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On Monday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth looked directly at a reporter’s camera and said: “Nobody was texting war plans.” Throughout the day Tuesday, the administration doubled down on this assertion, apparently convinced that Goldberg would not release the information they knew he had. They tried to spin the story by attacking Goldberg, suggesting he had somehow hacked into the conversation, although the app itself tracked that National Security Advisor Michael Waltz had added him.

Various administration figures, including Trump, insisted that the chat contained nothing classified. At a scheduled hearing yesterday before the Senate Intelligence Committee on worldwide threats, during which senators took the opportunity to dig into the Signal scandal, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said: “There was no classified material that was shared in that Signal group.” Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Ratcliffe agreed: “My communications, to be clear, in the Signal message group were entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information.” In the afternoon, Trump told reporters: “The attack was totally successful. It was, I guess, from what I understand, took place during. And it wasn’t classified information. So this was not classified.”

After Gabbard said she would defer to the secretary of defense and the National Security Council about what information should have been classified, Senator Angus King (I-ME) seemed taken aback. “You’re the head of the intelligence community. You’re supposed to know about classifications,” he pointed out. He continued, “So your testimony very clearly today is that nothing was in that set of texts that were classified.... If that’s the case, please release that whole text stream so that the public can have a view of what actually transpired on this discussion. It’s hard for me to believe that targets and timing and weapons would not have been classified.”

Meanwhile, reporters were also digging into the story. James LaPorta of CBS News reported that an internal bulletin from the National Security Agency warned staff in February 2025 not to use Signal for sensitive information, citing concerns that the app was vulnerable to Russian hackers. A former White House official told Maggie Miller and Dana Nickel of Politico, “Their personal phones are all hackable, and it’s highly likely that foreign intelligence services are sitting on their phones watching them type the sh*t out."

Tuesday night, American Oversight, a nonprofit organization focusing on government transparency, filed a lawsuit against Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio—all of whom were also on the Signal chain—and the National Archives for violating the Federal Records Act, and suggested the administration has made other attempts to get around the law. It notes that the law requires the preservation of federal records.

Today it all got worse.

It turned out that administration officials’ conviction that Goldberg wouldn’t publicly release receipts was wrong. This morning, Goldberg and Shane Harris, who had worked together on the initial story, wrote: “The statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Trump—combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts—have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions. There is a clear public interest in disclosing the sort of information that Trump advisers included in nonsecure communications channels, especially because senior administration figures are attempting to downplay the significance of the messages that were shared.”

The Atlantic published screenshots of the message chat.

The screenshots make clear that administration officials insisting that there was nothing classified on the chat were lying. Hegseth uploaded the precise details of the attack before it happened, leaving American military personnel vulnerable. The evidence is damning.

The fury of Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), an Army pilot who was nearly killed in Iraq, was palpable. “Pete Hegseth is a f*cking liar,” she wrote. “This is so clearly classified info he recklessly leaked that could’ve gotten our pilots killed. He needs to resign in disgrace immediately.” Legal analyst Barb McQuade pointed out that it didn't even matter if the information was classified: it is “a crime to remove national defense information from its proper place through gross negligence…. Signal chat is not a proper place.”

The screenshots also raise a number of other issues. They made it clear that administration officials have been using Signal for other conversations: Waltz at one point typed: “As we stated in the first PC….” Using a nongovernment system is likely an attempt to get around the laws that require the preservation of public records. The screenshots also show that Signal was set to erase the messages on the chat after 4 weeks.

The messages reveal that President Trump was not part of the discussion of whether to make the airstrikes, a deeply troubling revelation that raises the question of who is in charge at the White House. As the conversation about whether to attack took place, Vice President J.D. Vance wrote about Trump’s reasoning that attacking the Houthis in Yemen would “send a message”: “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now.” Later, he texted to Hegseth: “if you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again. Let’s just make sure our messaging is tight here. And if there are things we can do upfront to minimize risk to Saudi oil facilities we should do it.”

Hegseth responded: “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC. But Mike is correct, we are the only ones on the planet (on our side of the ledger) who can do this. Nobody else even close. Question is timing. I feel like now is as good a time as any, given POTUS directive to reopen shipping lanes. I think we should go; but POTUS still retains 24 hours of decision space.”

The decision to make the strikes then appears to have been made by deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who ended the discussion simply by invoking the president: “As I heard it,” he wrote, “the president was clear: green light, but we soon make it clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return. We also need to figure out how to enforce such a requirement.” If Europe doesn’t cover the cost of the attack, “then what? If the US successfully restores freedom of navigation at great cost there needs to be some further economic gain extracted in return.”

“Agree,” Hegseth messaged, and the attack was on.

