Elections under assault. With a sweeping executive order that experts say may not be legal, President Trump’s directing significant changes in how voting happens in the U.S. …
■ … including requirements that voters provide citizenship documents and get their mail ballots in by Election Day.
■ As Wonkette’s Marcie Jones puts it: “Trump Hereby Orders Millions Of Voters Not Be Allowed To Vote.”
■ Gov. Pritzker’s not having it: “We will not blindly follow illegal orders because Donald Trump wrote them down on a piece of paper.”
■ Common Cause has launched a protest petition.
A key(stone) upset. In a race Republicans considered safe, Democrats will keep control of the Pennsylvania House—by a single seat.
■ Illinoisans are all up in Wisconsin for what Politico’s Shia Kapos calls “the biggest race in the country” next week.
■ Ready to exercise your right to vote in Illinois’ April 1 election—while you still can? Check the Chicago Public Square guide to voter guides.
‘It’s time for the next generation to stand tall. That time is telling Durbin to call it quits.’ If he does, columnist Laura Washington advises, “Hold tight for one of the most contentious primary contests ever.”
■ Mother Jones’ Tim Murphy: “I’ve been to a lot of Bernie Sanders rallies over the years, but I’ve never been to anything quite like the ‘Fighting Oligarchy Tour’ I attended last week in Arizona.”
‘People should see the texts.’ Condemned by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who insists that “nobody was texting war plans” in the messaging thread to which Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was inexplicably invited, the magazine’s published “The Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal” …
■ … including the precise timing of warplane launches and bomb drops in attacks against Yemen’s Houthis.
■ Jimmy Kimmel last night: “I know Pete can relate to this: This is like getting drunk and driving your car into a lamppost—and blaming the lamppost.”
■ The Associated Press: U.S. allies see the chat as “a jaw-dropping security breach which casts doubt on intelligence-sharing with Washington.” (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ Citing their own words, the AP compares Trump and his team’s responses to the fiasco with their reactions to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a home server.
■ Ronnie Chieng at The Daily Show: “So this reporter who is dishonest and sucks is also correct. And we added him to our group chat because he’s a fun hang? You can’t use, ‘It was a mistake’ and ‘It was fake news.’ You gotta pick one, okay? You gotta get together and figure it out—but not in a group chat! No more group chats!”
■ The guy at the heart of the fiasco, national security adviser Mike Waltz, is brother-in-law to the lead singer from the band Creed.
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst: “Waltz So Mad His Dog Put Porn On His Signal Chats And Gave Them To Jeffrey Goldberg.”
■ The Onion: “Teen Warned Not To Accept Group Chat Invites From National Security Advisors She Doesn’t Know.”
■ Stephen Colbert: “Trump might plead ignorance—and that’s believable.”
■ Columnist Dan Pfeiffer: Audience analysis suggests that, “more than any other story since Trump was inaugurated, this one is breaking through to the broader public.”
Chicago law firm in Trump’s sights. The president’s signed an order to cut the federal government’s business with Jenner & Block—a former partner of which helped former special counsel Robert Mueller investigate Trump.
■ Noting that the order is similar to another “which has already been declared unconstitutional,” Jenner says it “will pursue all appropriate remedies.”
■ As Trump attacks, Biden-era officials tell The Washington Post they’re having trouble finding lawyers willing to defend them. (Gift link.)
■ Popular Information explains how the Social Security Administration is dodging a federal court order.
■ Meanwhile, at the Supreme Court: Justices have upheld Biden-era limits on so-called “ghost guns.”
‘These cuts to our agency are devastating for all Americans.’ More than a hundred people—including U.S. Environmental Protection Agency employees—gathered outside the EPA’s Chicago HQ yesterday to protest Trump’s cuts in EPA funding, staffing and enforcement authority.
■ MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow last night took time out to praise this Chicago protester for “excellent punctuation and grammar.”
■ Block Club Chicago: “Trump’s DEI order canceled a student concert. Then the donations came pouring in.”
‘It’s … revealing the lengths Republican suck-ups are willing to go.’ Columnist Robert Reich says House legislation to, for instance, carve Trump’s face on Mt. Rushmore and print it on the $100 bill exemplifies “what the American Revolution was fought to prevent” …
■ … and he wants your ideas for more fitting memorials.
‘Whoa! No! This is wrong.’ Protesting Columbia University’s concessions to Trump, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker is quitting the duPont-Columbia journalism awards committee.
■ News watcher Jennifer Schulze: “Smaller news outlets and efforts by individual journalists doing fearless, fact-based reporting on the Trump/Musk assault are gaining audiences the old-fashioned way by good reporting.”
Holler for a dollar (store). The Dollar Tree chain is giving up on its acquisition of the Family Dollar chain—selling it for just a fraction of what it paid in 2015.
■ Consumer Reports scrutinizes Amazon’s spring sale: “Many of these offers are the same as we’ve been seeing for the past several weeks and even months.”
Are you funny? The Onion’s hiring.
■ Among the application requirements: “A list of exactly 30 Onion-style headlines.”
■ You know—like “Laid-Off 23andMe Employee Packs Up Box Full Of Bodily Fluids.”
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