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The days of verified Twitter users changing their names in order to impersonate celebrities, companies, and lawmakers — previously at the risk of a permanent ban — are a quaint stunt compared to what is possible now that the tools of unregulated artificial intelligence is in the hands of the bored and bad faith.

The State Department is learning this the hard way. According to a Tuesday report from The Washington Post, an individual posing as Secretary of State Marco Rubio used AI software to mimic the secretary’s voice and writing style.

Updated, with additional details: Donald Trump said that his national security adviser, Michael Waltz, would be departing that post and will be his nominee to serve as ambassador to the United Nations.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as national security adviser in the interim, Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The president wrote, “I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations. From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation’s Interests first. I know he will do the same in his new role.”

Trump’s announcement is the first major shakeup of his second term.

Waltz was at the center of so-called Signal Gate, in which he inadvertently added The Atlantic‘s editor Jeffrey Goldberg to a...

President Trump has fired six National Security Council staffers a day after meeting withfar-right troll and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer.

Loomer — a 9/11 conspiracy theorist known for chaining herself to the doors of Twitter after losing her account — met with Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday, where according to The New York Times she reportedly presented the president with a list of individuals she deemed disloyal to the president and his agenda. Loomer reportedly bashed the employees on her shit list to the president in front of embattled National Security Adviser Michael Waltz,...

Democrat Susan Crawford defeated Republican Brad Schimel in a race for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat that drew nationwide attention as an indicator of the political influence of Donald Trump’s key ally, Elon Musk.

Crawford was projected the winner by NBC News within an hour after polls closed, and the AP projected the race about 20 minutes later. Major cable news networks all carried the returns, unusual for an off-year statewide judicial race.

But the election not only determined the balance of the Wisconsin’s highest court , but it is being closely analyzed by pundits as it is the first statewide race since Trump took office in January.

With Crawford expected to get a comfortable victory, the results were a rebuke to Musk, who had poured tens of millions into the campaign and offered $1 million checks to two state voters at a rally on Sunday. His Super Pac offered $50 for photo uploads outside polling locations.

(Stock image via Pixabay)

When top White House defense and national security leaders discussed plans for an attack on targets in Yemen over the messaging app Signal, it raised many questions about operational security and record keeping and national security laws. It also puts Signal in the spotlight.

Why do so many government officials, activists and journalists use Signal for secure messaging? The short answer is that it uses end-to-end encryption, meaning no one in position to eavesdrop on the communication – including Signal itself – can read messages they intercept.

But Signal isn’t the only messaging app that uses end-to-end encryption, and end-to-end encryption isn’t the only consideration in choosing a secure messaging app. In addition, secure messaging apps are only part of the picture when it comes to keeping your communications private, and there is no such thing as perfect security.

I’m a cybersecurity professor who worked...

John Oliver has weighed in on the “Signalgate” scandal, in which members of President Donald Trump’s administration accidentally added The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to their Signal group chat about Yemen attack plans.

On the latest episode of “Last Week Tonight,” Oliver said that Trump “brought us another week of chaos” with his team’s handling of the situation, mentioning how defense secretary Pete Hegseth initially denied that the chat was about war plans and national security advisor Michael Waltz said Goldbergs’ contact was “sucked in” to his phone. However, The Atlantic then published texts from the group chat that proved otherwise.

“The White House tried to do damage control all this week, from playing semantic games of whether they were technically war plans to hinting Goldberg somehow got himself onto the chat, something undercut by literally showing Michael Waltz, the U.S. national security adviser, adding Goldberg in,...

Just as the fictional Logan Roy once decried his children as “not serious people,” so too did John Oliver blast President Donald Trump’s administration as woefully incompetent, especially in the wake of the Signal group chat leak, revealed by a bombshell report in The Atlantic last week.

Titled “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans,” the host kicked off Last Week Tonight by calling it “one of the greatest headlines I read this week, alongside, ‘Monkeys Chase British Tourist Out Of Hotel Pool In Thailand: ‘Scariest Moment Of My Life‘; ‘This Octopus’s Other Car Is a Shark‘; ‘Lots of fun, good weather greets guests during Deerfield’s 24th annual — wait for it — Testicle Festival.'”

Oliver then honed in on the emojis used in the chat, called “Houthi PC Small Group,” deployed by people like National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, who along with another colleague responded with the various icons: fist,...

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) lashed out at Sky News’ U.S. correspondent Martha Kelner after she questioned her about the recent Signal chat scandal.