Also missing from the group message was the person who is currently acting as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Christopher Grady. In February, Trump fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Air Force General Charles Q. Brown Jr., who took on the position in 2023 having served more than 3,000 hours as a fighter pilot, including 130 hours in combat, and commanded the Pacific Air Forces, which provides air power for U.S. interests in the Asia-Pacific region; the U.S. Air Forces Central Command, responsible for protecting U.S. security interests in Africa through the Persian Gulf; the 31st Fighter Wing, covering the southern region of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); the 8th Fighter Wing, covering southeast Asia; U.S. Air Force Weapons School for advanced training in weapons and tactics for officers; and 78th Fighter Squadron.

Hegseth publicly suggested that Brown had been appointed because he is Black. “Was it because of his skin color? Or his skill? We’ll never know, but always doubt,” Hegseth wrote. With Trump’s controversial replacement for Brown still unconfirmed, Admiral Grady, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, is fulfilling the role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But he was not in the chat. The Pentagon's highest-ranking officer would normally be included in planning a military operation.

Also in the chat, participants made embarrassing attacks on our allies and celebrated civilian deaths in Yemen in the quest to kill a targeted combatant.

Attempts to defend themselves from the scandal only dug administration officials in deeper. On Monday night, independent journalist Olga Lautman, who studies Russia, noted that Trump’s Ukraine and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff had actually been in Russia when Waltz added him to the chat, underscoring the chat’s vulnerability to hackers. By Tuesday, multiple outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, picked up Lautman’s story.

Witkoff fought back against the Wall Street Journal story with a long social media post about how he had traveled to Moscow with a secure government phone and how it was not until he got home that he had “access to my personal devices” to participate in the Signal conversation, thus apparently confirming that he was discussing classified information with the nation’s top officials on an unsecure personal device.

Tonight, news of other ways in which the administration is compromised surfaced. The German newspaper Der Spiegel revealed that the contact information for a number of the same officials who were on the Signal chat is available online, as well as email addresses and some passwords for their private accounts, making it easy for hackers to get into their personal devices. Those compromised included National Security Advisor Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Gabbard, and Secretary of Defense Hegseth. Wired reported that Waltz, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and Walker Barrett of the National Security Council, who was also on the Signal messaging chain, had left their Venmo accounts public, demonstrating what national security experts described as reckless behavior.

In the New York Times tonight, foreign affairs journalist Noah Shachtman looked not just at the Signal scandal but also at the administration’s lowering of U.S. guard against foreign influence operations, installation of billionaire Elon Musk’s satellite internet terminals at the White House, and diversion of personnel from national security to Trump’s pet projects, and advised hostile nations to “savor this moment. It’s never been easier to steal secrets from the United States government. Can you even call it stealing when it’s this simple? The Trump administration has unlocked the vault doors, fired half of the security guards and asked the rest to roll pennies. Walk right in. Take what you want. This is the golden age.”

Trump today did not seem on top of the story when he told reporters: “I think it’s a witch hunt. I wasn’t involved with it, I wasn’t there, but I can tell you the result is unbelievable.” When asked if he still believed there was no classified information shared, he answered: “Well, that’s what I’ve heard. I don’t know, I’m not sure. You’ll have to ask the various people involved. I really don’t know.” He said the breach was Waltz’s fault—“it had nothing to do with anyone else”—and when reporters asked about the future of Defense Secretary Hegseth, who uploaded the attack plans into the unsecure system, he answered: “Hegseth is doing a great job, he had nothing to do with this…. How do you bring Hegseth into it? He had nothing to do with it. Look, look, it’s all a witch hunt. I don’t know that Signal works. I think Signal could be defective, to be honest with you….”

The administration appears to be trying to create a distraction from the damning story. Yesterday evening, Trump signed an executive order that would, if it could be enforced, dramatically change U.S. elections and take the vote away from tens of millions of Americans. But, as Marc Elias of Democracy Docket put it, the order is “confused, rhetorical and—in places—nonsensical. It asserts facts that are not true and claims authority he does not possess. It is not meant to be taken seriously or literally. Rather, it is the empty threat of a weak man desperate to appear strong.”

After today’s revelations, Trump announced new 25% tariffs on imported cars and car parts including those from Canada and Mexico, despite a deal worked out earlier this month that items covered under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement Trump signed in his first term would not face a new tariff levy. The 25% tariff is a major change that will raise prices across the board and hit the automotive sector in which more than a million Americans work. Upon the news, the stock market fell again.

And yet, despite the attempts to bury the Signal story, the scandal seems, if anything, to be growing. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wrote a public letter to Trump yesterday calling for him to fire Hegseth, accurately referring to him as “the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in American history.” Jeffries wrote: “His behavior shocks the conscience, risked American lives and likely violated the law.” “[H]ey Sen[ator Joni] Ernst and Sen[ator Thom] Tillis,” Jen Rubin of The Contrarian wrote tonight, “proud of your votes for Hegseth? This is on [you] too as much as Hegseth. You knew he was not remotely qualified.”

