Trump warned in a Truth Social post this morning that the Iran-backed Houthi rebels will be “met with great force” if they continue to launch attacks in the Middle East and that Iran would be held accountable.
“Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!,” he said.
Trump ordered a series of airstrikes on Houthi-held areas in Yemen on Saturday, which killed at least 53 people and injured 98. Since the airstrikes, Houthis have tried twice to attack the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the northern Red Sea.
The Houthis have been launching attacks on shipping vessels and ships in the region since Israel began its military offensive in Gaza following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack.
Trump’s top economic aide warned of more economic uncertainty stemming from the United States’ evolving tariff agenda.
“Absolutely, between now and April 2, there’ll be some uncertainty,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” referring to the date on which Trump says he will unveil “reciprocal” tariff plans.
The remark acknowledges what many analysts and business leaders have complained about for weeks, as Trump’s sweeping tariff announcements — and subsequent revisions to them — sow confusion in the markets.
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said in a post on X this morning that he and other former members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol won’t be intimidated by Trump’s threat to reverse President Joe Biden’s pardons of them.
“The members of the Jan 6 Committee are all proud of our work. Your threats will not intimidate us. Or silence us,” wrote Schiff, who served on the committee and was among those Biden pre-emptively pardoned before Trump’s inauguration.
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who also served on the committee, wrote on X, “Donald, bring it. I’m so tired of your victimy whiney belly aching crap. You friggin won and you STILL are complaining all the time. BRING IT YOU SMALL LITTLE BOY.”
Trump claimed without evidence in a post on Truth Social overnight that Biden’s pardons of them and others are “void” because he used an autopen. The president said that, as a result, they are “subject to investigation at the highest level.”
Irish mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor stopped by the White House briefing room with press secretary Karoline Leavitt during a St. Patrick’s Day visit, saying he visited to “raise the issues the people of Ireland face.”
McGregor argued that “Ireland is at the cusp of potentially losing its Irishness” due to the “illegal immigration racket.”
The fighter also referred to Ireland and the U.S. as siblings, adding, “We wish to be taken care of by the big bro.”
“The United States should look after its little bro. And that’s how we feel,” he said.
Conor McGregor speaks with reporters alongside White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer met this weekend in Brooklyn, according to spokespeople for both New York lawmakers.
The meeting comes against the backdrop of increased tension in the Democratic Party, in the wake of Schumer’s decision to allow a continuing resolution to the floor to be voted on under a simple majority, suspending the 60-vote threshold normally needed for passage of most legislation in the Senate. The bill ultimately passed and was signed into law.
House Democrats voted against the measure that ultimately averted a government shutdown.
Punchbowl was the first to report the news of the Schumer-Jeffries meeting.
The Trump administration has told contractors working at Voice of America they will be terminated as of March 31, according to one of the employees and another source with knowledge of the matter.
The move came after most of the workforce was placed on administrative leave on Saturday morning. Since late Friday, VOA news broadcasts have gone quiet.
Misha Komadovsky, the White House correspondent for VOA’s Russian-language service, wrote in a post on social media that he was one of those terminated.
“Contractors, including myself, at Voice of America have just received an email notifying us that our contracts will be terminated effective March 31, 2025,” Komadovsky wrote on X.
VOA delivered news around the world in nearly 50 languages and had an estimated audience of more than 354 million people, according to its website.
VOA was launched in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda with accurate and unbiased news.
Steve Herman, a veteran VOA reporter who worked abroad and covered the White House, wrote on Substack that the mass firings amounted to a “betrayal” of the principles that led to the creation of VOA more than 80 years ago.
“To effectively shutter the Voice of America is to dim a beacon that burned bright during some of the darkest hours since 1942,” he wrote.
A federal judge in Washington has ordered a 5 p.m. hearing on the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport people it alleges are Venezuelan gang members.
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg said the government should be prepared to answer questions about the timing of the deportation flights and changing of custody.
Boasberg had ordered flights carrying deportees removed under the Alien Enemies Act to return to the U.S., but the administration said yesterday that flights carrying deportees landed in El Salvador, raising questions about whether the administration defied the court order.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said that “the written order and the Administration’s actions do not conflict.”
