THE WORST WING: Following denials by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth that he shared secret military information about attacks in Yemen on an unsecured chat line, The Atlantic published the text chain that was accidentally shared with their editor.

  Editor Jeffrey Goldberg said he received the following messages from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth two hours before bombs dropped:

• 1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)”
• “1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)”
• “1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)”
• “1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets)”
• “1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.”

  Goldberg said in an interview yesterday on MSNBC that, “At a certain point, the administration is saying that there’s nothing classified or secret or sensitive in these so at a certain point, I just felt, you know, let our readers decide for themselves.” Goldberg said he is still withholding some information he has that even he considers too sensitive for release.

  Administration officials continue to dissemble and deny. Testifying before Congress, they quibbled about what constitutes a “war plan” and what might be “classified.” What is clear is that it was information about an attack that Houthi rebels did not know was coming. Hegseth nonetheless said the information was not classified; “no locations, no routes, no flight paths.” Please, see the above.

  President Trump claimed, “Hegseth is doing a great job, he had nothing to do with it,” and “It’s all a witch hunt.”

25 PERCENT: In what would be the lead story on a normal day, President Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on all cars imported into the country. The tariffs that would go into effect April 3^rd is designed to force auto makers to bring manufacturing back to the US, which would take years and be more expensive.

  Trump said in his announcement that, “This is the beginning of liberation day in America. This is very modest.”

  Tariffs on foreign-made cars could raise the price anywhere from $3,000 to $4,000 all the way up to as much as $12,000. What was not specified yesterday was whether the tariff would apply to auto parts, which sometimes cross the border many times before they end up in a fully manufactured car. 

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE:

— The federal appeals court in Washington upheld a lower court block on the administration using the 1798 Enemy Aliens Act to deport suspected Venezuelan gang members without hearings or due process. 

  In a 2-1 majority opinion, the appeals panel said, “The government’s removal scheme denies plaintiffs even a gossamer thread of due process, even though the government acknowledges their right to judicial review of their removability.”

  The trial level judge, James Boasberg, is still battling with administration lawyers to get the facts that would determine whether they defied his order to stop the deportations and turn around aircraft already in the air. 

— The Trump administration is attacking and crippling not only the law firms that bring cases against them, but moving against the judges overseeing the cases.

  A federal judge rejected the administration request that she recuse herself from a case challenging the executive order targeting the Democrat-leaning law firm Perkins Coie. District Judge Beryl Howell said, “This strategy is designed to impugn the integrity of the federal judicial system and blame any loss on the decision-maker rather than fallacies in the substantive legal arguments presented.” 

— President Trump yesterday renewed his claim that the US needs to own Greenland. In a radio interview the President said, “We need it. We have to have it.” He told  radio host Vince Coglianese on Wednesday. “We have to have the land because it’s not possible to properly defend a large section of this Earth — not just the US — without it. So we have to have it, and I think we will have it.”

  Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said, “It is unacceptable pressure being put on Greenland and Denmark in this situation. And it’s a pressure we will stand against.”

— In a congressional hearing, Georgia Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene called for the complete defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, saying; “NPR and PBS have increasingly become radical left-wing echo chambers for a narrow audience of mostly wealthy, white urban liberals and progressives who generally look down on and judge rural America.” She accused the networks of “grooming and sexualizing” children, using DEI for listener demographics, and wasting taxpayer money.

THE WAR ROOM: A glamorous Russian television reporter who reported from the Ukraine front for state-run TV network Channel One was killed by a landmine. Anna Prokofieva, 35, was killed when the vehicle she and her cameraman were traveling in ran over a landmine in Russia’s Belgorod region. She had been an open supporter of the war, often posing with soldiers, since the beginning of the Russian invasion.

THE SPIN RACK: A federal judge allowed the NY Times to proceed with its lawsuit against OpenAI, charging that the artificial intelligence company uses the newspaper’s content without permission or payment. — Archaeologists have found the enormous tomb of an unknown pharaoh at an Egyptian necropolis. Researchers estimate the tomb is 3,600 years old, nearly 23 feet underground. — At least six people are believed to be dead and another nine injured after a tourist submarine carrying 40 people sank off of Egypt’s Red Sea coast today. — More than three years after the fatal shooting on the set of the Alec Baldwin movie, “Rust,” producers have released the promotional trailer. Playing a playing a cowboy outlaw named Harland Rust, Baldwin delivers the line, “Some things in this life you can’t get back, I reckon.”

BELOW THE FOLD:  Kermit the Frog is scheduled to deliver the commencement address at the University of Maryland. Milk and cookies will be served.

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