Following media reports which claimed that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth shared sensitive military details in another Signal messaging chat, this time with his wife and brother, the White House has come in support of Hegseth. While neither the White House nor Hegseth have denied that he had shared such information in a second chat, their responses have focused on what they called the disgruntled workers, blaming them for leaking to the media and insisting that no classified information had been disclosed.
Meanwhile, Democrats have demanded Hegseth's firing at a time when the Pentagon is engulfed in turmoil, including the departures of several senior aides and an internal investigation over information leaks.
The White House has seemingly tried to deflect attention from the national security implications of the latest Signal revelation. It has framed the current incident as the outgrowth of an institutional power struggle between Hegseth and the career workforce.
Speaking to reporters on the issue, US President Donald Trump said, "It's just fake news. They just bring up stories." "I guess it sounds like disgruntled employees. You know, he was put there to get rid of a lot of bad people, and that's what he's doing. So you don't always have friends when you do that," he added.
“This is what happens when the entire Pentagon is working against you and working against the monumental change that you are trying to implement,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in remarks amplified by a Pentagon social media account.
Earlier, The New York Times on Sunday reported that the information shared in a Signal messaging chat with Hegseth's wife, brother and others was similar to what was communicated in the already disclosed chain with Trump administration officials.
White House officials became aware of the second Signal chat from news reports on Sunday, according to an official familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations.