Editor’s note: The Hill’s Morning Report is our daily newsletter that dives deep into Washington’s agenda. To subscribe, click here or fill out the box below. Close Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters here The latest in politics and policy. Direct to your inbox. Sign up for the Morning Report newsletter Subscribe In today’s issue:   White House downplays Signal leak  Trump: Tariffs on auto imports set for April 2  Supreme Court backs ghost gun restrictions Partial Ukraine, Russia truce hampered by attacks Denials, deflections and calls for resignation have dominated the headlines in Washington this week, as the Trump White House reels from the revelation that top national security officials discussed military plans in a commercial chat app group that inadvertently included a journalist. President Trump and several Cabinet officials — including CIA Director John Ratcliffe and national security adviser Mike Waltz — spent Monday and Tuesday insisting the Signal chat was a "glitch" and "mistake" but that it did not contain classified information or detailed war plans.  Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking to reporters and posting on social media while traveling in the Pacific, remained defiant this week, insisting he did not share "war plans." He criticized journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic editor Waltz had added to the group chat. Goldberg published the chat thread in full Wednesday morning after multiple administration officials insisted the material was not classified. The published texts confirmed Hegseth had sent highly detailed messages about attack timing and weapons used for strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. Trump on Wednesday shrugged off the new reporting during a radio interview. “There weren’t details, and there was nothing in there that compromised,” Trump said. “And it had no impact on the attack, which was very successful.” The White House on Wednesday worked to aggressively spin the fallout of the published messages, going on the attack against The Atlantic and downplaying the significance of the revelations. In particular, officials seized on a headline description of “attack plans” rather than “war plans,” suggesting that slight difference undermined the entire controversy. But White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wouldn’t rule out potential firings over the Signal leak scandal on Wednesday afternoon.  “The White House is in denial that this was not classified or sensitive data,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a former Air Force brigadier general and member of the House Armed Services Committee, said on Wednesday. “They should just own up to it and preserve credibility.” ▪ The Washington Post: How the Signal transcript undermines key Trump administration claims that the messages weren’t “war plans” and testimony from key figures that they didn’t recall discussions of weapons or timing. ▪ The Hill: The White House has asked Elon Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to help investigate how Goldberg was included in the chat. RESIGNATIONS: The new messages move Hegseth to the center of the storm as he seeks to beat back questions about whether he shared confidential military plans and put service members in potential danger. While the White House and its allies on Tuesday and Wednesday sought to downplay the sensitivity of the information shared, Hegseth’s deflections and denials are not going over well with current and retired troops and officers, with Democrats and even some on the right.  Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) took issue at the House hearing with the intelligence officials’ assertion that the information in the Signal chat was not classified.  “You all know that’s a lie,” he said. “It’s a lie to the country.” On Capitol Hill, both Waltz and Hegseth are facing growing calls from Democrats for their ouster, as Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, pushes for an inspector general to promptly probe what happened.  “The so-called Secretary of Defense recklessly and casually disclosed highly sensitive war plans,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said in a letter to Trump on Tuesday, calling for the Pentagon chief to be “fired immediately.” ▪ The New York Times: Did Hegseth send a war plan or battle plan? Was it classified or not? The answers to those questions amount to a distinction without much of a difference. ▪ The Hill: Trump says he will ask Hegseth, who is traveling, to review if military flight times should be classified. “I’d certainly ask him to take a look.” ▪ The Hill: Gabbard called it a “mistake” that Goldberg was added to the Signal group chat, but denied sending classified messages. ▪ Der Spiegel: Trump's most important security advisers used Signal to discuss an imminent military strike. Reporting has found that the contact data of some of those officials, including cell phone numbers, is freely accessible on the internet. LEGAL CHALLENGES: Five Cabinet members are facing a federal lawsuit over the chat, brought by government watchdog group American Oversight, which argues that the administration officials violated the law through the “unlawful destruction of federal records” after the Signal chats were set to disappear after a certain number of weeks. The lawsuit — which names Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Ratcliffe, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the National Archives as defendants — asks a federal judge to declare the use of Signal unlawful and order the Cabinet members to preserve the records immediately. The case has been randomly assigned to U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who’s found himself in the crosshairs of the Trump administration for overseeing the case of the deportation of alleged gang members to Venezuela. SMART TAKE with NewsNation’s BLAKE BURMAN:    By now you’ve probably heard close to every possible take on the Signal fallout; what the White House claims, how Mike Waltz is responding, Democrats calling for Pete Hegseth’s resignation, etc.   