—

Notes:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/signal-group-chat-attack-plans-hegseth-goldberg/682176/

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/signal-leak-houthis-pete-hegseth-mike-waltz-tulsi-gabbard-john-ratcliffe-6195ab3b

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-envoy-steve-witkoff-signal-text-group-chat-russia-putin/

https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/hegseth-waltz-gabbard-private-data-and-passwords-of-senior-u-s-security-officials-found-online-a-14221f90-e5c2-48e5-bc63-10b705521fb7

https://www.wired.com/story/michael-waltz-left-his-venmo-public/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nsa-signal-app-vulnerabilities-before-houthi-strike-chat/

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/21/nx-s1-5305288/trump-fires-chairman-joint-chiefs-of-staff-charles-brown-pentagon

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/21/trump-hegseth-joint-chiefs-cq-brown-jr

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/25/signal-cybersecurity-trump-war-planning-00246881

https://abcnews.go.com/US/lawsuit-trump-administrations-signal-group-chat-assigned-judge/story?id=120175517

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/26/nx-s1-5341359/intelligence-leaders-signal-house-hearing

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/opinion/americas-security-blunder-is-the-gift-of-a-lifetime.html

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/26/politics/the-atlantic-publishes-signal-messages-yemen-strike/index.html

Trump signs executive order requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote

https://americanoversight.org/litigation/american-oversight-v-hegseth-gabbard-ratcliffe-bessent-rubio-and-nara-regarding-military-actions-planned-on-signal-messaging-app/

https://www.democracydocket.com/opinion/trumps-latest-executive-order-is-a-sham-and-a-warning/

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/national-security-daily/2025/01/13/meet-some-of-trumps-senior-nsc-team-00195922

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/economics/trump-administration-floats-exemptions-tariffs-canadian-mexican-goods-rcna195110

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/trump-announces-new-auto-tariffs-ratcheting-global-trade/story?id=120183740

AP News video: https://apnews.com/video/trump-calls-signal-chat-fallout-a-witch-hunt-says-the-messaging-app-could-be-defective-eefc642d64ba4117908d9543c0832c8e

Youtube:

watch?v=VaAmN92CKFg

Courtesy of Jessica Brooks/Netflix

The Residence (Netflix)

I realize that a show about murder and incompetence at the White House might not sound like the most appealing thing right now, but would still urge anyone who enjoys a good whodunnit and loves going behind the scenes of hallowed institutions to fire up The Residence. From executive producer Shonda Rhimes and creator Paul William Davies, this witty, upstairs-downstairs murder mystery is set at the White House during a tense state dinner with Australia. In the midst of the lavish event—featuring a performance by a sparkly Kylie Minogue—chief usher A.B. Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito, of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul fame) is found dead in the third-floor game room.

Enter Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba, Orange Is the New Black), a consulting detective for the Metropolitan Police and eccentric bird enthusiast (is there any other kind?) tasked with investigating the murder. Turns out there are plenty of people in the household staff with violent grudges against Wynter, from free-spirited butler Sheila (Edwina Findley) to aggrieved pastry chef Didier (Bronson Pinchot). Al Franken also has a supporting role as a senator leading the hearing inquiry into the murder. (A real stretch for him, to be sure.)

Courtesy of Jessica Brooks/Netflix

I like to imagine the elevator pitch for this was something like “Clue meets The West Wing, with a side of Downton Abbey.” The eight-episode series is very loosely inspired by The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House, by Kate Anderson Brower (who also happens to be a Contrarian contributor). And while it clearly deviates from the source material and is consciously over-the-top in a very Rhimesian way, The Residence does manage to paint a fascinating portrait of life inside the White House, complete with elaborate sets and detailed production. It also humorously explores the tensions that can emerge between the residence staff, many of whom have worked at the White House for decades, though the administrations change every few years (may it remain that way).

Eyes on the Prize III: We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest, 1977-2015 (HBO/Max)

At a moment when the Trump administration is waging war against DEI and attempting to erase the contributions of Black Americans from the historical record, Eyes on the Prize III is essential viewing. The six-episode series, which arrived last month on HBO, is the third installment of the landmark civil rights documentary which first aired on PBS in 1987. Created by Henry Hampton and narrated by late Julian Bond, Part 1 covered the decade that began with the murder of Emmett Till and culminated with the triumphant passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1965. Part 2, released in 1990, followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the rise of the Black Power movement, and battles over school busing in the 1970s. Arriving 35 years later, Part 3 chronicles the ongoing fight for civil rights, with episodes looking at affirmative action, environmental justice, housing and healthcare disparities, the destructive impact of the War on Drugs, and the Million Man March.

