Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had an internet connection that bypassed the Pentagon’s security protocols set up in his office to use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer, two people familiar with the line told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
The existence of the unsecured internet connection is the latest revelation about Hegseth’s use of the unclassified app and raises the possibility that sensitive defense information could have been put at risk of potential hacking or surveillance.
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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth listens as President Donald Trump meets with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein))
President Donald Trump stands on the North Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters after signing executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Also Thursday, a spokesperson for China denied any suggestion that it is in active negotiations with the U.S. over tariffs. The Trump administration has sent mixed messages regarding the progress and intent of its trade negotiations. The president said it would be “physically impossible” to negotiate with dozens of countries and “we are going to, at some point, just set prices for deals.”
Meanwhile the administration asked the Supreme Court to allow enforcement of a ban on transgender people in the military while legal challenges proceed. Elsewhere judges blocked orders to end DEI in K-12 public schools, to deny funds to ‘sanctuary’ cities, to deport people from Colorado under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act and to require proof of citizenship before registering to vote.
Here's the latest:
The Trump administration was handed a rapid-fire series of court losses Wednesday night and Thursday in lawsuits filed over its policies on immigration, elections and its crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion programs in schools.
But the legal disputes playing out across the country are far from over, and administration attorneys pushed back, asking the federal appellate courts and the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn some of the decisions.
More than 170 lawsuits have been filed over President Donald Trump’s executive orders.
▶ Read more things to know about the legal challenges
New documents in a New Jersey court show that the government defended its warrantless arrest of Mahmoud Khalil by saying agents feared he would flee because he said he would leave the scene.
Khalil, a Columbia University student activist, has been in a detention center in Jena, Louisiana, for six weeks.
A lawyer for the Department of Homeland Security wrote that agents conducting surveillance of Khalil on March 8 were notified that he could be removed from the country because his presence or activities would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.
A Homeland Security Investigations agent approached and identified himself, according to the court filing.
After Khalil’s wife went to retrieve documents showing he had lawful residence status, the agent asked him to cooperate while they tried to verify his identity, but he “stated that he would not cooperate and that he was going to leave the scene,” the lawyer wrote.
At that point the Homeland Security supervisory agent “believed there was a flight risk and arrest was necessary,” he said.
The ACLU contested that account, saying the claim that Khalil was about to flee is false and belied by video taken by his wife, along with previous accounts.
▶ Read more about the case and the latest documents
The president has ordered the Justice Department to investigate the Democratic Party’s top fundraising platform.
In an executive order signed Thursday, he directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Republicans’ allegations that the platform allows illegal campaign donations.
A report this month from three GOP-controlled congressional committees alleged that ActBlue potentially allows fraudulent donations.
Democrats, who have been preparing to be targeted, quickly condemned the executive order.
A woman from Guatemala says she and her two U.S.-born children were held for nearly a week by customs agents in Detroit after a phone app’s directions to a Costco led them to an international bridge to Canada.
She now faces removal proceedings in June in immigration court, according to Ruby Robinson, senior managing attorney with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center. Robinson said the woman has been in the U.S. about six years but does not have legal status. Her daughters are 5 and 1 years old, and their father also lives in Detroit.
Robinson, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, and the ACLU of Michigan called Thursday for more accountability and transparency by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on detentions along the northern border.
“Our neighbors and families should not be disappearing because they made a wrong turn,” Tlaib said.
The Michigan Democrat said she was told March 21 by CBP that about 213 people had been detained at the same location since January, with more than 90% mistakenly driving onto the bridge’s toll plaza. Tlaib also said she was told 12 families had been detained in the same building where Robinson’s client was held.
CBP said agents encountered just over 200 undocumented people from Jan. 20 to March 21 at crossings in Detroit. About half were detained and turned over to ICE after secondary processing was complete, according to a CBP spokesman.
▶ Read more about her case
German Deputy Defense Minister Nils Hilmer said during a news conference that approximately 1,000 people are expected at the May 13-14 meeting in Berlin to discuss the future of U.N. peacekeeping and make pledges to its 11 far-flung missions.
Many delegations will be led by defense ministers or foreign ministers, and the United States will attend the conference, he said, but Washington has not yet decided at what level.
U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said the U.S. has been “a very important supporter of peacekeeping operation throughout the years, and we look forward to continuing cooperation with the United States.”
As the world’s largest economy, the United States pays 27% of the U.N. peacekeeping budget and currently owes close to $1.2 billion, according to a U.N. official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
— Edith M. Lederer
A U.S. government technical team will head to Oman for a third round of U.S. talks with Iran on its nuclear program, the State Department said Thursday.
The department initially said Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was also going but later clarified that was not yet confirmed.
Iran has said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and a technical team of its own will attend.