But here’s something else to keep an eye on next Tuesday: in Florida’s 6th Congressional District. That is the special election for Waltz’s now vacant seat. Waltz won his northeast Florida district by more than 30 points in November but then gave it up to become the national security adviser. However, according to a new poll, the election between Republican state Sen. Randy Fine and his Democratic challenger Josh Weil is within the margin of error.   It’s important to note this is just one poll, but keep in mind there are two more seats out there to eventually fill as well: one once held by former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), and the New York seat held by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R), the administration’s nominee for ambassador to the United Nations.  Burman hosts “The Hill” weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation. 3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY: ▪ Risking higher prices and slower production, Trump said Wednesday he’s poised to impose 25 percent tariffs beginning on April 2 on autos not built in the United States. Leaders in Canada, Japan and Europe objected. Musk said the impact on Tesla will be “significant.” But here’s a question: What’s an imported vehicle these days? ▪ States will lose $12 billion in federal grants first initiated during the pandemic for infectious disease tracking, mental health services, addiction treatment and other urgent health issues.  ▪ Here’s how an Iowa DJ, Matthew Allison, 37, secretly became an online propagandist for white supremacist hate and violence before his September arrest, according to a special report by ProPublica and FRONTLINE. Allison has pleaded not guilty. LEADING THE DAY © The Associated Press | Haven Daley TRACING GHOSTS: The Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration’s restrictions on ghost guns by a 7-2 majority on Wednesday. In an opinion written by conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, the high court upheld federal restrictions aimed at curtailing access to gun kits that can be easily assembled into homemade, nearly untraceable firearms. Two conservative justices — Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas — each filed dissents. The future of the weapons crackdown remains unclear because the new administration directs a review of all Biden-era firearm regulations and could seek to rescind the restrictions.  Meanwhile, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to allow the government to cut hundreds of millions of dollars for teacher training. A federal judge in Boston previously blocked the cuts temporarily. The appeal is the latest instance of the administration urging the high court to rein in federal district judges who have blocked aspects of Trump’s agenda erected with executive power.  ▪ Fox News: A federal judge Wednesday denied the administration’s efforts to ban transgender individuals from serving in the military. The president’s policy was set to go into effect on Friday. The administration filed a notice of appeal. The Supreme Court this term also is considering a high-profile case dealing with transgender rights. ▪ The Hill: The Supreme Court, during oral arguments on Wednesday, leaned toward upholding the constitutionality of a $7 billion subsidy program for phone and internet services in rural areas and schools. ▪ The Hill: A federal district court judge’s decision that blocked the administration’s reliance on the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants without court hearings remains in place, a federal appeals court said Wednesday in a 2-1 ruling. The decision was a loss for the Justice Department, which had urged the appeals court to overturn a ruling by Boasberg, who was appointed to his current position by former President Obama. Trump, who argues he can flex his executive authority in a “war” against Venezuelan criminal gangs, previously called for the federal judge's impeachment. The administration could seek emergency review from the Supreme Court, but the case is meanwhile progressing in Boasberg’s court.  ▪ The Hill: A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Wednesday temporarily blocked a ruling by District Judge Tanya Chutkan directing Musk and DOGE to turn over records and answer questions about its operations. DOGE could ultimately be required to cooperate. WHERE AND WHEN The House will meet at 9 a.m.  The Senate will convene at 10 a.m.  The president will receive his intelligence briefing at 11 a.m. He will sign executive orders at 2 p.m. Trump will host a White House Iftar dinner, traditionally part of the Muslim Ramadan observance, at 8 p.m. in the State Dining Room.  Economic indicator: The Bureau of Economic Analysis at 8:30 a.m. will release its latest estimate on gross domestic product in the fourth quarter and for all of 2024.   ZOOM IN © The Associated Press | J. Scott Applewhite LEDGER DOMAIN: House and Senate GOP leaders say they’re upbeat that a mammoth bill embodying Trump’s policy agenda will have as its centerpiece an extension of 2014 GOP tax cuts. But key Republican committee members note major hurdles and divisions, including those related to the scope of the legislation under reconciliation rules, proposed spending cuts and pending verdicts from the Senate parliamentarian, which could make or break enactment.   “X DATE”: The U.S. is likely to breach the nation’s borrowing cap in August or September, or as early as late May or June if tax revenues fall below projections, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported Wednesday. The debt limit problem will impact the GOP legislative timeline if lawmakers opt to include new borrowing authority as part of a large and complex budget reconciliation measure that Republicans are seeking to enact without relying on Democratic votes.  ▪ The Hill: Whatever happened to a GOP select subcommittee probe of Jan. 6, 2021, promised two months ago by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.)? Here’s the upshot.  ▪ The Hill: Five takeaways from Wednesday’s House Oversight hearing taking aim at PBS and NPR. POLITICS: A state Senate race in Pennsylvania that ended in an upset victory this week suggested growing grassroots enthusiasm among Democratic voters. East Petersburg, Pa., Mayor James Malone (D) defeated a GOP rival in a Trump-friendly district.  ELSEWHERE © The Associated Press | Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik UKRAINE: Ukraine and Russia on Wednesday accused one another of breaking a truce on energy strikes brokered by the U.S., and the European Union said it would not meet conditions set by Russia for a planned ceasefire in the Black Sea.  The U.S. announced separate agreements with Kyiv and Moscow on Tuesday to pause their strikes in the Black Sea and against each other's energy targets. Those talks were part of efforts by the White House to implement a limited, 30-day ceasefire that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to in principle last week, which has so far failed to materialize as both sides continue to launch drone and rocket attacks. Meanwhile, some 30 leaders are meeting in Paris today with Zelensky to discuss how to strengthen military support and assess what role they could play if a peace deal is struck with Russia. It marks the third summit of what France has called the coalition of the “willing and able.” ▪ CNN: A timeline of how Trump’s pledge to end the war in Ukraine hit reality. ▪ Politico: Washington and Moscow are in talks to revive the Nord Stream gas pipelines as the Kremlin vies to regain a foothold in Europe. ▪ The Washington Post: Months into the new administration, a slew of policy changes have helped Russia, including defunding U.S. soft power, standing down cyber efforts and splitting with NATO allies. ▪ The New York Times analysis: European leaders are struggling to find the money and the political will to replace the bulk of the U.S. contribution to Ukraine and to their own defense. GREENLAND: What looked like a Trump administration charm offensive in its gambit to take over Greenland, billed as a cultural heritage tour led by second lady Usha Vance, has turned into something different with the inclusion of the vice president and the explosion of a national security scandal at home. Planned trips this week to Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, and a dogsledding race were canceled in favor of a more limited trip to visit American military installations on the island. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen told a Danish public broadcaster he was supportive of the itinerary changes.  “I think it’s very positive that the Americans have canceled their visit among Greenlandic society. They will only visit their own base, Pituffik, and we have nothing against that,” he said. OPINION ■ What happens after Trump blows up the world order, by Eduardo Porter, columnist, The Washington Post. ■ I resigned as an act of principle. So should Senator Schumer, by Mariel Garza, guest essayist, The New York Times. THE CLOSER © The Associated Press | Bob Daugherty Take Our Morning Report Quiz And finally … 📱It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for this week’s Morning Report Quiz! With the Signal app chat controversy in mind, we’re eager for some smart guesses about classified leaks through history. Be sure to email your responses to asimendinger@thehill.com and kkarisch@thehill.com — please add “Quiz” to your subject line. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday. In 1772, Benjamin Franklin received an intercepted packet of letters sent between the British, Thomas Hutchinson and Andrew Oliver, the respective governor and lieutenant governor of what colony? (The publication of the letters sped up the colonists’ uproar with British rule.) Delaware Massachusetts Rhode Island New Jersey The landmark New York Times v. Sullivan ruling holds that the First Amendment protects freedom of speech and freedom of the press, even about the conduct of politicians. What leak led to the eventual Supreme Court case? Watergate Theft of atomic bomb information Documents concerning then-Vice President Spiro Agnew The Pentagon Papers Deep Throat, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s secret informant during Watergate, was revealed to be Mark Felt decades later. What position did he hold at the time of the leaks? FBI deputy director CIA analyst White House deputy chief of staff Congressional staffer For which government agency did Edward Snowden work as a contractor when he gave four journalists classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs? Defense Intelligence Agency FBI National Security Agency CIA Stay Engaged  We want to hear from you! Email: Alexis Simendinger (asimendinger@thehill.com) and Kristina Karisch (kkarisch@thehill.com). 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