Politics
Trump Says He Won’t Fire Officials Involved in Leaked Signal Chat
President Trump told NBC News on Saturday that he would not fire anyone involved in a group chat that inadvertently disclosed plans for airstrikes on Yemen to a journalist.
In a wide-ranging interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker, Mr. Trump pushed back on reports that some in his circle had encouraged him to fire Michael Waltz, the national security adviser. Mr. Waltz had seemingly inadvertently added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, to a sensitive group chat on Signal, a commercial messaging app, ahead of U.S. strikes against the Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen on March 15.
The New York Times reported on Saturday that Mr. Trump had spent much of the week consulting with aides about whether he should fire Mr. Waltz amid mounting fallout from the episode.
But Mr. Trump told Ms. Welker that he still had confidence in Mr. Waltz and in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and he continued to downplay the seriousness of the incident. “I don’t fire people because of fake news and because of witch hunts,” he said.
Mr. Trump also discussed Greenland, a day after Vice President JD Vance visited an American military base on the island. Mr. Trump reiterated that he would not rule out using force to annex Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, but indicated that he thought he could make a deal to take it instead.
When asked what message he believed such a takeover would send to the rest of the world, including Russia, Mr. Trump said, “I don’t really think about that; I don’t really care.”
And with the Trump administration’s new auto tariffs set to take effect in days, the president said that he “couldn’t care less” whether automakers raise prices as a result of the increased costs to import cars and car parts to the United States. Mr. Trump added that he believed the tariffs could result in more people buying American-made cars.
Nearly half of all vehicles sold in the United States are imported, as are almost 60 percent of the parts used in vehicles that are assembled in the country.
Mr. Trump denied a report that he warned auto executives not to raise prices when discussing the tariffs.
“I couldn’t care less,” he said. “I hope they raise their prices, because if they do, people are going to buy American-made cars. We have plenty.”
A liberal candidate for a pivotal seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court overcame $25 million in spending from Elon Musk and defeated her conservative opponent on Tuesday, The Associated Press reported, in a contest that became a kind of referendum on Mr. Musk and his slashing of the federal government.
With turnout extraordinarily high for a spring election in an off year, Judge Susan Crawford handily beat Judge Brad Schimel, who ran on his loyalty to President Trump and was aided by Mr. Musk, the president’s billionaire policy aide.
Mr. Musk not only poured money into the race but also campaigned personally in the state, even donning a cheesehead. But his starring role seemed to inflame Democratic anger against him even more than it helped Judge Schimel.
The barrage of spending in the race may nearly double the previous record for a single judicial election. With about 95 percent of the vote counted on Tuesday evening, Judge Crawford held a lead of roughly 9 points.
“Today, Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections and our Supreme Court,” she said in her victory speech on Tuesday night. “Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price. Our courts are not for sale.”
For Democrats, the result is a jolt of momentum. They have been engaged in a coast-to-coast rhetorical rending of garments since Mr. Trump returned to the White House in January and embarked with Mr. Musk on an effort to drastically shrink federal agencies, set aside international alliances and alter the government’s relationships with the nation’s universities, minority groups, immigrants and corporate world.
Coming on the heels of Democratic triumphs in special elections for state legislative seats in Iowa and Pennsylvania and the defeat of four Republican-backed state referendums in Louisiana, Judge Crawford’s victory puts the party on its front foot for the first time since last November. Her win showed that, at least in one instance, Mr. Musk’s seemingly endless reserves of political cash had energized more Democrats than Republicans.
The race could also have implications for control of Congress, where Republicans’ razor-thin edge was fortified on Tuesday when the party held on to two Florida seats in special elections. Democrats have quietly argued for months that a Crawford victory would pave the way for a liberal-tilting Wisconsin Supreme Court to order new congressional maps, which could help Democrats defeat one or two of the state’s Republican Congress members.
Judge Crawford, of Dane County, herself participated in a meeting with liberal donors in January that was pitched as a chance to put two House seats in play, a prospect echoed last week by Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the chamber’s Democratic leader. And Republicans, led by Mr. Musk, sought to make that possibility the central focus of their campaign to defeat her.