The Trump administration is pushing Tehran to scale back its nuclear program to ensure it can never make the jump to building nuclear bombs. It has warned of a risk of war with the U.S. or Israel if Iran refuses.
Iran says its program is for civilian uses only.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the U.S. team will be led by the department’s director of policy planning, Michael Anton, a former speechwriter, author, instructor and private-equity executive.
Critics have questioned whether the administration has given nuclear experts a big enough role in the negotiations.
Democrats Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tim Kaine of Virginia wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday questioning whether the administration is “abandoning the measures necessary to meet its obligations to reducing civilian harm” in its military campaign against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Specifically they cited reports that U.S. strikes at the Ras Isa fuel terminal last week potentially killed more than 70 civilians.
“Military leaders agree that ingraining civilian harm mitigation practices within U.S operations leads to better outcomes and that civilian casualties actually undermine the mission that the military has been sent in to do,” their letter said.
In a new, expanded campaign against the Houthis that began last month, Trump promised to use “overwhelming lethal force” until the militants cease attacks on shipping along a vital maritime corridor. The U.S. has done more than 750 strikes since then.
Houthi rebels in Yemen have shot down seven U.S. Reaper drones in less than six weeks, a loss of aircraft worth more than $200 million, in what is becoming the most dramatic cost to the Pentagon of the military campaign against the Iran-backed militants.
According to defense officials, three drones were shot down in the past week, suggesting the militants’ targeting of the unmanned aircraft flying over Yemen has improved. The drones were doing attack runs or conducting surveillance, and they crashed both into the water and onto land, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.
The drones cost about $30 million each and generally fly at altitudes of more than 40,000 feet (12,100 meters).
The U.S. has increased its attacks on the Houthis, launching daily strikes since March 15, when President Donald Trump ordered a new, expanded campaign.
— Lolita C. Baldor
The pardon is for Republican former Las Vegas city councilwoman and state lawmaker Michele Fiore, who was awaiting sentencing on federal charges that she used money meant for a statue honoring a slain police officer for personal costs, including plastic surgery.
Fiore, who also ran unsuccessfully in 2022 for state treasurer, was found guilty in October of six counts of federal wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She was out of custody ahead of her sentencing, which had been scheduled for next month.
In a lengthy statement Thursday on Facebook, the loyal Trump supporter expressed gratitude to the president while also accusing the U.S. government and “select media outlets” of a broad, decade-long conspiracy to “target and dismantle” her life.
The pardon, issued Wednesday, comes less than a week after Fiore lost a bid for a new trial. She had been facing the possibility of decades in prison.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan accidentally filed an internal memo arguing that the government should change tactics if it wants to block the nascent program of tolls for driving in the most congested part of the borough.
The memo, intended for a U.S. Department of Transportation attorney, was inadvertently filed Wednesday night in New York’s lawsuit over the administration’s efforts to shut down the fee.
The blunder came days after the administration gave New York a third ultimatum to stop collecting the $9 tolls, which started in January.
In the memo, three assistant U.S. attorneys from the Southern District of New York wrote that there is “considerable litigation risk” in defending Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s decision to pull federal approval and that doing so would likely result in a legal loss.
The department might have better odds, they wrote, if it tries a different bureaucratic mechanism that would argue that the toll no longer aligns with the government’s agenda.
▶ Read more about the mistaken filing
Three advocacy groups are suing the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem.
The groups want to restore staff jobs at three gutted offices that oversee civil rights protections across the sprawling department.
Department officials said Thursday that they are “committed to civil rights protections” but called the three offices a roadblock.
Democrats have suggested that the cuts were about removing transparency at the department, which is key to the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts.
The groups suing said that because Congress set up the offices, only it can shutter them.
The order signed Thursday seeks to expand — and potentially make more stringent — the time periods that federal workers must clear before career protections kick in.
Probationary periods typically last one to two years, though they can go longer for some federal workers.
Rather than simply passing the probationary period after it ends, the order mandates that 60 days prior to coming off probation, employees must meet with officials to discuss their job performance and conduct.
“Instead of these employees becoming tenured civil servants by default,” a White House fact sheet on the order reads, agencies must “affirmatively certify” that finalizing their appointment “advances the public interest.”
The rules would apply to many new employees, as well as those changing positions in the same agency.
Trump administration has moved to fire thousands of probationary federal workers, touching off an ongoing legal battle.
The American Federation of Government Employees announced the planned nationwide layoffs Thursday in the wake of Trump executive actions that have rapidly weakened the organization’s finances.
The union will move ahead with a reduction in force that could cut its 355 employees to approximately 150, eliminating organizers, national representatives, support staff and others.
The layoffs will weaken a leading opponent to Trump’s dramatic reshaping of the federal government.
