Hegseth Says He Shared Attack Plans on Signal for ‘Media Coordination’

Embattled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a Fox News interview on Tuesday morning that he has been sharing military attack plans on Signal “for media coordination and other things,” claiming the plans were “informal.”

On Sunday, The New York Times reported on the existence of a second Signal chat — titled “Defense | Team Huddle” — in which Hegseth shared highly sensitive air strike plans against Houthi rebels in Yemen. The chat included his brother and Department of Homeland Security Adviser Phil Hegseth, his personal lawyer, and his wife Jennifer Rauchet, a Fox News producer with no official government position. The revelation comes weeks after Hegseth shared those same plans in another chat into which Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg had inadvertently been added, leading to a firestorm of controversy around Hegseth’s recklessness.

Hegseth told Fox & Friends on Monday that this was all “old stuff,” claiming that “no one is texting war plans.” While Hegseth may be relying heavily on the technical definition of “war” to excuse himself, he went on to discuss sharing the strike plans. 

“I’m in the bowels of the Pentagon every single day. Just 10 minutes ago, I was looking at actual war plans — of things that were ongoing or pending to happen,” Hegseth said. “What was shared over Signal, then and now, however you characterize it, was informal unclassified coordinations for media coordination and other things.” 

Hegseth went on to accuse “left wing reporters” and disgruntled former Defense Department officials fired after a slipshod investigation into leaking at the department of making up accusations against him in order to “get at President Trump.” 

“I want this to be very clear, we take the classification of information very important — it’s very significant to us that we safeguard it,” the secretary said, claiming he was conducting an ongoing investigation into leaking at the department.

“When you dismiss people who you believe are leaking classified information […] why would it surprise anybody,” Hegseth said. “If those very same people keep leaking to the very same reporters whatever information they think they can have to try to sabotage the agenda of the president or the secretary. So once a leaker, always a leaker, often a leaker.”

Once a leaker, often a leaker also seems to be applicable to Hegseth’s own sharing of sensitive Pentagon materials with his allies over unsecure group chats. But the Trump administration is, at least for now, standing by their man. 

The White House posted segments of the Fox News interview on X, calling the claims against Hegseth a “fake news hoax.” On Monday, Trump told reporters that “Pete’s doing a great job” and “everybody’s happy with him.”

The affirmations come after a week of chaos surrounding Hegseth and the Defense Department. Last week, three senior Pentagon officials were dismissed after what they called “unconscionable” treatment, and “baseless attacks” against them by Hegseth and other officials. On Sunday, former Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot wrote in an op-ed that “it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer,” given that the Pentagon’s “dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president.” Hegseth responded by ranting at the White House’s annual Easter Egg Roll on Monday about how the reporters at the event were “hoaxsters.”

The president’s public line remains supportive, but according to a Monday report from NPR, the White House is exploring options to replace Hegseth as defense secretary. The White House denied the report, of course.