China launched military exercises pressing in on Taiwan on Tuesday, in what Beijing said was a warning to the island-democracy’s president, Lai Ching-te, after he called China a “foreign hostile force.” Chinese land, navy, air and missile forces would “approach close” to Taiwan and practice “seizure of overall control, strikes on sea and land targets,…
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrapped up his first official visit to the Asia on Sunday by offering reassurances to Japan that President Trump wants a stronger military alliance in the region to deter an increasingly assertive China. Following an 85-minute meeting in Tokyo with his Japanese counterpart, Mr. Hegseth said the Trump administration would…
For much of this week, President Trump was consumed by a single question. What should he do about his national security adviser, Michael Waltz? “Should I fire him?” he asked aides and allies as the fallout continued over the stunning leak of a Signal group chat set up by Mr. Waltz, who had inadvertently added…
The bombshell publication of a group chat involving Trump administration officials discussing U.S. battle plans revealed in unusually stark fashion what the Trump administration hopes to achieve with airstrikes this month against the Houthi militia in Yemen. The attacks, some of the chat’s participants said, were meant to deter the Houthis from attacking commercial ships…
The White House effort to defend Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday leaned heavily into a semantic argument. What he posted on the now-infamous Signal chat with his national security colleagues was not a “war plan,” they insist. Technically, they may be right. What The Atlantic published, from the chain in which its top editor,…
Signal, a popular messaging app, came into the spotlight this week after reports that several senior Trump administration officials had used the tool to conduct war planning — inadvertently including a journalist in the message group. The app, which was started in 2014 and has hundreds of millions of users, is popular among journalists, activists,…
Top defense officials who mistakenly included a journalist in an encrypted group chat about airstrikes in Yemen engaged in what officials have described as a devastating breach of national security. But just a few years ago, several members of that group chat criticized Hillary Clinton for using a private email server to conduct official business…
Trump administration officials haven’t kept their disdain for Europe quiet. But the contempt seems to be even louder behind closed doors. Europeans reacted with a mix of exasperation and anger to the publication of parts of a discussion between top-ranking Trump administration officials, carried out on the messaging app Signal. The discussion, about a planned…
Over the past 24 hours, my colleagues’ report that Elon Musk was set to be briefed on the military’s top-secret plans in the event of war with China has shaken Washington. It even seemed to take President Trump by surprise. Musk’s planned visit to a secure room in the Pentagon was called off after The…
Uptick in Tesla vandalism amid DOGE backlash Elon Musk’s Teslas are being vandalized at a higher rate as he faces backlash for federal cuts and firings. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that Elon Musk visited the Pentagon on Friday, even as the Trump administration vigorously denied a New York Times report that Musk was briefed…