There is a lot of speculation about the potential for President Trump to remove National Security Advisor Mike Waltz following the SignalGate fiasco.  However, I doubt it will come soon.

Yes, CTH predicted in January that Waltz would be the first to get fired; but that prediction was due to the easily identified conflict between Waltz’s ideological mindset and his responsibility to execute a President Trump national security policy that is seemingly counter to Waltz’s worldview.

President Trump is unlikely to dismiss Waltz until some time has passed and his removal doesn’t look like a win for the media narrative operation.  Currently the SignalGate issue is diminishing. However, watch what assignments Waltz is given – that’s where we will likely see a shift in responsibility.

I suspect Mike Waltz will no longer have a critical role in the Ukraine-v-Russia conflict that President Trump is trying to bring to an end.  If Waltz has lost effectiveness or the trust of President Trump, his role as National Security Advisor will be visibly lessened.   The influence of JD Vance, Marco Rubio and to a smaller extent Steve Witkoff will be more prominent.

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President Donald Trump talks about placing tariffs on Canadian goods.  Ontario Premier Doug Ford talks about “inflicting as much pain as possible on the American people.”  See the difference?   Tell me again how the term “snowmexicans” is insulting.  I digress.

A few thoughts.  First, apparently Doug Ford doesn’t quite understand that tariffs on steel, aluminum and auto imports are not part of the “reciprocity” tariff regime.  They are an entirely different category classified under national security directives to ensure American industrial capacity.

Second, as Canada moves into the “freedom fries” phase, voices like Doug Ford might want to consider the end of this continuum that finds the word “embargo” in the lingo. Perhaps President Trump would consider elevating the conversation to “reciprocity” in the banking sector.  Again, I digress.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announces the Canadian government intention to “inflict as much pain as possible against the American people.”  WATCH:

Canadians just don’t get it.  Meanwhile, as it was within most of the originating negotiations of the USMCA, Mexico smartly stays quiet as stompy feet Canada draws the attention from President Donald Trump.

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Dept of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem goes straight into the heart of the operation where deported criminal gang members are being housed by an agreement with the government of El Salvador.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sends a chilling warning to illegal criminal immigrants entering the United States. On Wednesday, Noem visited the high-security prison in El Salvador that recently received hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members.

Noem was given a tour of the prison by Salvadoran Minister of Justice Héctor Gustavo Villatoro during her visit. The Homeland Security Secretary then met with El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele and is expected to visit Colombia and Mexico next.

“First of all, do not come to our country illegally. You will be removed, and you will be prosecuted. But know that this facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people,” she said.

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National Security Advisor Mike Waltz appears on Fox News with Laura Ingraham to discuss the exploding controversy around a left-wing journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg, being included on a Signal chat with members of President Trump’s cabinet.

According to Mike Waltz the name of a contact was mis-attributed to the telephone number of Jeffrey Goldberg.  Waltz thought someone else (¹he will not say who) was in the chat group, but it was actually Goldberg.  Waltz says his team and Elon Musk’s technical team are working through an investigative process to discover how that happened.

As I repeated earlier, the most likely origination of the mis-attribution is the intelligence community, specifically the CIA.  The entire fiasco originates as an operation targeting the Trump administration.  Mike Waltz says he is not a conspiracy theorist, but indicates he too thinks something like this is quite possible. WATCH:

Let me summarize for those new to these performances: (1) The CIA tech team organized the Signal App operation (directory manipulation). That’s how Goldberg got in. (2) Jeffrey Goldberg held the story until the day before the scheduled SSCI hearing. (3) The SSCI uses the hearing to attack the Trump officials at the top of the critical silos.

Why? The CIA group doesn’t like the Trump Ukraine and Trump Russia policy.

[¹We may discover that somehow the name Marco Rubio was attributed to the phone number of Jeffrey Goldberg.  Rubio was reportedly on the chat, but didn’t say anything.]

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President Donald Trump answered several questions from the media during a White House meeting with various ambassadors and nominees for the position of ambassador.

During the media segment, President Trump was questioned about the national security cabinet members use of the Signal app to discuss administration plans to open sea lanes and confront Houthi terrorists. President Trump noted the difficulty of secure communication that would be responsive and fast for the purposes of rapid discussion.

President Trump fully supports National Security Advisor Mike Waltz who is attributed with the problem of originating an inadvertent invitation to a journalist the chat group. Overall, there are several media questions about this specific topic and President Trump seemingly appreciates the line of inquiry but swats away attempt attack his cabinet.

