Trump live updates: President says foreign films are ‘national security threat’ and threatens high tariffs

A security breach in an unofficial version of the encrypted messaging app Signal has raised concerns about the vulnerability of communications within the highest levels of the U.S. government, according to a report by tech site 404 Media.

The app, TeleMessage, which mimics Signal’s functionality, was reportedly used by former national security adviser Mike Waltz, as indicated by a Reuters photograph showing him using the app during a cabinet meeting last week.

The vulnerability exploited by the hacker highlights potential security risks associated with using unofficial communication platforms for sensitive government discussions.

Make of this what you will.

For years, President Donald Trump has blamed “communists” for his legal and political troubles.

Now, the second Trump administration is deploying that same historically loaded label to cast his opponents – from judges to educators – as threats to American identity, culture and values.

Why? Trump himself explained the strategy last year when he described how he planned to defeat his Democratic opponent, then-vice president Kamala Harris, in the White House election.

“All we have to do is define our opponent as being a communist or a socialist or somebody who is going to destroy our country,” he told reporters at his New Jersey golf club in August.

If you missed this earlier, here’s Madeline Sherratt with more on the president’s attack on the Bush adviser after being angered by his appearance on Fox yesterday.

When Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman was hospitalized for depression in 2023, many on Capitol Hill celebrated it as a moment of courage and a willingness to be open about mental health struggles.

Now, a startling picture of relapse and its associated cost is being associated with him after a deeply sourced profile on Fetterman was published Friday in New York Magazine’s Intelligencer by reporter Ben Terris.

Democrats on Capitol Hill have yet to comment.

But the shock from the profile’s reporting has been evident across social media and on political talk programs over the weekend.

John Bowden has the story.

James Austin Johnson returned as the president on Saturday Night Live (SNL) over the weekend and was joined by Mikey Day as Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff.

“I understand Elmo has now been apprehended by ICE,” Johnson quipped in their latest skit.

“Brought to you by the letter L for El Salvador. He’s not coming back.”

Michelle Del Rey has more.

The vice president, a Catholic, was one of the last world leaders to meet with Pope Francis before his death on Easter Monday but said that he was “fine with people telling jokes” in response to his boss’s questionable posting over the weekend.

Here’s more from Mike Bedgian.

The other big controversy the president invited over the weekend was his bizarre decision to post an AI image of himself in papal costume as Catholics around the world mourn the loss of Pope Francis.

Here’s Andrea Shalal on the reaction.

Here’s two more key exchanges from the president’s interview with NBC yesterday:

This was also not quite the winning spin he appeared to think it was:

The president otherwise spent time reiterating his opinion that America’s children have too many dolls anyway (so inflation pricing their parents out of toys is fine), which is also not a great look.

Giving a rare interview to a more liberal news outlet yesterday, the president told Kristen Welker on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that he does not know whether it is his duty to uphold the U.S. Constitution, despite swearing a solemn oath pledging precisely that at his inauguration at the Capitol in January.

Here’s John Bowden on a startling exchange, even by Trump’s standards.