Trump Delivers Verdict On Pete Hegseth As Dems Demand His Resignation
President Donald Trump is standing firm in his support for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, despite calls from some Democratic lawmakers for his resignation following a leaked Signal chat containing details about a military operation in Yemen.
Trump addressed the situation after Hegseth inadvertently shared information about the strike with members of the administration through a Signal chat, mistakenly including Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. Goldberg subsequently published the full exchange on Wednesday morning.
Following demands from several Democrats in Congress for Hegseth to step down, reporters questioned Trump about whether Hegseth should resign.
"Hegseth is doing a great job, he had nothing to do with this. Hegseth. How do you bring Hegseth into this?" Trump responded.
The president also noted that his White House national security advisor, Mike Waltz, had taken responsibility for the error, acknowledging that Waltz had accidentally added Goldberg to the Signal group.
"Mike Waltz … he claimed responsibility, I would imagine. It had nothing to do with anyone else. It was Mike, I guess, I don’t know, I was told it was Mike," Trump said when asked about the matter.
Trump downplayed concerns that Hegseth had disclosed sensitive information, instead emphasizing the success of the mission.
"There was no harm done because the attack was unbelievably successful that night," Trump stated.
He further criticized the Democratic push for Hegseth’s resignation, questioning the reliability of the Signal app itself.
"Look, it’s all a witch hunt … you wanna ask about whether or not Signal works, I don’t know if Signal works, I think that Signal could be defective to be honest with you," Trump remarked.
The encrypted messaging application, known for its ability to erase messages after they are read, is widely used for secure communications in Washington, D.C.
"You use Signal, we use Signal, and everybody uses Signal, but it could be a defective platform, and we’re going to have to find that out," Trump added.
Senators Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, both Democrats from Arizona, urged Hegseth to resign, citing concerns over the leak of operational details.
"The Signal incident is what happens when you have the most unqualified Secretary of Defense we’ve ever seen. We’re lucky it didn’t cost any servicemembers their lives, but for the safety of our military and our country, Secretary Hegseth needs to resign," Kelly wrote on X.
"This could have gotten our men and women killed!" Gallego exclaimed on social media. "The Secretary of Defense needs to resign. The incompetence and cover-up is embarrassing."
Hegseth defended himself on X, asserting that he had not disclosed classified details and took issue with The Atlantic’s portrayal of his messages as "war plans."
"The Atlantic released the so-called ‘war plans’ and those ‘plans’ include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information. Those are some really sh***y war plans," Hegseth posted.
Hegseth had sent a message labeled "Team Update" to senior Trump administration officials on March 15, outlining the expected timing of the strike and the weapons to be used.
He insisted that his message was merely a "team update" rather than the sharing of "war plans."
"My job – team update, to provide updates in real time. General updates in real time keep everybody informed. That is what I did. That’s my job," Hegseth reiterated.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also addressed the controversy.
"Obviously, someone made a mistake, someone made a big mistake and added a journalist. Nothing against journalists but you ain’t supposed to be on that thing. None of the information on there at any point threatened the operation or the lives of our servicemen," Rubio remarked, emphasizing that the chat contained no classified material.