White House Confirms President Trump Stands Behind Hegseth
President Donald Trump is backing U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth amid controversy over allegations that Hegseth shared sensitive information from a March military raid targeting Yemen’s Iran-linked Houthi rebels. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt confirmed the president’s support after it was reported that Hegseth relayed details of the operation in a Signal chat that included his wife, brother, and personal attorney.
A new revelation about a second Signal group chat is intensifying scrutiny over Hegseth’s use of an unsecured communication app to disclose high-level military information. This comes at a time when the Pentagon is already under pressure, with several senior officials recently removed as part of a leak investigation, according to Newsmax.
This isn’t the first time Trump has reaffirmed his stance. In light of growing Democratic demands for Hegseth’s resignation, Trump reiterated his support following the emergence of the original Signal chat involving sensitive content about the Yemen operation.
Last month, the issue escalated when it was revealed that Hegseth had inadvertently shared operational details with members of the administration, including Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, who later published the full transcript of the chat.
Facing questions from the press about whether Hegseth should consider stepping down, Trump defended him, stating: “Hegseth is doing a great job, he had nothing to do with this. Hegseth. How do you bring Hegseth into this?”
He went on to clarify that his national security advisor, Mike Waltz, had taken responsibility for mistakenly adding Goldberg to the Signal conversation.
“Mike Waltz … he claimed responsibility, I would imagine. It had nothing to do with anyone else. It was Mike, I guess, I don’t know, I was told it was Mike,” Trump said in response to the inquiry.
Trump downplayed concerns about any risk posed by the leaks, instead focusing on the operation’s outcome.
“There was no harm done because the attack was unbelievably successful that night,” he emphasized.
He further criticized calls for Hegseth’s removal and cast doubt on the reliability of the messaging app itself.
“Look, it’s all a witch hunt … you wanna ask about whether or not Signal works, I don’t know if Signal works, I think that Signal could be defective to be honest with you,” Trump remarked.
Signal, known for its encrypted and self-deleting messages, is widely used among officials in Washington, D.C.
“You use Signal, we use Signal, and everybody uses Signal, but it could be a defective platform, and we’re going to have to find that out,” Trump added.
Calls for Hegseth to step down came from Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly of Arizona. Kelly criticized Hegseth’s judgment in using Signal to discuss mission details, stating on X:
“The Signal incident is what happens when you have the most unqualified Secretary of Defense we’ve ever seen. We’re lucky it didn’t cost any servicemembers their lives, but for the safety of our military and our country, Secretary Hegseth needs to resign.”
Gallego echoed the sentiment on social media: “This could have gotten our men and women killed! The Secretary of Defense needs to resign. The incompetence and cover up is embarrassing.”
In response, Hegseth posted a rebuttal on X, denying that any classified material had been shared and criticized The Atlantic for portraying his messages as “war plans.”
“The Atlantic released the so-called ‘war plans’ and those ‘plans’ include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information. Those are some really sh***y war plans,” Hegseth wrote.
On March 15, Hegseth reportedly sent a “Team Update” message to senior members of the Trump administration. The message outlined when the strike would take place and what weapons would be involved.
Hegseth defended the message by clarifying that it was intended as a general “team update,” not a disclosure of “war plans.”
“My job – team update, to provide updates in real time. General updates in real time keep everybody informed. That is what I did. That’s my job,” he said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also addressed the incident, attributing the situation to human error rather than malice or gross misconduct.
“Obviously, someone made a mistake, someone made a big mistake and added a journalist. Nothing against journalists but you ain’t supposed to be on that thing. None of the information on there at any point threatened the operation or the lives of our servicemen,” Rubio noted, adding that the chat did not include classified intelligence.