NewsNation Chief Washington Anchor and On Balance host Leland Vittert was a foreign correspondent for four years in Jerusalem. He gives you an early look at tonight’s 9 pm ET show. Subscribe to War Notes here.  

Hope: As explained by CNN’s Harry Enten, a record number of Americans say the country is on the right track — that should be a good thing, right? 

• Why is that? We’ll explain tonight.

Tesla Allison: Brian Entin joins us tonight with deep and exclusive reporting on the people and groups behind the attacks on Tesla. 

• He found a transgender activist who goes by the nom de guerre “Tesla Allison” – no, we aren’t making this up.
• Plus: The danger for Democrats in not forcefully condemning political violence against a company that most Americans have a financial stake in.
  • Hint: If you have a 401k — a public pension — virtually any investment you make is invested in Tesla’s future. 
  • Not to mention the careers of Tesla’s 120,000 employees. 

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Law firm correction: We got some of the biggest names in big law mixed up yesterday.

• For clarification:
  • Perkins Coie, which sued the Trump administration and got a temporary restraining order, allegedly initiated the Steele dossier, not Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, which bent its proverbial knee to Trump.
    • According to The New York Times, a former Paul, Weiss partner “tried to build a criminal case against Mr. Trump several years ago while working at the Manhattan district attorney’s office.”

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Campaign Mode

Team Trump is in campaign mode – and right now, they are winning. 

• President Trump doesn’t like mistakes being made, but he will protect his own people because if his opponents get a scalp, it shows weakness.
  • Trump let National Security Advisor Mike Waltz go scorched earth on Jeffrey Goldberg today in remarks to reporters at the White House earlier today.
    • “There’s a lot of journalists in the city who have made big names for themselves, making up lies about this President, whether it’s the Russia hoax or making up lies about Gold Star families. And this one in particular, I have never met, don’t know, never communicated with, and we are in — we are looking into and reviewing how the heck he got into this room, but I’ll tell you what. The world owes President Trump a favor,” said Waltz.
      • Be fair: Blaming Goldberg is objectively funny — he didn’t add himself to the group text about war plans.
        • But wait: Goldberg says he knew Waltz previously — Waltz says he didn’t know him. Which is it? 
• It’s working: MAGA and even non-MAGA independents believe that Trump has gotten an unfair shake with:
  • The Russian collusion hoax.
  • Impeachment No. 1.
  • The indictments against Trump.
  • NY Attorney General Letitia James’ shakedown case.
  • The pass given to Joe Biden by the media.
• For many Americans, the Washington establishment journalists have ZERO, or even negative, credibility — thus, the harder they go after Trump, the better it is for TRUMP. 

For fair-minded Americans — I.e., people who neither hate nor love Trump — this story will break one of two ways: 

• Jeffrey Goldberg (and the Trump-hating media) is way overplaying their hand.
  • The Signal messages don’t have any classified information. 
  • This is a mistake and embarrassing but will once again make the media look like they are out to get Trump.

OR

• Goldberg is telling the truth, and there is highly specific information that, when published, will make everyone say, “WTF.”

Objectively: We are on record saying that SignalGate was and is a colossal mistake – the response might turn into something much worse.

• Click here to watch me going toe-to-toe with Bill O’Reilly last night.
• Be smart: The scandal is not that Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg got added to a group chat about CIA assets and plans to bomb the Houthis.
  • 💬 The scandal is that they were using the platform Signal in the first place. 
• Dressing down: Today, Democratic senators took turns lambasting Trump’s intelligence team during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.
  • Sen.Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said the following to CIA Director John Ratcliffe:
    • “This sloppiness and incompetence and disrespect for our intelligence agencies and the personnel who work for them is entirely unacceptable. It’s an embarrassment. You need to do better! You need to do better.”
  • Fact check: True.
    • There was arrogance: Using Signal.
    • Topped with incompetence: Adding Goldberg to the chat. 

More facts: Nobody was or is going to jail. No CIA assets were betrayed. No American service members were killed.

• That’s a lot more than we can say about past scandals.
  • 13 American service members died in the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, and nobody lost their jobs. 
• Trump is internally angry at his team but learned from the past 10 years:
  • He will attack his attackers with a scorched earth policy. 
  • He will defend his people.
  • He will never give an inch. 
• That’s Trump – that’s who America elected. 

Team Trump is in campaign mode, and it’s going to work. The happiest person around is Elon Musk. And now Team Trump feels like they have someone to fight against as a real person they can vilify – Jefrry Goldberg, The Atlantic editor.

• Standoff: Today’s Senate hearing showed the Achilles heel for Team Trump: Classified information.
  • If Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s texts contained “war plans,” as Jeffrey Goldberg alleges, and a name of the CIA officer or asset, that is a problem.
    • Hence, this very smart question by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., of CIA Director Ratcliffe:
      • SEN. JACK REED: “If you are not aware of any classified information on the discussions back and forth, would it be appropriate for the author to release the entire text of what he heard or transcribed?”
      • DIR. JOHN RATCLIFFE: “I think the author has released, my understanding essentially, almost all of the information as it’s been related to me. I don’t know what calculation the author made with regard to what information would be released or not, but again, I can again confirm that with respect to the communications that were related as to me, there was no classified information.”
• Worth watching: Erick Erickson on why the press doesn’t care that Joe Biden allowed the Houthis to grow. 

Tune into “On Balance with Leland Vittert” weeknights at 9/8 CT on NewsNation. Find your channel here. 

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of NewsNation.