On Sunday, Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic, reported in an article that, on March 13, he was added to a Signal group chat called “Houthi PC small group,” in which the Trump Administration accidentally sent him plans to attack Houthi militants in Yemen.

In his report, he said that he received a series of messages on Signal which seemed to come from Vice President Jd Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz and other notable officials in President Donald Trump’s administration.

He also noted that the military plan mentioned in the group chat “included precise information about weapons packages, targets and timing.”

Kelner asked Greene about this scandal during a press conference on Wednesday.

“Have...

If you’re sick of hearing about how Trump advisors added a journalist to a group chat about bombing Yemen, know that Ronny Chieng is sick of talking about it. “The Daily Show” senior correspondent and occasional host expressed his frustration over the seemingly never-ending news story on the latest episode of the Comedy Central show.

“This story might have ended on Day 1 if this administration had just owned it and made some bulls–t statement like, ‘Sorry, we’re taking accountability, #listeningandlearning, blah blah blah.’ But they just can’t help themselves because whenever they’re in trouble their default response is to punch their way out of it, which only makes things worse,” Chieng said on Wednesday night.

“So now we’re still talking about this three days later instead of what I wanted to cover tonight, which was 23andMe going bankrupt and what they’re going to do with all your DNA,...

Hillary Clinton shared how surprised she was after Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic, reported that the Trump Administration accidentally sent him plans to attack Houthi militants in Yemen. “You have got to be kidding me,” Clinton wrote in an X post, including Goldberg’s report.

On Sunday, Goldberg published an article in which he reported he was added to a group chat called “Houthi PC small group” on March 13 via Signal, an encrypted messaging service widely thought to be more secure than other commercial texting applications.

>Watch: Trump Administration Deports 200 Venezuelan Gang Members To El Salvador

In the article, the editor-in-chief discussed his initial skepticism, remembering that he discussed with colleagues whether the texts were “part of a disinformation campaign, initiated by either a foreign intelligence service or, more likely, a media-gadfly organization,” hoping to humiliate journalists.

Goldberg also said that he went on to receive a series...

If you didn’t see the news, the Trump administration allegedly included a journalist, The Atlantic‘s editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, in a group chat regarding the United States’ plans to bomb Houthi targets across Yemen on March 15.

Initially, Jeffrey released a handful of alleged texts that did not include any of the “attack plans.” Now, they have released the alleged texts that seem to include minute by minute plans of what was reportedly to come.

Keep reading to find out more…

Newest Released Texts From March 15 (the day of the attack), per The Atlantic. These are all alleged:

United States Secretary of Defense/former Fox News Host Pete Hegseth: “Team Update: Time Now (1144et): Weather is Favorable. Just Confirmed w/Centcom we are a Go for mission launch.” The Atlantic notes that “Centcom” stands for “Central Command,” which is “the military’s combatant command for the Middle East.

National Security Adviser Michael Waltz said that he built a Signal group chat that mistakenly included a journalist, The Atlantic‘s editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, whose bombshell story detailed how top Trump advisers shared war plans on the texting platform.

In an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on The Ingraham Angle, Waltz acknowledged that including Goldberg was in error and that the episode was “embarrassing, yes.” But he also tried to undermine Goldberg’s credibility, continuing the Trump administration’s effort to blame the media.

“How did a Trump-hating editor of The Atlantic end up on your Signal chat?”

Waltz then went into some of Goldberg’s past stories about Trump and questioned how “he’s the one that somehow gets on somebody’s contact and then gets sucked into this group.”

“I don’t know this guy,” he said. “I know him by his horrible reputation, and...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Vice President J.D. Vance, and other high-ranking figures in Donald Trump’s administration recently used an unsecured Signal group chat to discuss plans to bomb Houthi militants in Yemen. The group chat somehow included journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, who wrote about the experience on Monday.

The administration’s stunning carelessness with this kind of highly sensitive information would have, in normal times, led to resignations. These are not normal times, though, and the White House...

Jon Stewart fittingly opened Monday’s episode of The Daily Show with the dumbest news of the day: That an Atlantic journalist was accidentally added to a group chat where high-ranking members of the Trump administration were discussing ostensibly classified plans to bomb Houthi militants in Yemen.

And Stewart of course had just the right words for such a staggering mistake: “Oopsie-poopsie!”

The host then went on to reminisce about the old days when journalists had to work sources and pound the pavement to get secret war documents. “Now, you...

In an egregious display of disregard for national security from the second Trump administration, U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz unknowingly added the phone number for the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine to a group text in which leaders discussed plans for an airstrike in the Middle East.