Courtesy of HBO

The final installment, which focuses on Barack Obama’s presidency and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement—ends just before Trump’s election in 2016, a potent reminder that the fight is ongoing. (For those who want to start from the beginning, Part 1, which was hard to find for years, is now available to rent on Apple, and to stream via sources including Kanopy.com, which is free with a library card. Because of licensing issues, Part 2 remains difficult to find outside of libraries or school settings.)

Meredith Blake is the Culture Columnist for The Contrarian

Contrarians, please leave any recommendations for the community in the comments!

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perspective

Did a Putin ally evade sanctions to pay private school fees?

A striking characteristic of Russian officials has long been how they combine passionate opposition to all the West professes to stand for with a marked willingness to invest, live, educate their children, party, and litigate in the West. And that brings us to Dmitry Ovsyannikov (there’ll be more on the elaborate spelling of his name in a bit), who was appointed governor of the city of Sevastopol by Vladimir Putin in 2016.

Sevastopol is the largest city on the Crimean peninsula, and was stolen from Ukraine by Putin in 2014 on the grounds that it had once belonged to Russia. “It was only when Crimea ended up as part of a different country,” Putin told the State Duma over a decade ago as justification for the annexation of Crimea, part 1 of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, “that Russia realised that it was not simply robbed, it was plundered.” Most Western countries do not accept this logic, and have tried to punish people involved, which is why Ovsyannikov was sanctioned by the European Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

WESTWARD BOUND

Ovsyannikov left Crimea in 2019 for a position in Moscow, but his political career came to an abrupt end after a scandal at a regional airport. He then did that thing Russian officials do and headed to Britain. In 2023, he moved into his brother’s house in London, where his wife and children were already living and attending private school.

Private schools, however, have to be paid for, and prosecutors say that arranging those payments was tantamount to circumventing the UK’s sanctions, so he was charged along with his wife and brother, and this month they went on trial. The alleged wrongdoing is fairly small-scale, but it’s an important test case. We have a few weeks to wait for an outcome, but there are some interesting points to draw out from it already.

The first is about spelling. If you’re trying to avoid notice as a Russian (or a representative of any other nation which uses a different alphabet to ours), it’s an entry-level stratagem to play around with transliteration. It’s noticeable that in the court documents, he uses a different version of his name — Dmitrii Ovsiannikov – to that favoured by the Kremlin in the good old days, which is a switch between two common transliteration systems. His brother, meanwhile, spells his surname Owsjanikow, which uses yet another. I’m hoping there’s a third sibling, who’s gone all pre-revolutionary with Ovsiannikoff.

The second is about his citizenship. Ovsyannikov left Russia for Turkey in August 2022, which many Russians did after Putin invaded Ukraine, though admittedly most of them had not been senior officials in the occupying administration. He then applied for a British passport, which he obtained early the next year.

Apparently Ovsyannikov’s father was born in Bradford, in the north of England, in 1950. How did a Yorkshire lad hook up with a Soviet lady at the height of the Cold War? Did their eyes meet over a discussion of production quotas? If there are any authors of “socialist realist romance” among my readers, this could be your time to shine. Ovsyannikov himself is 48, so he must have been born in 1976 or 1977.

The third and most important thing about his case is whether he should still have been subject to sanctions at all. The U.K. may have continued to sanction Ovsyannikov, but in 2023 he challenged his EU designation and was removed from the bloc’s sanctions list on the grounds that he was no longer in a position of power or responsibility in Russia. Some may think that’s a weak reason, but I am inclined to think sanctions lists should be adapted if people have ceased the offending behaviour. Sanctions are a foreign policy tool, not a law enforcement instrument, and if the aim of the policy has been achieved, they should be cancelled.

There are lots of oligarchs and officials who would be willing to do quite a lot to get off the sanctions list, much of which would severely inconvenience Putin. It may feel icky, but I think our governments should be open to such deals. The point of all this is to undermine the Kremlin after all.

AND IT’S STILL ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS

This is not to deny that it does indeed feel icky to see sanctioned individuals try and evade those sanctions to buy Mercedes SUVs, as Ovsyannikov did. He used his brother as a proxy to buy the car. It reminded me of company owners who nominate proxies offshore to hide the real ownership structure. Since 2016, companies in the U.K. have been obliged to name a “person of significant control”. The idea of the law was to stop people hiding behind opaque shell companies to commit financial crime, but is anyone enforcing it?

Apparently not, since lawyer Dan Neidle has been able to publish a map with the location of 65,000 foreign companies that own U.K. entities, none of which are declaring who is in control of their operations. You can search on the map yourself. There are five companies in the Falkland Islands, for example, and there’s even one in American Samoa: are these remote jurisdictions making late bids to become offshore tax havens?

Just as I was thinking about the efforts of Companies House to rein in fraud, I was still thinking about the use of cash money by launderers from last week. I was reading this article, and I was struck by the claim that the US aerospace sector is due to export $125 billion this year, making it the country’s second most successful exporting industry.

In 2023, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing produced 1,326,976,000 $100 bills. That’s not all profit, because each bill costs 9.4 cents to print, and there’s some dispute about quite how many of those go abroad, but serious estimates range from 80 percent to 70 percent. Once you’ve done the sums, you end up with profits from $100-bill exports in 2023 of somewhere between $92.8 and $106.1 billion.

We don’t have the figures for 2024 yet, but the Federal Reserve said it would be ordering between $155.8 and $160.6 billion worth of $100 bills, which would yield profits of somewhere between $109.0 and $128.4 billion.

Look at that number again: at the top end of the range, that would nudge aerospace into third place, and establish the $100-bill-printing industry as America’s second most successful exporter. Even at the bottom end, it would be fourth, ahead of brand name pharmaceutical manufacturing ($103.3 billion), and quite a lot bigger than natural gas liquid processing ($62.9 billion). Who says the public sector can’t contribute to the economy?

Before someone writes in: yes, I know that banknotes are technically loans made to a government, rather than products sold by the government. But it’s more fun this way, so I’m going with it.

Sarah Wheaton holds the pen for Friday’s Playbook.

DRIVING THE DAY: EUROPEAN CARS IN CROSSFIRE

TRADE WAR GETS REAL: Trump announced new tariffs on imported cars last night in a major escalatory move that threatens to upend the European car industry, not least in Germany.

The details: The U.S. will start collecting the new duties on cars and light trucks on April 3, Trump said in the Oval Office as he signed the executive order. “It goes into effect on April 2nd, we start collecting on April 3rd,” he said. The tariff will also apply to auto parts. The measures could increase the average price of a car bought in the U.S. by between $3,000 and $10,000, POLITICO’s Doug Palmer and Daniel Desrochers report.

The tariffs are “permanent,” Trump said last night.

The response: The European Commission was out of the block with a statement last night even before Trump finished his remarks. “I deeply regret the US decision to impose tariffs on European automotive exports,” President Ursula von der Leyen said, describing the automotive industry as “a driver of innovation, competitiveness, and high-quality jobs, through deeply integrated supply chains on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Taking stock: “We will now assess this announcement, together with other measures the US is envisaging in the next days,” the Commission chief continued, adding that the EU will “continue to seek negotiated solutions.” Write-up here.

How bad is it? Should tariffs come into effect next week as promised, they could floor the European car industry, which is already dealing with weak sales and a threat from cheaper Chinese cars entering the EU. More than a fifth of all EU car exports go to the United States, with Germany particularly exposed, though Italy, Hungary and Poland are also in the firing line.

The background: Trump has long railed against Europe’s — and particularly Germany’s — car industry, blasting the EU’s 10 percent duty on car imports and pledging a resurgence of the American auto sector. “If you don’t have factories here, you’re going to have to get going and build them,” he said in the Oval Office as he announced details of the plan. Shares of General Motors, Ford and Stellantis dropped in after-hours trading.

It ain’t over: Trump also warned more tariffs would come next week on April 2, which he has dubbed “Liberation Day.” “We’ve not been treated nice by other countries. We’re the piggy bank everybody steals from,” he said.

Preview: EU countries are likely to face a flat, double-digit tariff on all goods as part of these “reciprocal” measures, our transatlantic POLITICO team reported last night.

ŠEFČO GOES FROM WASHINGTON TO BEIJING

PIVOT TO ASIA: Fresh from his trip to Washington, Europe’s Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič touches down in Beijing for two days of meetings today, just as global trade relations have taken a turn for the worse.

The line-up: The Slovak commissioner is due to meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and Commerce Minister Wang Wentao as well as others such as top customs official Sun Meijun. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot is also in China, while Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is due to visit in the coming weeks.

De-risk, don’t de-couple: Remember that? Yes, it’s so 2023 … but the phrase coined by Ursula von der Leyen to describe Europe’s China strategy was adopted by such illustrious figures as then-U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan. But that was then and this is now, with Europe facing a radically different geopolitical landscape.

You’re not in Kansas anymore: The return of Trump and his visceral disdain for the European Union means a new reality for Brussels as it positions itself in a rapidly changing trade environment.

Going it alone: While von der Leyen tacked closely to the Biden position on China during her first term, her hawkish policy irritated many EU member countries. Exporters from Germany to Spain want to continue selling into the Chinese market. Brussels did hit China with 35 percent duties on electric vehicles last year — in addition to the pre-existing 10 percent duty — but it was a far cry from the Biden administration’s 100 percent levy.

