White House said seeking to axe Hegseth after reports he sent war plans to 2nd group
US government denies ‘fake news,’ repeats Trump’s support for Pentagon head, who blames ‘disgruntled’ ex-staffers for revelation he shared details of Yemen raid with wife, brother
The White House is looking to replace US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, NPR reported Monday, following revelations that he sent details of a March attack on Yemen’s Houthis to a message group that included his wife, his brother, and his personal lawyer — the second known instance in which the Pentagon chief shared sensitive information on the unsecured messaging platform Signal.
The report, which cited a US official unauthorized to speak publicly, was flatly denied by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who wrote on X that it was “total FAKE NEWS based on one anonymous source who clearly has no idea what they are talking about.”
Leavitt reiterated that US President Donald Trump “stands strongly” behind Hegseth. Speaking to reporters at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday, Trump said Hegseth was “doing a great job. Everybody’s happy with him.” Asked if he remained confident in Hegseth, Trump said: “Oh, totally.”
“Ask the Houthis how he’s doing,” the president added, alluding to the ramped-up US military campaign against the Iran-backed rebels.
The latest revelations that Hegseth used Signal to share classified war plans came at an uncertain moment for him and the Pentagon, where senior officials were ousted last week as part of an internal leak investigation, and have lashed out at how they were treated.
On Monday, Hegseth dismissed the revelations as the work of “disgruntled former employees.”
“This is what the media does,” Hegseth said at the Easter Egg Roll. “They try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations.”
“Not going to work with me,” he added. “I have spoken to the president, and we are going to continue fighting on the same page all the way.”
In the chat with his wife, his brother, and his attorney, Hegseth shared war plans similar to those revealed last month by The Atlantic magazine, after its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was accidentally included in a separate Signal chat of top US officials, Reuters reported Sunday.
The chat reported on by Reuters included about a dozen people. It was created during Hegseth’s confirmation process to discuss administrative issues, rather than detailed military planning. Among the group’s members were Hegseth’s attorney, Tim Parlatore, and the defense secretary’s brother, Phil Hegseth, who is a US Department of Homeland Security liaison to the Pentagon.
Also included was Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer Rauchet, a former Fox News producer, who has attended sensitive meetings with foreign military counterparts, according to images the Pentagon has posted publicly.
At least nine US Senate Democrats called on Hegseth — a former Fox News co-host and Army National Guard veteran with no previous experience in government or politics — to resign, saying the existence of a second Signal chat showed that he was not fit for the job.
But Republican lawmakers, who control both the US Senate and House of Representatives, have largely been silent and none has called for him to step down.
A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that Hegseth had been counseled against sharing information on unsecure systems like Signal before he did so last month.
The Pentagon Inspector General’s office announced earlier this month that it was opening a probe into Hegseth’s use of the unsecured commercial texting application to coordinate on the highly sensitive March 15 launch of US strikes on the Houthis.
The news of Hegseth’s second group chat came days after Dan Caldwell, one of his leading advisers, was escorted from the Pentagon after being identified during investigations into leaks at the US Department of Defense.
Caldwell played a critical role for Hegseth and was named as the Pentagon’s point person by the secretary in the first Signal chat.
Following Caldwell’s departure, less senior officials Darin Selnick, who recently became Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff, and Colin Carroll, who was chief of staff to US Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, were put on administrative leave and fired on Friday.
Three senior staffers at the Pentagon who were placed on administrative leave before being fired on Friday, following claims of an ongoing investigation into “unauthorized disclosures” at the DoD; Dan Caldwell, a top adviser to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth; Darin Selnick,… pic.twitter.com/vjvKvPTHGc
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) April 20, 2025
In a joint statement posted Sunday on social media, Selnick, Caldwell, and Carroll hit back, saying unnamed Pentagon officials had “slandered our character with baseless attacks.”
“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 ‘leaks’ to begin with,” they said.
Hegseth’s former Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot also took aim at him in a scathing opinion piece in Politico on Sunday that described “a month of total chaos at the Pentagon.”
“President Donald Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account. Given that, it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer,” wrote Ullyot.
Hegseth narrowly secured enough votes in January to become defense secretary, after fierce opposition from Democrats and even some Republicans.
Trump removed a number of defense secretaries during his first administration over policy differences or questions about their loyalty.
Hegseth, however, is seen as being in lockstep with Trump. He has deployed thousands of troops to the border with Mexico, called on Europe to spend more on its defenses and taken aim at diversity in the military.
The Times of Israel Community.