In an article published on the outlet’s website on Monday, Jeffrey Goldberg, the top editor at the news and culture outlet The Atlantic, revealed details of what happened in the group chat on the secure, open-source messaging app Signal. He called his inclusion in the conversation a display of “shocking recklessness” on the part of Donald Trump’s appointee, who advises the president on all matters around national security and sits on the Homeland Security Council. Goldberg explained that via the Signal group, he was privy to top-secret intelligence regarding U.S. strikes on the Houthis in Yemen that could...

Donald Trump installed a former Fox News host with a history of alleged erratic behavior as Secretary of Defense. What could go wrong? Well, we’re barely two months into the president’s term and Pete Hegseth seems to have texted presumably classified plans to bomb Yemen into a group chat that inadvertently included the editor in chief of The Atlantic.

The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg reported on Monday that on March 11 he received a connection request on Signal — an encrypted messaging app — from “Michael Waltz,” later confirmed to be Trump’s national security adviser.

Updated with Pete Hegseth comments: Many journalists have stories of how they’ve been inadvertently sent sensitive emails, texts and files, but The Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg’s revelation likely tops them all: He apparently was added accidentally to a text chain of the highest-ranking Trump administration national security officials as they outlined military strikes on the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

In a piece posted Monday in The Atlantic, Goldberg wrote that he received a connection request from a Signal user identifying himself as Michael Waltz, the national security adviser. Signal is an encrypted messaging app where texts can be made to disappear within a certain time frame. Goldberg said that he accepted the Signal request, “hoping that this was the actual national security adviser, and that he wanted to chat about Ukraine, or Iran, or some other important matter.”

Two days later, he received an invite to...

Tucker Carlson is among the celebrity names slated to speak at next week’s Republican National Convention, reportedly in a plum spot on Thursday night before Donald Trump himself accepts the party nomination.

In addition to a long list of elected officials who are backing Trump, the speaker lineup also includes celebrities like Amber Rose, the model, rapper and former stripper; Dana White, the CEO of UFC; and Savannah Chrisley, the TV personality whose parents are serving prison time for fraud and tax evasion. Also on the bill: Lee Greenwood and Chris Janson.

Notably missing from the lineup: Former First Lady Melania Trump and the former president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump. They each spoke at the 2016 and 2020 conventions.

House GOP leaders like Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Majority Whip Tom Emmer are on the list, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Minority Whip John Thune and Republican...

Former President Donald Trump supporters in the House of Representatives are pushing a bill to rename Dulles Airport outside of Washington, D.C., after the former president.

On April 2, a group of Trump supporters launched the effort to rename this airport to express admiration for the Republican 2024 presidential candidate.

The airport is named after John Foster Dulles, the secretary of state in the 1950s and during Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency.

Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pennsylvania), the Republican Party’s chief deputy whip in the House, stated that he was introducing legislation to change the name of the airport since Trump was “the best president of” his “lifetime.”

“As millions of domestic and international travelers fly through the airport, there is no better symbol of freedom, prosperity and strength than hearing ‘Welcome to Trump International Airport’ as they land on American soil,” Reschenthaler stated.

“Freedom,” he wrote in an X post on April 2. “Prosperity.

Congress has been locked in a death spiral for months, but instead of trying to do anything productive, seven House Republicans are focused on a ploy to rename Washington’s most inconvenient airport after Donald Trump.

The bill was introduced Friday by Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.), and six cosponsors, and seeks to strip Washington Dulles International Airport of its namesake — Cold War-era Secretary of State John Foster Dulles — and rechristen it Donald J. Trump International Airport.

“In my lifetime, our nation has never been greater than under the...

Donald Trump is asking for a plan to wage war in Mexico, and the Republican Party is eager to give it to him.

As he campaigns for a second White House term, Trump has been asking policy advisers for a range of military options aimed at taking on Mexican drug cartels, including strikes that are not sanctioned by Mexico’s government, according to two sources familiar with the situation.

“‘Attacking Mexico,’ or whatever you’d like to call it, is something that President Trump has said he wants ‘battle plans’ drawn for,...

Republican lawmakers have rushed to the defense of far-right TV network Newsmax after the channel was dropped by AT&T’s DirecTV. According to the satellite television provider, the split stemmed from a carriage fee dispute that would have resulted in “significantly higher costs” and increased customer fees. The channel claims they are being wrongfully censored for their political viewpoints, and have already found allies amongst Republican lawmakers.

The party of free-market capitalism has responded to DirecTV booting Newsmax by arguing that the network should carry the Trump-loving propaganda network, financial considerations be damned.