My enemy’s enemy is my friend: With the U.S. playing hardball with the EU and China on trade, the risk is that Washington’s tactics could push Brussels closer to Beijing. But it’s not so simple.

Getting dumped: “There’s a strand of thinking that Europe will embrace China as it moves away from the United States under Trump, but that doesn’t make logical sense,” said Theresa Fallon, director of the Centre for Russia, Europe, Asia Studies think tank. “The Europeans are the most exposed. As the U.S. imposes tariffs, all those Chinese goods that would have been dumped in the U.S. will be dumped in Europe.”

EU objectives: According to the Commission, the EU will raise concerns about China’s non-market policies and barriers affecting EU exports and investment during Šefčovič’s trip. (The commissioner will meet with European businesses at an event at the EU Chamber of Commerce today.) U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer also spoke with the Chinese vice premier Wednesday.

It’s not just trade: Hanging over Šefčovič’s trip is the not insignificant lobbying scandal that has engulfed Brussels involving Chinese-owned telecoms giant Huawei. The EU has also gone quiet of late when it comes to China’s human rights abuses, support for Russia in the Ukraine war, or belligerent activity in the seas around Taiwan and the Philippines. None of this suggests that the long-dormant EU-China investment agreement is anywhere near being resurrected, but let’s see where Europe’s moral compass lies as it tries to protect its own economy.

SEE YOU IN PARIS

COALITION OF THE WILLING: French President Emmanuel Macron will host more than 30 leaders in Paris today, in the latest bid by Europe to bolster its defense capabilities and prepare for any post-ceasefire scenario in Ukraine.

Empty chair: One person who won’t be present is President Trump, though leaders representing the rest of the NATO alliance will attend, including Canada’s Mark Carney and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Setting the scene: Speaking alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last night in Paris, Macron announced an additional €2 billion worth of military support for Ukraine, including MILAN anti-tank missiles, MICA and Mistral missiles, VAB vehicles, AMX-10 RC reconnaissance vehicles, drones, observation satellites and ammunition.

Boots on the ground: Among the topics under discussion today is the role European troops could play in any post-ceasefire mission in Ukraine. On the eve of the summit, Spain’s Pedro Sánchez called for the creation of a European army, specifically “EU armed forces with troops from all 27 member countries, working under a single flag with the same objectives,” as Aitor Hernández-Morales reports.

POLAND PREPS: Meanwhile, Poland is getting its population war-ready, following Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s announcement earlier this month that all men would be given military training, Wojciech Kość reports. General Wiesław Kukuła, chief of the general staff of the Polish Armed Forces, told Wojciech that Poland doesn’t have the strategic advantage that some other European countries do: “We are neighbors with the Russian Federation and its ally Belarus, so we don’t have a buffer between us and them, and we have only a limited time to prepare and respond,” Kukuła said.

NATO warning: NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said any attack on Poland would trigger a “devastating” response. “If anyone were to miscalculate and think they can get away with an attack on Poland or any other [NATO] ally, they will be met with the full force of this fierce alliance,” Rutte said at a press conference with Tusk in Warsaw Wednesday.

SWIFT NO: Leaders today will also give their response to Tuesday’s announcement by the White House of a limited ceasefire in the Black Sea. But the European Commission poured cold water on Moscow’s caveat (which Trump’s administration is warming to, as my Stateside colleagues report) that implementing the deal is conditional on sanctions relief. An EU spokesperson said the “unconditional withdrawal” of all Russian military forces from the entire territory of Ukraine would be a precondition for lifting sanctions. Macron said last night it was “too early” to consider removing the restrictions.

Full story: More here on how the U.S.-brokered conversations with Putin will face a reality check today in Paris.

Now read this: Veronika Melkozerova reports that Kyiv is worried that in Trump’s rush to get a deal, the U.S. will avoid holding Russia to account for war crimes. “The current U.S. administration chooses concessions, flattery and bargaining instead of pressure on Russia,” a senior Ukrainian official told Veronika.

MORE TRUMP

SIGNALGATE LATEST — LAST WALTZ: Donald Trump tentatively blamed his national security adviser Mike Waltz for the Signal leak scandal on Wednesday evening, while continuing to vigorously defend his Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. “It was Mike, I guess. I don’t know. I always thought it was Mike,” Trump said. “Hegseth is doing a great job. He had nothing to do with this.” It comes as my Stateside colleagues report that some staunch Trump loyalists are agitating for Waltz to take the fall for his mistake.

FREEDOM FRIES FLASHBACK: It’s more than 20 years since American consumers expressed their anger at France’s decision not to back the Iraq war by renaming French fries “freedom fries.” Now the French are showing their own economic patriotism.

Hitting them where it hurts: A majority of the French population is considering boycotting American brands to oppose the new U.S. administration, according to a survey by polling firm Ifop for website nyc.fr, Giorgio Leali reports. Almost a third said they were already boycotting American brands such as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, and other big names including Elon Musk’s Tesla and Victoria’s Secret lingerie are also in the firing line.

