White House officials are defending Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth amid allegations related to the Signal messaging app.
“The president absolutely has confidence in Secretary Hegseth,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday. “I spoke to him about it this morning, and he stands strongly behind him.”
The New York Times reported Sunday that Hegseth disclosed details regarding U.S. strikes against the Yemeni Houthis in a second Signal group chat that included members of his family.
According to the report, the chat was titled “Defense | Team Huddle” and included information on flight schedules for F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis. Hegseth’s brother, who is a Defense Department employee, and his wife were part of the group chat, along with about a dozen other people from his personal and professional circles.
Hegseth created the group chat in January before his Senate confirmation, and he reportedly used his personal phone to access it. Hegseth shared the information on the strikes two months later, on March 15.
Those allegations come just weeks after the initial Signalgate controversy, during which strike plans against the Houthis were accidentally shared with journalist Jeffrey Goldberg. In both cases, White House officials have accused the press of making too much of the incident, and Leavitt said the latest accusations are a form of blowback against reforms Hegseth is leading at the Pentagon.
“This is what happens when the entire Pentagon is working against you and working against the monumental change that you are trying to implement,” she said during a Fox News interview. “Secretary Hegseth was nominated for this position because he is standing up for the warfighter, the men and women in uniform who are putting their lives on the line to protect our country and our homeland.
“Unfortunately, there have been people at that building who don’t like the change the secretary is trying to bring, so they are leaking and they are lying to the mainstream media,” she added. “We’ve seen this game played before. The secretary is doing a tremendous job, and the president stands strongly behind him.”
In a statement late Sunday responding to the report, Defense Department officials dismissed it as “garbage” from the “Trump-hating media” and claimed that the New York Times’s sources were merely “disgruntled former employees” who want to “sabotage” Hegseth.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell also said no classified information was shared in Hegseth’s Signal group chat.
“There was no classified information in any Signal chat, no matter how many ways they try to write the story,” Parnell said. “What is true is that the Office of the Secretary of Defense is continuing to become stronger and more efficient in executing President Trump’s agenda.”
But a former Pentagon spokesman, John Ullyot, now argues that Hegseth should resign following a “month of chaos.”
Hegseth posted Yemen strike details in second Signal chat: Report
“It’s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon,” Ullyot wrote in an opinion essay in Politico published Sunday night. “Even strong backers of the secretary like me must admit: The last month has been a full-blown meltdown at the Pentagon — and it’s becoming a real problem for the administration.”
White House officials have largely blamed the latest allegations on disgruntled former employees. Ullyot resigned last week.