PRESIDENT Donald Trump has expressed his support for United States Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth after reports that he repeatedly shared details of a March attack on Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis in a signal message group.
“Pete’s doing a great job. Everybody’s happy with him,” Trump said on Monday, April 21. Asked if he remained confident in Hegseth, Trump said: “Oh, totally.”
Hegseth shared details of a March attack on Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis in a separate signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, Reuters reported on Sunday, April 20.
The ICIR reports that this revelation came at a critical time for both Hegseth and the Pentagon, following the recent dismissal of senior officials as part of an ongoing internal leak investigation.
Hegseth disclosed details of the attack in the second group chat that closely resembled those published last month by The Atlantic, after its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added to a separate Signal conversation involving all of Trump’s most senior national security officials.
The ICIR reports that this revelation also came just weeks after National Security Adviser Mike Waltz was reported to have shared highly sensitive security information in a Signal group chat.
Waltz shared war plans in a signal message group that included a journalist days before the US attacked Houthis in Yemen.
A person familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the second chat included around a dozen participants and was initially created during Hegseth’s confirmation process to address administrative matters, not detailed military planning.
The person added that the chat contained information about the timing of the airstrikes.
Speaking with reporters at the White House on Monday, Hegseth criticised the media and former employees.
“I have spoken to the president, and we are going to continue fighting on the same page all the way,” Hegseth said.
However, the Trump administration has taken a hardline stance against leaks, a campaign that Hegseth has actively supported at the Pentagon.
The latest revelation emerged just days after Dan Caldwell, one of Hegseth’s top advisers, was escorted out of the Pentagon after being identified in an investigation into leaks at the Department of Defence.
After Caldwell’s departure, Darin Selnick, who recently became Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff, and Colin Carroll, former chief of staff to Deputy Defence Secretary Steve Feinberg, were placed on administrative leave and dismissed on Friday.
Similarly, Pentagon’s former top spokesperson, John Ullyot, who resigned last week, criticised the Pentagon leadership in a POLITICO Magazine opinion piece published on Sunday.
Ullyot claimed that Hegseth’s team had spread unverified accusations about three senior officials fired last week, falsely alleging that they had leaked sensitive information to the media.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues.