Hegseth maintains White House backing amid 'smear campaign' alleging likely ouster
The White House is steadfast in its support for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth amid media reports regarding his imminent ouster.
Hegseth has attracted scrutiny once more in recent weeks after the New York Times reported Sunday that he disclosed details about a March military airstrike in Yemen against the Houthis in a Signal messaging app group chat that included his wife, brother and lawyer – about a dozen people in total – on a personal phone before his confirmation. Hegseth maintains that no classified information was disclosed over Signal.
The incident follows a similar episode in March, where the Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was included on a Signal group chat with other high-ranking Trump administration officials, including Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance, discussing the same attack on the Houthis. National security advisor Mike Waltz later took "full responsibility" for that chat blunder.
But the White House says it supports Hegseth, and argued he’s faced a "smear campaign" since Trump tapped him for the post in December 2024.
"The secretary of defense is doing a tremendous job, and he is bringing monumental change to the Pentagon, and there's a lot of people in the city who reject monumental change, and I think, frankly, that's why we've seen a smear campaign against the secretary of defense since the moment that President Trump announced his nomination before the United States Senate," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday.
"Let me reiterate: the president stands strongly behind Secretary Hegseth and the change that he is bringing to the Pentagon, and the results that he's achieved thus far speak for themselves," Leavitt said.
Hegseth has received backlash ever since Trump announced his nomination to lead the Pentagon, especially after allegations of sexual assault and alcohol misuse surfaced. In response, Hegseth told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing that he is not a "perfect person," but asserted that he was the subject of a "coordinated smear campaign orchestrated in the media."
Ultimately, no Democrats voted to confirm Hegseth. In contrast, only one Democrat voted against Trump's first secretary of defense in 2016, retired Marine Corps Gen. Jim Mattis.
Hegseth has spearheaded multiple reforms, including a series of efforts to curb diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at the Pentagon that he says are in accordance with executive orders from the Trump administration.
NPR reported Monday that the White House was eyeing a new secretary of defense, but Leavitt shut down the report immediately, labeling the report "fake news." The NPR story was based on one anonymous U.S. official not authorized to speak to the media.
Meanwhile, Hegseth has maintained that the second Signal chat, like his first, did not include "war plans," and that all discussions conducted over Signal were unclassified. Included in the group chat were Hegseth's brother, Phil, who works at the Pentagon as a Department of Homeland Security liaison and senior advisor, according to the Associated Press. The defense secretary's longtime personal attorney, Tim Parlatore, who was commissioned as a Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps commander right before the Signal chat, was also included, according to the Times report.
"I said repeatedly, nobody is texting war plans," Hegseth told Fox News Tuesday. "I look at war plans every day. What was shared over Signal then and now, however you characterize it, was informal, unclassified coordinations, for media coordinations and other things. That’s what I’ve said from the beginning."
Meanwhile, even some in Hegseth’s orbit predict that he will not remain in his post for much longer.
John Ullyot, a former senior communications official for the Pentagon who resigned in April under Hegseth, wrote that the abrupt Friday firings of three of Hegseth’s "most loyal" advisors – his aide Dan Caldwell, his deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick, and chief of staff to the deputy defense secretary, Colin Carroll – were alarming and "baffling."
"The dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president – who deserves better from his senior leadership," Ullyot wrote in a Sunday op-ed for Politico.
"Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account," he wrote. "Given that, it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer."
Caldwell and Selnick were included in the second Hegseth group chat, according to the Times.
HEGSETH SHARED DETAILS OF YEMEN STRIKES IN SECOND SIGNAL CHAT: REPORT
Senate Democrats are also clamoring for Hegseth to resign. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member, asked the Pentagon’s inspector general to conduct a report into Hegseth’s use of the Signal chat.
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"Since he was nominated, I have warned that Mr. Hegseth lacks the experience, competence, and character to run the Department of Defense," Reed said in a Sunday statement. "In light of the ongoing chaos, dysfunction, and mass firings under Mr. Hegseth’s leadership, it seems that those objections were well-founded."
"Accountability starts at the top, and I have grave concerns about Secretary Hegseth’s ability to maintain the trust and confidence of U.S. service members," he stated.