Mr. Musk, describing the stakes of the contest in near-apocalyptic terms, seemed to personify the campaign on Judge Schimel’s behalf even more than the candidate himself. Never before had a single donor sought to influence an American judicial race to such a degree, and few had invested comparable sums in an election in which they were not themselves running. Through his super PAC, Mr. Musk underwrote an $11.5 million ground game that targeted voters with messages urging them to help Mr. Trump by supporting Judge Schimel. A separate organization with Musk ties spent $7.7 million on television advertising, according to AdImpact, a media-tracking firm.
Mr. Musk also offered Wisconsinites $100 each to sign a petition in opposition to “activist judges.”
By Tuesday, his super PAC was offering voters $50 to post a picture of a Wisconsin resident outside a polling place.
The victory for Judge Crawford, 60, who won a 10-year term, maintains a 4-to-3 majority for liberals on the court, which in coming months is poised to deliver key decisions on abortion and labor rights. It may soon determine the legality of the state’s congressional district lines, which were drawn by the Republican-controlled State Legislature and have delivered six of eight House seats to the G.O.P. in the evenly divided state.
Liberals are likely to maintain a court majority until at least 2028. Conservative justices on the court face re-election in each of the next two years. Unless a liberal justice vacates her seat and is replaced by the governor, conservatives cannot flip a seat until 2028.
With control of the court on the line, the formally nonpartisan election was always going to be expensive and hard-fought, but Mr. Musk’s investment beginning in mid-February supercharged the stakes, attention and cash flowing into the state. The involvement of the billionaire, whose electric-vehicle company, Tesla, sued Wisconsin in January for the right to open dealerships in the state, turned what would have been a state contest into something approaching a national bat signal for Democrats to support Judge Crawford.
“This is a test, and the whole world is watching,” Ben Wikler, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, told supporters at Judge Crawford’s closing rally on Monday. “This is a chance for us to show that in a moment that is so terrifying nationally that we still believe in democracy.”
Backed by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and the Democratic National Committee, and with visits from prominent liberals and Democrats including Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Judge Crawford raised $17 million in the fund-raising period ending March 17, a stunning figure for a state judicial candidate with little profile inside her state, let alone nationally.
Judge Schimel, 60, of Waukesha County, a longtime Trump loyalist who last year dressed up as Mr. Trump for Halloween, embraced the president and Mr. Musk with gusto in the campaign’s final weeks. He wore the president’s signature Make America Great Again hat to campaign stops and appeared with both Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk on livestreams in late March.
Wisconsin Republicans made no secret of their effort to make Judge Schimel, who served one term as the state’s attorney general before losing re-election in 2018, an avatar of the Trump movement. Brian Schimming, the Republican Party of Wisconsin chairman, said his goal was merely to get 60 percent of Mr. Trump’s voters from last November to turn out for Judge Schimel by Tuesday.
Judge Schimel, like Judge Crawford, framed the race as an existential threat to the state and the nation.
“If we don’t restore the court, our Republic will not survive, right?” he told supporters last week at a rally in Stoughton, Wis. “Frankly, they’re taking away one of the branches, right, by legislating from the bench.”
In Mr. Musk’s foray into campaigning on behalf of Judge Schimel, he made a show of his wealth but frequently digressed from the contest at hand.
On Sunday night, he traveled to Green Bay, where he came bearing a pair of $1 million checks to voters, winners, he said, of a contest among those who had signed his petition. One recipient just happened to be the chairman of the College Republicans of Wisconsin, who joined a third person to whom Mr. Musk’s super PAC had given a $1 million check a few days earlier.
But Mr. Musk spent just a couple of minutes out of his two hours of remarks addressing Judge Schimel and the coming election. In what came across as an unedited TED Talk, Mr. Musk delivered extended monologues about immigration policy, alleged fraud in the Social Security system and the future of artificial intelligence, in addition to taking a series of questions from the audience that also did not address the court race.
When Mr. Musk did address the reason for his visit, he framed the election in maximally important terms — suggesting Wisconsin voters were the first domino in a process that could change the future of civilization.
“What’s happening on Tuesday is a vote for which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives — that is why it is so significant,” Mr. Musk said. “And whichever party controls the House to a significant degree controls the country, which then steers the course of Western civilization. I feel like this is one of those things that may not seem that it’s going to affect the entire destiny of humanity, but I think it will.”
Wisconsin Democrats and others tied to Judge Crawford’s campaign found the whole episode confusing. Mr. Musk, while popular with conservative voters because of his ties to Mr. Trump, had not emphasized public safety or even affinity with the president — issues that Democrats believed had the potential to help Judge Schimel sway Republicans to vote.
Instead, they believed, it was the latest evidence that the one general-election candidate Mr. Trump can truly drive to victory is himself.
Jess Bidgood contributed reporting from Stoughton, Wis.
Politics
Wisconsin voters decide to enshrine voter ID law in state constitution: 'Big win for Republicans'
Wisconsin will enshrine the state’s voter ID law in the state constitution after voters approved the proposal on Tuesday.
The Associated Press called the vote at 9:48 p.m. EST.
Wisconsin already requires that voters have photo ID in order to participate at the polls, but the measure now elevates that law to a constitutional amendment.
VAST MAJORITY OF AMERICANS SUPPORT PHOTO ID REQUIREMENT TO VOTE, NEW POLL SAYS
Wisconsin already required photo ID to vote, but now the law will be enshrined into the state constitution. (Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump celebrated the law being added to the state constitution on Truth Social after the vote was called Tuesday night.
“VOTER I.D. JUST APPROVED IN WISCONSIN ELECTION. Democrats fought hard against this, presumably so they can CHEAT. This is a BIG WIN FOR REPUBLICANS, MAYBE THE BIGGEST WIN OF THE NIGHT. IT SHOULD ALLOW US TO WIN WISCONSIN, LIKE I JUST DID IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, FOR MANY YEARS TO COME!” the president wrote.
Nine states, including Wisconsin, require that voters present photo ID, though Wisconsin’s requirements are the strictest, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. There are laws in 36 states requiring or requesting that voters show some sort of identification, the NCSL said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi has appointed Riverside County Assemblymember Bill Essayli — considered a rising and controversial Republican voice in California — as U.S. attorney for Los Angeles and surrounding areas, according to an email sent to the office’s staff and reviewed by The Times on Tuesday.
“Bill is excited to get started and will be sworn in tomorrow,” acting U.S. Atty. Joseph McNally wrote in the email. He noted that Essayli had previously served as a prosecutor in the same office and called his return a “homecoming.”
Sources familiar with the matter but not authorized to discuss it publicly said that Essayli’s appointment is as interim U.S. attorney, and that he will still need to be nominated by President Trump and confirmed by the Senate in order to fill the position on a permanent basis.
In a press release Tuesday night, Essayli’s chief of staff, Shawn Lewis, said Essayli had vacated his seat in the California State Assembly to accept the appointment.
“I intend to implement the President’s mission to restore trust in our justice system and pursue those who dare to cause harm to the United States and the People of our nation,” Essayli said.
Essayli, who was elected to represent part of Riverside County in 2022, has made his name in politics in part by attacking what he calls the “woke” policies of California’s liberal majority in Sacramento. He will helm the Central District of California, the most populous U.S. attorney’s district in the country, covering some 20 million people across seven counties.
Essayli, 39, has been a strong supporter of Trump over the years. Last May, after Trump was convicted of felony crimes tied to a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election, Essayli posted on Facebook that he looked forward to electing Trump as president “to restore the rule of law and our constitutional principles.”
He has criticized COVID-19 restrictions, critical race theory and California policies aimed at protecting LGBTQ+ students. He has pushed especially hard for “parental rights” measures that would mandate parents be informed whenever a child identifies as transgender or asks to change their name or pronouns at school.
The same issue has been a focus of the Trump administration, which last week announced it was investigating the California Department of Education for allegedly withholding such information from parents.
U.S. attorneys are political appointees, and turnover in such posts is common in new administrations. However, Essayli’s selection comes amid robust efforts by Trump to install loyalists at the highest levels of government, including in law enforcement. It also follows allegations that the Trump administration is hiring and firing Justice Department attorneys based purely on politics and perceived loyalty to Trump and his allies.
Last week, the White House terminated Adam Schleifer, a federal prosecutor in L.A. who had been leading an investigation into a pro-Trump business executive.
McNally had been serving as acting U.S. attorney since Martin E. Estrada, a Biden appointee, resigned in January.
In his email Tuesday, McNally praised Essayli as a strong pick and his selection by Bondi as a vote of confidence in the staff of the Central District office, which he said is doing “incredible work.”
