the honors program began in 1978, with the exception of a few cases when they were called away by urgent events.
At the time of the board re-shuffle, Trump — who has never attended a show at the Kennedy Center in either one of his terms to date — added, “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP. The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation. For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”
In addition to the board shake-up, like many parts of the government, the Center scrubbed its site of any references to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. To date, nearly two dozen performances have been cancelled or postponed at the Center.
Thursday’s boos were not the first time this week that Vance has faced a hostile audience. While visiting his Cincinnati home last weekend, the Ohio-bred VP was greeted with protesters outside his $1.4 million East Walnut Hills home, where a group of pro-Ukrainian demonstrators waved signs reading “JD Vance: Ukraine’s kids aer way more scared than yours” and “JD Vance: Have you no shame?”
The protest came in the wake of a tense Oval Office meeting last month with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which Vance berated the wartime Ukrainian leader for what he perceived as a lack of gratitude for U.S. support in the unprovoked war against his country launched by Russia in 2022.
Shyne has lost his bid for re-election in Belize. The former Bad Boy conceded defeat in a press conference on Wednesday night (March 12).
According to Channel 5 Belize, Shyne (born Moses Barrow) was unseated by fellow United Democratic Party member and businessman Lee Mark Chang in the general election.
Shyne was elected to the Mesopotamia seat in Belize City for the House of Representatives in 2020, and he eventually served as the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives and the leader of the Belize United Democratic Party.
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According to Channel 5 Belize, Shyne secured only 318 votes in the constituency of Mesopotamia, while Chang earned 601.
“The people have spoken. Congratulations to Lee Mark Chang — he’s now the new area representative of Mesopotamia, and I wish him well,” Shyne said, according to the local news outlet. “I was confident; that was the interaction I was having with the people, but they made a decision to go in another direction, and I respect that.”
With Shyne losing his House of Representatives seat, he’s planning to resign as the leader of the Belize UDP once a new official is elected.
“I certainly will resign effective once we have a national convention to elect a new leader,” he added. “Obviously you can’t be a leader of the United Democratic Party once you’re not a member of the House, and I would not want to be appointed as a senator or anything to hold on to the leadership.”
Chang was very critical of Shyne leading up to the election, reportedly referring to him as a “cancer” in the government. “The people are realizing they have been bamboozled,” he reportedly said on national TV in Belize.
It’s unclear if the loss marks the end of Shyne’s run in Belizean politics.
Shyne rose to fame in the late ’90s as a rapper under Diddy’s Bad Boy Records label. He was sentenced to 10 years behind bars in 2001 on assault, gun possession and reckless endangerment charges for his role in a 1999 NYC nightclub shooting that left two people wounded. He was released in 2009 after eight years behind bars and deported to Belize.