RESPECT FOR GREENLAND: Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen praised Greenlanders for standing firm as the Trump administration circles the Arctic island. Writing on social media ahead of U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s visit, and after Trump made it clear he wants to get the island one way or another, Frederiksen said: “It is in times like these that you show what you are made of. You have not been cowed. You have stood up for who you are — and you have shown what you stand for. That has my deepest respect.” Write-up here.

BIG READS

THE HOUSE OF LE PEN: Marine Le Pen may finally have a shot at winning the French presidency in 2027. But an upcoming verdict in a court case which alleges that her party embezzled millions of euros worth of European Parliament funds could bar her from running for public office for the next five years — shattering her dreams of climbing the steps of the Elysée. Read this week’s POLITICO cover story on the House of Le Pen by Victor Goury-Laffont.

EU’S TURKEY DILEMMA: The EU is set to keep pumping billions into Turkey despite President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s sweeping crackdown on political opponents, Gabriel Gavin, Jacopo Barigazzi and Nektaria Stamouli report. Brussels warned its southern neighbor to “uphold democratic values” after authorities arrested opposition leader Ekrem İmamoğlu — but Turkey’s strategic importance means the bloc will likely turn a blind eye.

IN OTHER NEWS

EPPO BOMBSHELL: The European Public Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into “possible wrongdoing by the Bulgarian European Prosecutor,” the watchdog announced last night. “The independence of all our prosecutors is one of the core values of the EPPO,” the statement said. Euractiv has the backstory.

LABOR MARKET REFORMS FALL SHORT: The European Court of Auditors said labor market reforms carried out by EU countries under post-Covid 19 recovery plans left many structural problems unresolved, my colleagues Hanne Cokelaere and Aude van den Hove report. A third of the labor market reforms completed by countries did not comply with the EU’s recommendations, according to a new ECA report.

Why it matters: “The idea of using RRF as a carrot to undertake structural reforms has only worked to a limited extent,” said the ECA’s Ivana Maletić, referring to the bloc’s Covid recovery program. The findings could spell trouble for the Commission, which wants to replicate the cash-for-reforms framework in the next multi-year budget.

PARLIAMENT TO DEBATE HUAWEI: The European Parliament will hold a debate on Monday on “the need to ensure democratic pluralism, strengthen integrity, transparency and anti-corruption policies in the EU.” The carefully worded title was agreed upon among political families on Wednesday evening, reports Max Griera.

Something for everyone: While Greens and Socialists will want to talk about the Huawei scandal and how the right-wing bloc is hampering the implementation of the EU ethics body, the European People’s Party and other right-wing groups are expected to target the Commission’s controversial funding to NGOs, Max reports.

JUST LIKE US: As flagged in Wednesday’s Playbook, the Commission urged citizens to have at least three days’ worth of supplies at the ready as part of its “preparedness” plan. But even commissioners need a bit of nudging. Executive Vice President Roxana Mînzatu admitted she doesn’t have the 72-hour supplies on hand. “I do not sleep more than two nights in the same place, so indeed I’m not prepared,” she said at Wednesday’s press conference, Aude van den Hove reports. That prompted her colleague Hadja Lahbib to invite Mînzatu round to her place, where she has everything on hand to whip up pasta alla puttanesca.

AGENDA

— France’s President Emmanuel Macron hosts a meeting on peace and security for Ukraine in Paris; NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Council President António Costa, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy among those to attend. Arrivals at 9:15 a.m., meeting begins at 10 a.m., press conference with Macron at 1:15 p.m.

— General Council meeting of the ECB (virtual).

— Environment Council; arrivals and doorsteps at 9 a.m. … press conference at 5 p.m. Agenda. Watch.

— EU High Representative Vice President Kaja Kallas attends the EU-Central Asia ministerial meeting in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan; meets Sirojiddin Muhriddin, foreign minister of Tajikistan, at 8:45 a.m.; and meets Raşit Meredov, Turkmenistan’s foreign minister.

— European Commissioner Andrius Kubilius in Vilnius, Lithuania; presents the white paper on the future of European defense at the plenary session of the Seimas at 9 a.m. Watch.

— Commission Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen in Amsterdam, Netherlands; participates in the D9+ ministerial meeting for digital technology and connectivity; meets Dirk Beljaarts, the Netherlands’ minister of economic affairs.

— Democracy Commissioner Michael McGrath hosts the first high-level forum on justice for growth at 9:45 a.m.; Adam Bodnar, Poland’s justice minister, delivers a speech. Watch.

— Preparedness Commissioner Hadja Lahbib attends the Nutrition for Growth Summit in Paris.

— Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin is in Rome, where he meets Italy’s Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti.

