Mixed Signals

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Politics U.S.

By James Oliphant, national political correspondent

When President Donald Trump began to assemble his cabinet, it became clear that he had a type in mind: He wanted outsiders like himself, people who would come to Washington to rattle cages at his command. He prized loyalty over experience.

At the time, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a top Trump ally, called them "disruptors" who "will shake up the status quo."

Latest U.S. politics headlines

Signal of hubris

Well, consider the status quo shaken. Washington is reeling after The Atlantic revealed that members of Trump's national security team – including Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz – participated in an unclassified group chat on the messaging app Signal ahead of the U.S. strike on Yemen earlier this month.

The chat (complete with emojis that would mortify my teen daughter) inadvertently included Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic, in what has become the first real scandal of the new Trump administration.

Goldberg said Hegseth, a former TV host, posted military plans shortly before the first wave of attacks on March 15 "including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing," which Goldberg read from a supermarket parking lot on his phone.

Democrats, former national security officials and even some congressional Republicans have been incredulous that sensitive information was shared over the app, with some calling for resignations. Waltz has taken responsibility for setting up the chat, but officials deny classified material was revealed. Trump, for now, has had their backs.

The incident isn't the only example of clumsiness– or hubris– shown by the administration. In its effort to swiftly downsize the federal bureaucracy, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has had to backtrack several times after mistakenly letting go of key employees that were needed.

As Reuters reported earlier this month, DOGE's haphazard cost-cutting has slowed Trump's energy agenda. And the head of the Social Security Administration walked back his threat to close down the agency over a court order restricting DOGE's access to sensitive data.

Another judge put a halt to the White House's plan to revive an 18th-century law to speed up deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members and has grown frustrated with the comportment of the administration's lawyers. All in all, more than 100 lawsuits have been filed challenging Trump's policies – and it's only March.

On top of everything else, the White House managed to turn the prospect of Vice President JD Vance's wife, Usha Vance, attending a dog-sled race in Greenland into an international brouhaha.

To Trump's supporters, all the tumult may just be the cost of trying to radically make changes on the fly. But these might not be the kinds of disruptions they were hoping for.

Three out of 4 Republicans think Trump should defy the courts to deport people, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows.

Agree or disagree: The Trump Administration should continue to deport people they view as a risk despite a court order.

Follow Reuters/Ipsos polling on the president's approval ratings here.

The view from Brussels

Amid rising tensions between the U.S. and Europe, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte this week said that this is "not the time to go it alone" and that the parties need to work together through NATO to ensure the region's security.

Photo of the week

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth arrives at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (DKI APCSS) in Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. March 25, 2025. REUTERS/Marco Garcia

What to watch for

March 28: Vice President Vance travels to Greenland
April 1: Voters in Wisconsin pick a new Supreme Court judge in a race that Elon Musk has spent heavily on
April 2: Trump plans to announce reciprocal tariffs

The who, what and when

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