Texts released
The Atlantic magazine this morning released the texts of war plans that were shared with its editor Jeffrey Goldberg when he was inadvertently included in a texting group of Trump Administration officials. The group texted about U.S. military plans to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen. The magazine noted that the Trump Administration has repeatedly denied that the texts contained classified material. Goldberg said Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz was the person who invited him to join in the texting group. Goldberg said that by publishing the texts people can see for themselves that Donald Trump and officials such as Defense Secretary Hegseth have been lying about the content.
 Unsecured text group
Trump Administration negotiator Steve Witkoff was in Russia while he was participating in the unsecured texting group that discussed U.S. military plans to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen about two hours before the military action launched. The texting group used the public application Signal rather than a secure government system. Russian hackers have previously tapped into Signal and the Defense Department warned its personnel as far back as about three years ago not to use Signal for official business. It also is reported that the administration officials likely used their personal devices rather than government cellphones for the texting session.
Trump Administration shutting down FEMA
The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, former South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, announced at a cabinet meeting at the White House yesterday that the Trump Administration is shutting down FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA helps people, businesses and local governments recover from natural disasters. Right after Noem made her announcement, Donald Trump said, “Good work.” Yesterday, FEMA said it had stepped in to help North Carolina and South Carolina fight wildfires that have been ranging out of control. FEMA recently has been helping people in the South and Midwest recover from tornadoes and floods and, in California, recover from the Los Angeles County wildfires.
Election order
Donald Trump has signed an executive order regarding elections. He has ordered states to turn over to the Department of Homeland Security and Elon Musk’s people their voter registration lists. He wants them to go through the lists and decide who should no longer be allowed to vote. Trump also is telling states to require that new registrants for federal elections be required to show proof that they are U.S. citizens before being allowed to register to vote. Trump also demands that if states refuse to cooperate with the federal government when it wants to investigate alleged election issues federal funding can be cut off.
Hearing on PBS and NPR funding
Today’s Capitol Hill hearing on continued federal funding for the Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio was being chaired by right-wing Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has advocated taking away the funds. The public broadcasting services receive only a part of their total budgets from the federal government, but much of the federal funding helps support radio and TV stations serving rural areas in Republican states. Donald Trump tried, but failed, during his first term to cut the approximately $500 million in federal funding for the public broadcasting services.