— European Economic and Social Committee President Oliver Röpke chairs plenary sessions on “Depolarizing societies — key take-aways of Civil Society Week 2025” with Democracy Commissioner Michael McGrath at 9 a.m. … on the “New Vision on Agriculture and Food” with Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen at 10:30 a.m. … and on the implementation of the European Commission’s Work Programme with Economy Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis at 11:30 a.m.

— Parliament’s ECON committee holds a public hearing with Claudia Buch, chair of the supervisory board of the ECB, at 10 a.m.

BRUSSELS CORNER

WEATHER: High of 15C, sunny.

CONCERT: Indie-folk duo Bear’s Den performs tonight at Cirque Royal, celebrating their debut album. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets here.

DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL: Starting Friday, the Millennium Festival brings powerful documentaries to the screen, including films about intimate personal stories to human rights and gender equality.

COMEDY: The Schuman Show is back on April 10-12 — tickets here.

BIRTHDAYS: Former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy turns 70; former MEPs Izaskun Bilbao Barandica, Isabella Adinolfi, Gerard Batten and Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou; European Commission’s Leonardo Colucci; John Thompson from Journalism.co.uk; EEAS’ Carole Magnaschi; POLITICO’s Washington Playbook Managing Editor and Author Jack Blanchard.

**A message from Generali: The insurance industry has a significant role in facilitating this transformation, leveraging its expertise in risk management and long-term investment. However, achieving this transition requires significant financial resources. The insurance industry, as a long-term investor, manages over 10 trillion EUR in assets and is well-positioned to direct these resources towards sustainable infrastructure, renewable energy projects, and technological innovations that enhance productivity and reduce environmental impact. Releasing this potential requires clearer regulatory frameworks, alongside public-private partnerships to mobilise the necessary financing. The Savings and Investment Union is a welcomed initiative to foster an investment culture in Europe, where citizens’ savings can be channeled into investments for the EU’s economy. Find out more here about what Generali is doing to develop investments in Europe.**

The new tariff regime comes at an auspicious time for Tesla. The company is dealing with the fallout of Musk’s promotion of far-right ideology and his involvement with the unpopular Department of Government Efficiency, which has sparked protests around the world. Tesla has recently relied on promotions and price cuts to boost sales, and yet it still sold fewer EVs in 2024 than it did in 2023 and is off to a rough start in 2025.

New tariffs could shift that calculus, at least in the U.S. Tesla builds all of its cars destined for the North American market in the U.S. at factories in Fremont, California, and Austin, Texas. That means none of the cars it sells in the U.S. will be subject to the 25% vehicle import tax.

Tesla does import around 20% to 30% of the components used to build those cars, so that will cause some headache. Musk admitted on X that Tesla is “NOT unscathed” by these tariffs and claimed they will have a “significant” impact. But the company’s long-standing effort to establish local supply chains near its factories is now being rewarded.

Essentially every other automaker is in a worse position than Tesla, and the tariffs will especially affect competing EVs. Around 80% of the cars Ford sells in the U.S. are built domestically. But it makes the all-electric Mustang Mach-E and the popular (and far more affordable) Maverick hybrid pickup truck in Mexico.

General Motors, meanwhile, builds its Blazer and Equinox EVs in Mexico. Hyundai has found increasing success with its electric vehicles in the U.S. market, but nearly all of those are built in South Korea.

Much like Tesla, upstart electric automakers like Rivian and Lucid Motors won’t have to worry about the vehicle import tariffs because they make their EVs in Illinois and Arizona, respectively. Like Tesla, they import parts that will be subject to tariffs — but they are in a worse position to absorb those costs since both companies are still losing buckets of money on every EV they sell.

This sets up a scenario where other EVs may see price increases greater than any Tesla might implement. That price separation could become even more of a boon to Tesla when it rolls out its mysterious new lower-cost EV this year — something the company has said will happen in the next few months.

Of course, Trump announced these tariffs after weeks of waffling on whether he would implement them in the first place. The president has claimed these will be “permanent.” But like so many other things he proposes, that could always change.

One week after Cate Blanchett opened The Seagull, The House Party reimagines August Strindberg’s study of sex, class and power in Miss Julie.

The Headlong/Frantic Assembly collaboration makes for explosively convincing dance sequences once Julie’s 18th birthday gets going.

Synnøve Karlsen’s posh, erratic Julie jousts with the good-natured northern failure Jon, while the play boosts the minor role of cook Kristen to kind, trusting BFF and girlfriend Christine on the verge of transcending her class via a Cambridge interview.

The vulnerability and isolation that money creates is drawn out beautifully. The innovative coda, set ten years after the shockwaves of Julie’s betrayal, show the irreparable emotional damage of desperate intimacy.

The futility of trying to escape your class remains as true today as in 1888.