Trump administration officials Sunday announced the deportation of hundreds of immigrants they allege are members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador under the wartime Alien Enemies Act, after a judge temporarily blocked the effort Saturday.
“The president invoked this authority to deport nearly 300 of them who are now in El Salvador, where they will be behind bars where they belong, rather than roaming freely in American communities,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
Steve Kornacki joins “TODAY” to break down a new NBC News poll on President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, more than 50 days since he was sworn in. His job performance is rated as 47% approve while 51% disapprove.
Voters are starting 2025 sour on the state of the economy and President Donald Trump’s handling of it so far, even as his election to a second term sparked an upswing in positive feelings about the direction of the nation, according to a new national NBC News poll.
Buoyed by jubilant and unified Republicans, who are standing in lockstep with Trump and the expansive agenda he and congressional leaders are pushing in Washington, more registered voters see the U.S. as heading in the right direction than at any point since early 2004, though a majority still say the country is on the wrong track. Trump’s approval rating also equals his best-ever mark as president (47%), though again, a majority (51%) disapproves of his performance.
Meanwhile, driven in part by a pessimistic shift among Democrats since Trump’s election, just 18% of voters rate the economy as “excellent” or “good” — not as low as the poorest economic marks during the Biden administration, according to CNBC polling from 2022, but within a handful of points and as low as that mark has been in NBC News polling since 2014. Majorities of voters disapprove of Trump’s early job performance on the economy (54% disapprove, 44% approve) and how he’s handling inflation and the cost of living (55% disapprove, 42% approve).
It’s a new development for Trump, who never previously had a majority against his handling of the economy in a national NBC News poll. Now, he is confronting jittery markets and businesses amid his early moves to put tariffs on U.S. neighbors and other allies. Trump also faces questions from voters about whether he is sufficiently focused on their core issue of costs as he pursues other projects like reshaping the federal bureaucracy.
Trump claimed without evidence today that his predecessor’s pardons for members of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol are invalid because then-President Joe Biden didn’t use a real pen.
“The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social online platform.
Trump went on to allege that Biden didn’t know about the pardons or approve them, and said that therefore all the committee members would be “subject to investigation at the highest level.”
It wasn’t clear if the president was planning imminent action or an investigation against the committee members. The White House was contacted for comment.
Trump is preparing to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin as he pushes for a ceasefire deal with Ukraine. “We want to see if we can bring that war to an end. Maybe we can, maybe we can’t. But I think we have a very good chance,” Trump says. NBC’s Keir Simmons reports for “TODAY.”
It’s not only that the Trump administration is firing government employees en masse, or trying to swallow up neighboring Canada, or squeezing Ukraine, a democratic nation fighting off Russia’s invasion.
For those in the crosshairs, no small part of the ordeal is the public humiliation they’ve endured. The new administration has been rushing to execute its agenda and along the way has left a roadside trail of unsuspecting and, in some cases, helpless casualties.
In recent weeks, the world has seen images of federal workers leaving their building for the last time, tearfully clutching boxes with small plants and other belongings after abruptly learning they’re out of a job. Some of them were given just 15 minutes to clear out their desks.
Justice Department officials perceived to be not fully on board with the Trump agenda were escorted out of the building by law enforcement or security guards as if they had committed wrongdoing.
A majority of American voters say their sympathies lie more with Ukraine than with Russia in the war between the two countries. At the same time, nearly half say they think Trump favors Russia, while most of the remainder believe he favors neither, according to the new national NBC News poll.
Sixty-one percent of registered voters choose Ukraine when asked which of the two countries has their sympathies more, while just 2% say Russia. Another 35% say they are more sympathetic to neither side, while 2% are not sure.
When asked where they believe Trump’s sympathies are, 49% choose Russia, 40% say they think Trump favors neither side, and 8% choose Ukraine. Another 3% say they are not sure.
Trump himself has publicly adopted the idea of not favoring either side, saying in February, “If I didn’t align myself with both of them, you’d never have a deal.”
