{"id":47881,"date":"2025-04-21T17:06:54","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T17:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2025\/04\/21\/white-house-defends-hegseth-amid-new-signal-accusation-staff-overhaul\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:45:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:45:17","slug":"white-house-defends-hegseth-amid-new-signal-accusation-staff-overhaul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2025\/04\/21\/white-house-defends-hegseth-amid-new-signal-accusation-staff-overhaul\/","title":{"rendered":"White House defends Hegseth amid new Signal accusation, staff overhaul"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">White House officials defended <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2025\/04\/21\/hegseth-had-second-signal-chat-with-details-of-yemen-strike-report\/\" target=\"_blank\">Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth<\/a> amid another round of controversies over the weekend, blaming the media and Pentagon establishment for resisting needed reforms throughout the military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During an <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DODResponse\/status\/1914302139788050922\" target=\"_blank\">interview on Fox News on Monday morning<\/a>, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/03\/24\/top-trump-officials-accidentally-shared-war-plans-with-media\/\" target=\"_blank\">President Donald Trump<\/a> \u201cstands strongly behind Secretary Hegseth\u201d and insisted senior leaders believe the embattled Cabinet official is \u201cdoing a tremendous job\u201d so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSecretary Hegseth was nominated for this position because he is standing up for the men and women in uniform who are putting their lives on the line to protect our country and our homeland,\u201d Leavitt said. \u201cUnfortunately, there have been people at the [Pentagon] who don\u2019t like the change, so they are leaking and they are lying to the mainstream media.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2025\/04\/21\/hegseth-had-second-signal-chat-with-details-of-yemen-strike-report\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Trump_81269.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Hegseth had second Signal chat with details of Yemen strike: Report<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Pete Hegseth reportedly created another Signal chat that included his wife and brother in which he shared details of a military strike on Houthis in Yemen.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The New York Times reported Sunday that Hegseth used <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/03\/26\/obviously-classified-experts-say-hegseth-chat-leaks-invited-danger\/\" target=\"_blank\">another Signal chat<\/a> to share details of a military airstrike in Yemen, this time with his wife, brother and other individuals without security clearances. White House officials denied the reporting, confirmed by multiple other outlets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The story followed a series of high-level firings last week, in which senior members of Hegseth\u2019s core team were removed or reassigned \u2014 purportedly for leaking information, though they <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/dandcaldwell\/status\/1913701312929149363\" target=\"_blank\">denied the accusation in a joint statement<\/a>. In addition, Pentagon Chief of Staff Joe Kasper is also leaving his post for another job in the Defense Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAt this time, we still have not been told what exactly we were investigated for, if there is still an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation of \u2018leaks\u2019 to begin with,\u201d the three fired officials wrote in their statement Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Sunday, former Chief Pentagon Spokesman John Ullyot authored <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2025\/04\/20\/pentagon-chaos-ullyot-hegseth-00205594\" target=\"_blank\">an editorial in Politico<\/a> which described Hegseth\u2019s operations as \u201ca full-blown meltdown\u201d that is distracting from Trump\u2019s other goals and accomplishments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Pentagon focus is no longer on warfighting, but on endless drama,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hegseth lashed out at the criticism on camera during the White House\u2019s annual Easter egg roll Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is what the media does,\u201d he said. \u201cThey take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees and then they try to slash and burn people, ruin their reputations. It\u2019s not going to work with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re changing the Defense Department, putting the Pentagon back in the hands of warfighters. Anonymous smears from disgruntled former employees on old news doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The secretary did not address the criticisms that appeared on the record, why he\u2019s fired so many members of his own team and whether he included his family in a sensitive group chat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hegseth made headlines last month for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/03\/24\/top-trump-officials-accidentally-shared-war-plans-with-media\/\" target=\"_blank\">sharing advance military details <\/a>of the Yemen airstrikes on a Signal messaging group which included National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, Vice President JD Vance and the editor of the Atlantic, the latter of whom was apparently added to the chat by accident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump also defended his defense secretary at that time, calling his work at the Pentagon exemplary and needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Democratic lawmakers called the latest round of scandals unsettling and disqualifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHow many times does Pete Hegseth need to leak classified intelligence before Donald Trump and Republicans understand that he isn\u2019t only a f*cking liar, he is a threat to our national security?\u201d said Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., in a statement. \u201dEvery day he stays in his job is another day our troops\u2019 lives are endangered by his singular stupidity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Donald Trump on Monday defended his embattled defense secretary, saying he&#8217;s pleased with his leadership thus far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":109138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[8,160,36,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3424,3458],"class_list":["post-47881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters","category-pentagon"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"F2V25HNKYZGA7LHR5Q3LWUHOMY","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/04\/21\/white-house-defends-hegseth-amid-new-signal-accusation-staff-overhaul\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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