President Donald Trump has publicly and privately expressed unwavering support for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after reports of a new scandal of using his personal phone to send sensitive information about U.S. military operations in Yemen.

Sources told American outlet NBC News that Hegseth inadvertently sent information about the Yemen strikes to a 13-person group chat that included his wife and his brother. This comes just weeks after it emerged that he also shared details about the strikes in another Signal chat to which a journalist had been inadvertently added.

In response, President Trump has downplayed the incident, referring to it as a “minor glitch” and emphasizing that Hegseth is “doing a great job”.

On his part, Hegseth was defiant and casted blame to the media.

“This is what the media does. They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations. Not going to work with me,” Hegseth said at the White House.

In the earlier scandal, the chat — which included National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — was reportedly joined by the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, due to an accidental inclusion.

The inclusion of a journalist in such a discussion has raised serious concerns about national security protocols.

While the administration maintains that the information was unclassified, critics argue that the use of unsecured platforms for such discussions is a significant lapse in security.

Potus equally defended Waltz, suggesting that the inclusion of Goldberg in the chat was due to a staff error and asserting that the National Security Advisor need not apologise for the mishap.​ This comes despite bipartisan calls for investigations and resignations.

Senators Mark Warner, Andy Kim and Elissa Slotkin all called for Hegseth’s resignation.

“If he cared about the institution he’s leading, he should man up, acknowledge he’s a distraction to the military’s mission, and resign,” Senator Slotkin said.

Fake news

The NPR on Monday, April 21 reported that White House had begun the process of looking for a new leader at the Pentagon to replace Hegseth. According to the NPR’s report, Hegseth was under fire over the chat leak scandal.

However, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt flagged the report as fake on her official X account.

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