President Donald Trump has privately reinforced to Pete Hegseth his support for the embattled Defense secretary as many call for his removal, according to a report from POLITICO.
The two reportedly spoke after a former Pentagon spokesperson criticized his leadership in a POLITICO op-ed on Sunday. The column claimed that the Pentagon “is in disarray under Hegseth’s leadership.”
The behind-closed-doors message is consistent with the public one, according to multiple POLITICO sources. The New York Times reported Hegseth spoke about an attack in Yemen in a Signal group chat from his personal phone, which included his wife, brother, and personal lawyer.
This is the second Signal-related scandal for the former Fox News host. The first was mistakenly adding the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic to a different Signal group chat about an attack on Houthi militants.
According to POLITICO, “Many Trump administration officials believe that Hegesth’s job is safe for the moment, some are privately concerned about the situation at the Pentagon.”
“There are some people who think Pete’s not doing the best job,” said one source.
Another person noted that Trump’s support and patience can waver quickly. “Trump goes to bat for people until the moment he flips on them. That’s always a possibility.”
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On Monday, Trump criticized the “fake news” media over the second scandal. He called reporting on Hegseth’s signal chat “a waste of time” and blamed “disgruntled employees” for the report.
Hegseth appeared with Trump at Monday’s Easter Egg Roll event.
The outlet reports the former Army National Guard officer gave “a defiant message to a small group of reporters on the South Lawn, whom he blamed for critical coverage.”
“This group right here — full of hoaxsters,” Hegseth said. “Full of hoaxsters that peddle anonymous sources from leakers with axes to grind and then you put it all together as if it’s some news story.”