AFGE has filed a flurry of lawsuits seeking to block everything from the mass firings of probationary workers to the sharing of sensitive data with billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. It has also helped organize protests and other pushback against Trump and DOGE.
In a statement Thursday, the union blamed Trump’s policies for the layoffs, calling them a setback, “but not the end of AFGE — not by a longshot.”
Ricketts repeatedly returned to his call for spending cuts amid grumbles from a central Nebraska audience during a public meeting Thursday that illustrated the tension between some voters and Republicans.
And though Ricketts was interrupted at times by shouts and jeers, including occasional chants of “tax the rich,” the 30 minutes he allowed for questions elicited civil exchanges on health care spending, President Donald Trump ’s agenda and the war in Ukraine.
Ricketts, one of only a handful of GOP senators and representatives who have risked direct public exchanges with constituents by holding in-person town halls this year, urged support for Trump’s proposed increase of $175 billion for U.S.-Mexico border security and $150 billion more in military spending, while urging deep cuts elsewhere.
Challenged on staffing cuts and other changes during the aggressive first three months of Trump’s second term, Ricketts said something had to be done to curb the $36 billion federal debt.
▶ Read more about Ricketts’ public meeting
Barnard College faculty members are expressing anger and anxiety over a survey they received from the Trump administration this week asking if they are Jewish, among other personal questions.
Barnard officials belatedly informed staff that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had ordered the college to turn over their contact information so that employees could voluntarily participate in a probe of possible discrimination. The survey was sent on government letterhead by text to their personal cellphones, as first reported by The Intercept.
“That the government is putting together lists of Jews, ostensibly as part of a campaign to fight antisemitism, is really chilling,” professor Nara Milanich said. “As a historian, I have to say it feels a little uncomfortable.”
Neither the EEOC nor Barnard College responded to emails seeking comment.
▶ Read more about the Trump administration’s antisemitism probe survey
The order signed Thursday aims to stimulate deep-sea mining, with the White House wanting to develop domestic capabilities for exploration, collection and processing of critical minerals.
It expects to be able to eventually explore more than 1 billion metric tons of available deep-sea nodules. Those are rock formations that contain critical minerals like cobalt, manganese and cooper, which the U.S. could eventually mine and export.
The order directs federal authorities to “expedite” deep-sea mining permits and produce a report on opportunities along the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.
Trump’s action follows a Canadian company recently seeking permission from the U.S. government to start deep-sea mining in international waters, despite a U.N. agency saying such efforts could violate international law.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had an internet connection that bypassed the Pentagon’s security protocols set up in his office to use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer, two people familiar with the line told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
The existence of the unsecured internet connection is the latest revelation about Hegseth’s use of the unclassified app and raises the possibility that sensitive defense information could have been put at risk of potential hacking or surveillance.
— Tara Copp
Sethuraman Panchanathan, who had led the NSF since 2020, is departing after the agency made the cuts to funding for hundreds of university research projects.
Panchanathan initially defended the NSF’s priorities but said in a statement Thursday that he had “done all I can to advance the critical mission of the agency.”
NSF grants are a key source of funding for science research at U.S. universities. On Friday the agency abruptly canceled funding for hundreds of grants to comply with Trump’s directives to end support of research on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as the study of misinformation.
More than 380 grant projects have been cut so far, including work to combat internet censorship in China and Iran and a project consulting with Indigenous communities to understand environmental changes in Alaska’s Arctic region.
“NSF is an extremely important investment to make U.S. scientific dominance a reality,” Panchanathan said in his statement. “We must not lose our competitive edge.”
An association that represents clinics across the country sued Thursday over the Trump Administration’s decision last month to withhold some family planning grants.
The National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association contends in a federal court filing in Washington that it was illegal to withhold funding for care including birth control, cancer screening and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.
The group says funds were cut off with virtually no notice to about one-fourth of the providers who receive Title X funding, including all of them in California, Hawaii, Maine, Missouri, Montana and Utah.
The Agriculture Department says it is withdrawing a plan to limit salmonella bacteria in poultry products. The move halts a Biden Administration effort designed to prevent food poisoning.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service said Thursday that it withdrew the proposal after getting more than 7,000 public comments. The agency will evaluate whether salmonella regulations should be changed.
The move drew praise from the poultry industry and criticism from food safety advocates. Salmonella causes 1.35 million infections each year, mostly from food.
A key group of state and local election officials questioned the leaders of a federal agency at the center of the executive order seeking major changes to U.S. elections, raising concerns about the consequences for voters and the people in charge of voting.
The annual meeting of the Standards Board of the U.S. Election Commission was an opportunity for elections officials to ask the four EAC commissioners about Trump’s executive order.
Trump’s March 25 order directed the commission — an independent federal agency — to update the national voter registration form to include a proof-of-citizenship requirement and revise guidelines for voting systems among other actions.
Whether the president can order an independent agency to act and whether it has the authority to do what he wants will likely be settled in court.
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Thursday blocking the proof-of-citizenship requirement pending legal challenges.
▶ Read more on the elections officials’ questions about the order
U.S. stocks rallied further as better-than-expected profits for U.S. companies piled up, though CEOs say they’re unsure whether it will last because of uncertainty created by Trump’s trade war.
The S&P 500 jumped 2% Thursday for its third straight day of big gains, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.2% and the Nasdaq composite climbed 2.7%.
ServiceNow surged after the AI platform company delivered a stronger profit for the start of 2025 than expected.
Southwest Airlines likewise reported stronger-than-expected results, but it joined a lengthening list of companies that have pulled financial forecasts because of uncertainty around tariffs.
The National Endowment for the Humanities announced Thursday that, along with the National Endowment for the Arts, it is committing $30 million this year to “enable the creation of statues in marble, granite, bronze, copper, or brass depicting historical figures tied to the accomplishments of the United States.”
Trump issued an executive order at the end of his first term calling for a “new monument to our country’s greatness.” He cited hundreds of Americans he considered worthy, from Benjamin Franklin and James Madison to Kobe Bryant and Shirley Temple.
Back in office, he has targeted the NEH, the Kennedy Center and other organizations for vast cuts and restructuring, accusing them of advancing a “woke” and anti-patriotic agenda. At the same time the NEH is offering money for the garden of heroes, it has cut off millions of dollars in grants.
The garden is scheduled to open in July 2026, timed to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
The U.S. Constitution says Trump can only be elected to two terms as president. That’s not stopping his family from promoting a third campaign.
Eric Trump shared a photo on Instagram of himself wearing a red “Trump 2028” hat, now sold by the Trump Store.
Trump, who would turn 82 in 2028, has said he is considering how to breach the constitutional prohibition. He had previously made jokes about it before telling NBC news he’s serious and that “there are methods which you could do it.”
The 22nd Amendment was adopted after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected four times. He died at 63, before the 100th day of his fourth term, on April 12, 1945.
Trump has threatened to reimpose his steep ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on nearly all U.S. partners in a manner of months if they don’t negotiate separate deals with his administration. At some point, he said, his administration will “just set prices” for each partner that doesn’t come to the table.
“I can’t think of one country that doesn’t want to negotiate a deal, and they either negotiate a deal or we set a deal that we think is fair,” Trump said. But he said one-on-one talks will end at some point because only a “very small group” understands the issues.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said bilateral talks with South Korea may be “moving faster than we thought” after meetings earlier Thursday, with an agreement possible as soon as next week.
Switzerland’s foreign minister in China says the sweeping Trump tariffs are like an earthquake that has hit “all the other countries on the planet” and thrust them into “a sort of coalition” to reach a deal with the United States.
Ignazio Cassis spoke to reporters in Beijing on Thursday after meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.
“We have to convince the United States to come back to a multilateral discussion -- which for now is not a given,” the Swiss diplomat said.
Trump has imposed 31% tariffs on Swiss goods — far higher than the 20% faced by its European Union neighbors — but Switzerland is among the many places now subject to a 90-day pause.
Ukraine and much of Europe have fiercely pushed back against this notion, arguing that it’s hardly a concession for Russia to pause its land grab.
Earlier Thursday, Trump posted what for him is a rare rebuke of Putin after Russia struck Kyiv for hours with missiles and drones that killed at least 12 people and injured 90 in the deadliest assault on the city since July.
“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying.” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”
“I didn’t like last night,” Trump said. “I wasn’t happy with it.”
Walz’s first major address to a statewide audience since he was Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate last year is getting attention.
Republican House floor leader Harry Niska called the Wednesday night speech an “angry rant about Donald Trump.”
But Walz urged state lawmakers to prove there’s a better way to govern.
“This current administration in Washington, they’re not forever,” Walz said. “These small, petty men will disappear into the dustbin of history. And when they do, there will be an opportunity and an obligation to actually rebuild government so that it works for working people.”
▶ Read more about Walz’s speech on governing in the Trump era
The order blocks the Trump administration from immediately enacting certain changes to how federal elections are run.
Trump’s executive order argued that the U.S. “fails to enforce basic and necessary election protections” that exist in other countries.
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sided with voting rights groups and Democrats to grant a preliminary injunction to stop the citizenship requirement from moving forward while the lawsuit plays out.
She also blocked a requirement that public assistance enrollees have their citizenship assessed before getting access to the federal voter registration form. But she denied other requests from the Democratic plaintiffs, including refusing to block Trump’s order to tighten mail ballot deadlines.
▶ Read more about the case against Trump’s federal elections changes
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth listens as President Donald Trump meets with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein))
President Donald Trump stands on the North Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters after signing executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