“Those of us who have worked with Bill can attest to this commitment to public service and making the people of this district safe,” he wrote. “It is a testament to the Office that the Attorney General has appointed one of our alums to this role.”
During Trump’s first term, then-Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions appointed Nicola Hanna as the interim U.S. attorney in L.A. The following month, Trump nominated Hanna to the office and he was later confirmed by the Senate. Essayli could follow a similar path as Hanna, though Trump’s intentions for him were not immediately clear.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Essayli also declined to comment when asked earlier Tuesday whether he was being appointed to the position.
Bill Essayli (R-Corona) represents California Assembly District 63.
(California State Assembly)
Essayli is part of a cohort of Riverside County conservatives with ties to the White House, several of whom met with Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, the president’s sons, just days before the election. The group included Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who is now running for governor, and evangelical Pastor Tim Thompson, leader of the 412 Church in Murrieta.
Essayli has worked in the past, including on challenges to state COVID-19 restrictions, with Harmeet Dhillon, another conservative lawyer from the state whom Trump nominated to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Assemblymember Bill Essayli speaks about transgender athletes competing in girls high school sports at a Riverside Unified School District meeting in 2024.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Essayli is the son of Lebanese immigrants and the first person in his family to have graduated from college, according to his Assembly biography. He is Muslim, and in the past has said, “My religion drives my moral compass, but it’s not everything that I am.”
A graduate of Chapman University School of Law, Essayli served as a local prosecutor in the Riverside County district attorney’s office, then as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District, where he handled cases dealing with “violent and organized crime, identity theft, bank fraud, securities fraud, white-collar fraud, obstruction of justice, and a multitude of other matters,” according to his biography.
He was also part of the team of prosecutors that handled the San Bernardino terrorist attack and mass shooting in 2015, McNally noted in his email.
Essayli first ran for office in 2018 with a focus on California’s gas tax, and lost. In 2022, he ran again and won with a focus on school issues — blasting “woke warriors on the left” for miseducating local children, including on the “sins of our past.”
After winning, Essayli became a contentious colleague in Sacramento.
Assemblymember Bill Essayli (R-Corona) speaks during a news conference in Sacramento in 2023.
(Rahul Lal / CalMatters)
He has repeatedly been removed from committees by Democratic leaders, who have criticized him both for not showing up for subcommittee hearings and for directing personal attacks at his fellow Assembly members, including on social media.
Essayli has received attention in Republican circles beyond California for a bill he introduced that would have mandated schools inform parents of children who identify as transgender or express an interest in changing their pronouns or otherwise socially transitioning in school.
The assemblymember cast the measure as a “parental rights” bill, but LGBTQ+ advocates sharply criticized it as an “outing” measure that would endanger children in unaccepting homes. The bill never gained traction in Sacramento, but some school boards introduced similar measures at the local level. Democrats in Sacramento responded by pushing through a law barring such policies statewide.
Trump campaigned heavily against transgender rights during the election and has since introduced several executive orders attempting to scale back those rights, including in schools, sports and healthcare settings. He, like Essayli, has also claimed that such policies are “common sense.”
Essayli has accused liberal educators and lawmakers in California of running a “brainwashing operation” in schools where they tell kindergarten students that they can “pick one of 20 genders” and then “brainwash” children into thinking that their parents will kick them out of their homes if they tell them what is going on.
Gubernatorial candidate John Cox, left, and Assembly candidate Bill Essayli load boxes of signatures for a gas tax repeal initiative on April 20, 2018. Essayli lost in his 2018 bid for office.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Essayli said his “fear is that they’re going to start offering medical services at schools,” where state educators and other outside medical care providers such as Planned Parenthood would start providing students as young as 12 with hormone therapy and other medical treatments at school without their parents’ knowledge or consent.
“That’s coming down the line here,” Essayli claimed, without providing evidence.
Trump has made similar false claims about children receiving serious medical interventions to change their genders while at school and unbeknownst to their parents.
On Tuesday, California lawmakers held a hearing for an Essayli bill that would ban transgender athletes from female sports. Conservative commentator Matt Walsh testified in support of the bill, which was ultimately blocked in committee.
Times staff writer Jessica Garrison contributed to this report.
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