Four top administration officials told Axios they expect the scandal over national security officials sharing war plans on a group chat to die down.

Said one Trump adviser: “We don’t care what the media says. We can easily handle what would kill any other administration. This will blow over.”

Said another: “Trump certainly wasn’t pleased with this. But all this talk you see about Waltz not lasting is just way premature. There’s a Washington feeding frenzy. And we all know that you don’t give the mob what it wants.”

A painting of Donald Trump hanging with other presidential portraits at the Colorado state Capitol will be taken down after Trump claimed that his was “purposefully distorted,” the AP reports.

Wall Street Journal: “Administration officials said President Trump was frustrated by the episode, and was directing his ire at Waltz. But it wasn’t immediately clear if he would move to oust his national-security adviser.”

“Trump asked aides on Monday how Waltz could be so sloppy.”

Playbook: “It was hardly just Waltz at fault, of course. What was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth doing, sharing — according to the Atlantic — detailed battle plans in a group chat? And why were Vice President JD Vance, DNI Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other key figures happy to discuss military operations in such a forum? But every good scandal needs a fall guy, and the suspicion is the White House would rather protect the ultra-loyalist Hegseth — if it comes to it — than an NSA who can be replaced without even a Senate hearing.”

“Postmaster General Louis DeJoy Monday stepped down from his role, pre-empting a decision by President Trump to force him out of the role faster than planned,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Though DeJoy in February had said he would resign, he hadn’t given a departure date and until now had continued to carry out his 10-year turnaround plan for the Postal Service. Trump in recent days had been preparing to fire DeJoy.”

President Trump told the New York Post that Hunter Biden’s beleaguered former business partner, Devon Archer, will receive a full and unconditional pardon.

Said Trump: “He’s getting a full pardon. He was screwed by the Bidens. They destroyed him like they tried to destroy a lot of people.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told a Cabinet meeting with President Trump: “We are going to eliminate FEMA.”

“The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to allow it to follow through with its attempt to fire thousands of probationary workers across the federal government,” Politico reports.

“The administration filed an emergency appeal of a March 13 ruling from U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who ordered the government to immediately rehire probationary workers who had been terminated at six federal agencies.”

President Donald Trump on Monday named Alina Habba, his personal attorney-turned-White House counselor, to serve as the next interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, ABC News reports.

Noah Hawley: “That is what the American experience is beginning to feel like in 2025: not as if we are living in President Donald Trump’s reality, but as if we are living in his dream.”

Jeff Bezos is “a good guy,” Trump told Clay Travis over the weekend. 

Said Trump: “I didn’t really know him in the first term. I mean, it’s such a difference between now and the first time.”

He also said Bezos bashed his Washington Post în their private meeting: “They actually did a couple of bad articles on him. He said, ‘This is crazy, I lose my fortune running this thing and they, you know, they’re out of control.’ These people are crazy. They’re crazy people. They’re out of control.”

President Trump is demanding that Colorado take down its “purposefully distorted” painting of him hanging in the State Capitol, The Hill reports.

Said Trump: “Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado, in the State Capitol put up by the Governor, along with all other Presidents, was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before.”

He added: “I am speaking on their behalf to the Radical Left Governor, Jared Polis, who is extremely weak on Crime, in particular with respect to Tren de Aragua, which practically took over Aurora (Don’t worry, we saved it!), to take it down. Jared should be ashamed of himself.”

Paul Krugman: “Donald Trump is often described as a ‘populist.’ Yet his administration is stuffed with wealthy men who are clueless about how the other 99.99 percent lives, while his policies involve undermining the working class while enabling wealthy tax cheats.”

“What is true is that many working-class voters supported Trump last year because they believed that he was on their side. And that disconnect between perceptions and reality ought to be at the heart of any discussion of what Democrats should do now.”

Stephen Collinson: “President Donald Trump is escalating his multi-front assault on what supporters see as an elite establishment, using raw presidential power to bend the government, law, media, public health, foreign policy, education and even the arts to his will.”

“Trump left no doubt in last year’s campaign that he’d use executive authority to seek retribution against his political enemies. But his attempt to transform America’s politics and culture is far broader than a personal revenge trip.”

“He’s targeting Ivy League universities; using executive authority against top law firms; eviscerating the bureaucracy; rejecting 80 years of elite orthodoxy about American global leadership; and using tariffs to shatter the global trading system that Make America Great Again proponents regard as the self-enriching treachery of global elites.”

Elon Musk said that’s he’s “had enough” and that a lawsuit is “inbound” after former Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) called him a “thief” and a “Nazi” on live television this week, Mediaite reports.

Said Bowman: “He’s incompetent, he’s a thief, he’s a Nazi, and people don’t trust him, period.”

Wall Street Journal: “Trump’s latest pronouncement landed particularly hard in an industry that was still processing Paul Weiss’s decision to cut a deal with the White House rather than challenge the administration in court. Trump on Thursday rescinded his order against the firm after it agreed to provide $40 million in pro bono legal services to support the administration’s initiatives, such as assisting veterans and fighting antisemitism.”

“Several law-firm chairs and senior partners said they were working to calm clients and employees, with younger associates increasingly calling for lawyers to take a stand against Trump. Some firm leaders said their clients—and their fellow partners—were split on whether they would rather their firms take a deal if targeted or fight it out in court.”

Playbook: “The Trump administration’s efforts to chill opposition among the elite legal class are working. Even before the Paul, Weiss deal, lawyers at major law firms in New York and Washington were struggling to find ways to collectively push back against the Trump administration’s efforts to punish disfavored law firms, which began with Covington & Burling and Perkins Coie.”

“Trump’s deal with the firm spurred phone calls and text messages across the elite legal class — many expressing shock and concern, and a relative few taking modest pleasure in the public blowback (which could prove to be a business opportunity for competitors looking to poach clients). Democratic legal strategist David Axelrod also posited that the deal could have more direct political effects on the Democratic Party by deterring lawyers at large firms from campaign fundraising.”

Also important: “Virtually no one with any long-term standing in the private legal community is willing to speak publicly about it, partly out of fear that they or their firms could wind up in Trump’s crosshairs.”

“The White House, through an outside event production company called Harbinger, is soliciting corporate sponsors for this year’s Easter Egg Roll, which is prompting major concerns from ethics experts and shock from former White House officials from both parties,” CNN reports.

“The sponsorship offers range from $75,000 to $200,000, with the promise of logo and branding opportunities.”

“The number of Tesla owners trading in their cars surged to a record high in March, compounding the troubles of an automaker that has been embroiled in controversy since CEO Elon Musk became a central figure of President Donald Trump’s administration,” the Washington Post reports.

“Of all vehicles traded in at dealerships for new or used cars through March 16, 1.4 percent were Tesla cars from model year 2017 or newer — the highest share on record.”