White House officials are defending Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth amid claims related to the Signal communications app.
“The president absolutely has confidence in Secretary Hegseth, ” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday. “ I spoke to him about it this night, and he stands strongly behind him. ”
According to the review, the talk was titled “Defense | Team Huddle” and included information on flight schedule for F/A-18 Wasps targeting the Houthis. Hegseth’s nephew, who is a Defense Department staff, and his family were part of the group talk, along with about a hundred other people from his personal and professional lines.
Hegseth created the party talk in January before his Senate assurance, and he apparently used his private phone to access it. Hegseth shared the information on the hits two months later, on March 15.
Those claims come just days after the first Signalgate discussion, during which hit plans against the Houthis were inadvertently shared with columnist Jeffrey Goldberg. In both instances, White House leaders have accused the hit of making too much of the event, and Leavitt said the latest charges are a form of backlash against measures Hegseth is leading at the Pentagon.
“This is what happens when the whole Pentagon is working against you and working against the huge change that you are trying to implement, ” she said during a Fox News discussion. “Secretary Hegseth was nominated for this place because he is standing up for the interceptor, the men and women in uniform who are putting their lives on the line to defend our nation and our land.
“ 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 sport played before. The director is doing a great task, and the leader 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 official Sean Parnell also said no defined data was shared in Hegseth’s Signal group chat.
“There was no classified information in any Signal talk, no matter how many ways they try to write the tale, ” Parnell said. “ What is true is that the Office of the Secretary of Defense is continuing to be stronger and more efficient in executing President Trump’s plan. ”
But a former Pentagon official, John Ullyot, today argues that Hegseth may retire following a “month of conflict. ”
Hegseth posted Yemen hit information in following Signal chat: Report
“It’s been a fortnight of total panic at the Pentagon, ” Ullyot wrote in an mind essay in Politico published Sunday evening. “Even powerful backers of the minister like me may say: The last fortnight has been a full-blown collapse at the Pentagon — and it ’s becoming a real issue for the presidency. ”
White House officials have largely blamed the latest claims on disgruntled past people. Ullyot resigned next year.