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Appearing with professional narrative engineer Margaret Brennan, Senator Rand Paul discusses his DC perspective on the need to protect criminal aliens from excessive deportation action.

Senator Paul agrees with Mrs Brennan that all persons, including illegal alien entrants into the United States, deserve constitutional protection. As an outcome of that viewpoint the Alien Enemies Act is in a state of contradiction and conflict.  WATCH:

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: And we turn now to Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul. He is the chair of the Homeland Security Committee, and he joins us this morning from Bowling Green, Kentucky. Good morning to you, Senator.

SEN. RAND PAUL: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Sure, because of your role in Homeland Security, I want to follow up where we left off with National Security Adviser Waltz. There are legal questions around using these authorities to send out detainees without giving them a day in court. But there’s also just questions of how it’s being handled in regard to these individuals who were rejected by El Salvador, one for gender, one because they weren’t Venezuelan at all. Do these concern- does any of this concern you? Along with claims from their family members that many of these people weren’t gang members?

SEN. PAUL: There are some big legal questions here. On the one hand, the Bill of Rights applies to everyone, to persons. The Bill of Rights doesn’t specifically designate citizens. It’s really anyone in the United States the Bill of Rights applies to. On the other hand, the Alien and Enemies Act simply says, you really don’t get much process. The president can simply declare that you are somehow a problem for foreign policy and opposed to our foreign policy, and you can be deported. So really, ultimately, this goes to the court, and then the court is going to have to decide, are they going to declare unconstitutional a law that’s been around for a couple hundred years, or are they going to defer to Congress? If you look at the TikTok decision recently, which I don’t agree with, but in the TikTok decision, the court basically said we’re going to defer to Congress. Congress says this is about national security, and who are we to question Congress–

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Judge James Boasberg issues a three-page order [SEE HERE] demanding the Trump administration deliver cabinet level details about their criminal alien deportation operation.

Boasberg claims the information provided to him so far is “woefully inadequate,” and lacks the citations of what cabinet-level officials were involved in deporting criminal illegal aliens and Tren de Aragua gang members protected by a leftist immigration organization employing Judge Boasberg’s daughter.

Judge Boasberg appears to be focused on generating a contempt order against the Trump administration.  Presumably, this would give Boasberg’s allied Democrats in congress a foothold for their needed 2018 election effort and another impeachment attempt.

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U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has announced the arrest and prosecution of three people who carried out arson attacks against Tesla businesses.

(Dept of Justice) – Today, Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced charges against three individuals responsible for the violent destruction of Tesla properties. All three defendants will face the full force of the law for using Molotov cocktails to set fire to Tesla cars and charging stations.

“The days of committing crimes without consequence have ended,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Let this be a warning: if you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars.”

♦ One defendant, also armed with a suppressed AR-15 rifle, was arrested after throwing approximately eight Molotov cocktails at a Tesla dealership located in Salem, Oregon.

♦ Another was arrested in Loveland, Colorado after attempting to light Teslas on fire with Molotov cocktails. The defendant was later found in possession of materials used to produce additional incendiary weapons.

♦ In Charleston, South Carolina, a third defendant wrote profane messages against President Trump around Tesla charging stations before lighting the charging stations on fire with Molotov cocktails.

♦ Each defendant faces serious charges carrying a minimum penalty of five years and up to 20 years in prison.

The Department of Justice is committed to ending all acts of violence and arson directed at Tesla properties and otherwise. (link)

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Education Secretary Linda McMahon answers questions from media and delivers remarks after receiving a presidential directive to dissolve the federal Dept of Education.

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President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin held a multi-hour phone conversation earlier today.  Both the Kremlin and Trump administration release statements conveying agreement to a drawdown in combat and a 30-day ceasefire of hostilities beginning with a stoppage of energy and infrastructure bombardment.

President Trump releases the following message via Truth Social: “My phone conversation today with President Putin of Russia was a very good and productive one. We agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure, with an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a Complete Ceasefire and, ultimately, an END to this very horrible War between Russia and Ukraine.

This War would have never started if I were President! Many elements of a Contract for Peace were discussed, including the fact that thousands of soldiers are being killed, and both President Putin and President Zelenskyy would like to see it end. That process is now in full force and effect, and we will, hopefully, for the sake of Humanity, get the job done!” ~ Donald Trump

The White House releases the following readout:

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