Crisis-hit Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at demands to quit over revelations he shared war secrets with his wife.
In a late-night tweet Sunday, Hegseth rejected a call for his resignation that came only hours after The New York Times reported how he had a second Signal chat called “Defense Huddle” that included his third wife—who has no official government role—and his brother, who was given a Department of Homeland Security appointment as liaison to the Pentagon.
Hegseth’s post on X offered no acknowledgment of Republican concerns that his tenure at the head of the Department of Defense has been a fiasco. Instead it replied to a tweet from the Democratic Party using his personal account.
“Your agenda is illegals, trans & DEI — all of which are no longer allowed @ DoD,” he wrote.
A late-night statement from Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell was even more defiant—although it offered no explicit denial of the core allegation that Hegseth had shared battle plans with his wife, Jennifer, and instead blamed the Times report on “disgruntled” former staffers.
“The Trump-hating media continues to be obsessed with destroying anyone committed to President Trump’s agenda,” Parnell said. “The New York Times—and all other Fake News that repeat their garbage—are enthusiastically taking the grievances of disgruntled former employees as the sole sources for their article… There was no classified information in any Signal chat, no matter how many ways they try to write the story.”
The former Fox & Friends weekend anchor, who faced revelations about alcohol abuse and an accusation of sexual assault before he was confirmed by the tightest possible margin, appeared to be fighting for his political life Monday, as a former aide twisted the knife by accusing him of being out of his depth. Hegseth denied the assault claim and was never charged over it.
Your agenda is illegals, trans & DEI — all of which are no longer allowed @ DoD.
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) April 21, 2025
Hegseth’s second Signal scandal was revealed Sunday in The New York Times with the newspaper reporting that he had shared “detailed” information on the March 15 airstrikes before they happened.
Last month, The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg claimed that he had been mistakenly added to another Signal group chat with top Trump administration national security officials, in which they discussed sensitive planning details for the military operation.
The Pentagon was thrown into further tumult last week when former top spokesman John Ullyot resigned in the wake of a series of controversies.
In a lengthy op-ed for Politico on Sunday, Ullyot let loose on Hegseth’s leadership and warned that more “bombshell stories” are set to leak over the next few weeks. The former Pentagon spokesperson ripped into Hegseth’s embarrassing blunders and claimed many in his “own inner circle” would “applaud quietly” should Trump oust him from his post.
Ullyot’s resignation came after three senior staff members were placed on administrative leave as part of an investigation into press leaks following the first Signal-related scandal.
Dan Caldwell, one of Hegseth’s top advisers, was reportedly escorted out of the Pentagon on Tuesday after he was identified as a potential source of leaks, as was Darin Selnick, deputy chief of staff to Hegseth.
Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, was placed on leave on Wednesday, with a government official confirming their departure to the Daily Beast.
The trio have banded together to hit back at Hegseth over “the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended.”
In a statement posted on X, they said: “Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door…
“At 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 ‘leaks’ to begin with.”
