Hegseth lashes out at media amidst 'full blown meltdown' at the Pentagon claims
ADVERTISEMENT
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has lashed out at media reports of a second Signal group chat used to discuss sensitive military information.
The media reports were quoting "anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees" Hegseth said, alluding to a New York Times story that alleged the existence of a second Signal group chat discussing sensitive information on US strikes in Yemen.
The outlet claimed Hegseth had taken part in a second chat, which included his wife, brother and around a dozen other people just over a month after the existence of the first chat sparked a political scandal.
Pressure mounted on Hegseth when former Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot published an op-ed in Politico on Sunday in which he described the workplace under Hegseth as overwhelmed by staff drama and turnover.
The situation was in "full-blown meltdown", Ullyot wrote, adding that he believed the dysfunction should cost Hegseth his position.
"From leaks of sensitive operational plans to mass firings, the dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president – who deserves better from his senior leadership,' Ullyot said."
Hegseth on Monday sidestepped questions about Ullyot. He implied media reports were to blame for publishing the claims of former staffers who were maliciously planting stories.
Three former senior advisers to Hegseth were ousted last week in the midst of an expanding information probe. In a join statement, the three said they were subject to "baseless attacks" as they were escorted out the door of the Pentagon.
"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," the three said.
Ullyot also announced his resignation last week, though the Pentagon later stated he was asked to resign.
Signal app seen on a mobile device screen in Chicago, 25 March, 2025
AP Photo
White House shields Hegseth
The White House has so far defended Hegseth and the turmoil that has engulfed the Pentagon. Trump called the stories "fake news" and, like Hegseth, attributed them to "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,' Trump said, adding he thought his defence chief was doing a "great job."
The Pentagon's chief spokesperson Sean Parnell blamed the "Trump-hating media".
'There was no classified information in any Signal chat, no matter how many ways they try to write the story. What is true is that the Office of the Secretary of Defence is continuing to become stronger and more efficient in executing President Trump's agenda. We've already achieved so much for the American warfighter, and will never back down,' Parnell said.
Related
Pentagon watchdog to review Hegseth's use of Signal to convey Yemen strike plans
Pete Hegseth shared details of Yemen strike in second Signal chat, media report
Calls to resign
Hegseth is however facing growing calls to resign from Democrats, who have slammed the Trump administration for failing to take action against top officials using the commercial app Signal to discuss classified military information.
ADVERTISEMENT
Influential Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday directly called for Hegseth to leave his post. 'The details keep coming out. We keep learning how Pete Hegseth put lives at risk. But Trump is still too weak to fire him,' Schumar posted on social media.
Jack Reed, a Democratic Senator from Rhode Island said that if the report of the second Signal chat is true it would be "another troubling example of Secretary Hegseth's reckless disregard for the laws and protocols that every other military service member is required to follow'.
Hegseth lacks the experience, competence and character to run the Department of Defence, Reed alleged.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
AFP
34 minutes ago
- AFP
Picture of Trump 'bestowing medal to S.Korean activist' is doctored
"At first I thought he was full of hot air, but then I saw this photo where Jeon Han-gil received a medal directly from President Trump and I began to believe Trump really is behind him," reads part of the Korean-language caption of a collage shared on Facebook on June 11, 2025. "Lee Jae-myung's government should realise that if it messes with Jeon, it will become enemies with President Trump." to activist Jeon's claims that the United States would if South Korea's newly elected president Lee Jae-myung targets him for supporting for impeached leader Yoon Suk Yeol (archived link). The collage shows various screenshots of Jeon talking about and a larger image of him apparently receiving a medal from the US president (archived link). Image Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, captured on June 12, 2025 The same collage was shared in several Facebook groups supporting conservative politicians. "Wow, an award from Trump himself -- you are a hero to the Republic of Korea," reads a comment on one of the posts. "Any time a South Korean receives an award abroad should be a cause for great celebration," says another. But the image purportedly showing Trump giving Jeon a medal is a fabrication. A combination of keyword and reverse image searches led to a photo taken by a New York Times photographer on November 16, 2018 (archived link). The photo is captioned: "President Trump gave a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Miriam Adelson -- a doctor and philanthropist who, along with her husband, Sheldon Adelson, is a substantial donor to Republican candidates." Image Screenshot comparison of the altered image (left) and the New York Times' photo from November 2018 (right) Footage from the event was also posted on CBS News's YouTube channel, with the moment Trump awards Adelson the medal -- the highest US civilian award -- at the video's 25:05 mark (archived link). Adelson is listed among the official recipients of the medal on the Trump White House website (archived link). Jeon's name does not appear on the list. The image of Jeon used in the doctored image matches his profile picture from the website of a civil service cram school, where he previously taught Korean history (archived link). Image Screenshot comparison of the doctored image (left) and Jeon's profile image on a cram school website (right) other doctored images involving Trump and South Korean political figures, including similar manipulated visuals falsely showing Trump in a video conference with Yoon.
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
As Trump mulls sanctions, Russia's military economy slows
Huge spending on guns, tanks, drones, missiles and soldiers for the Ukraine campaign helped ensure Moscow bucked predictions of economic collapse after it launched its offensive in 2022. But as Kyiv's most important backers head Sunday to Canada for the G7, where US President Donald Trump will face pressure to hit Russia with fresh sanctions, the Kremlin's run of economic fortune is showing signs of fatigue. "It is no longer possible to pull the economy along by the military-industrial complex alone," Natalia Zubarevich, an economist at Moscow State University, told AFP. Government spending has jumped 60 percent since before the offensive, with military outlays now at nine percent of GDP, according to President Vladimir Putin. "Almost every other sector is showing zero or even negative growth," said Zubarevich. Russia's economy expanded 1.4 percent on an annualised basis in the first quarter -- down from 4.1 percent in 2024 to its lowest reading in two years. The central bank predicts growth of no more than 1-2 percent this year. Russia's economy "is simply running out of steam", Alexandra Prokopenko, a former central bank advisor and now analyst based outside Russia, wrote in a recent note. Oil reliance Putin, who has revelled in Russia's strong performance, has brushed off concerns. "We do not need such growth," he said at the end of last year, when the slowdown started. Rapid expansion risked creating "imbalances in the economy, that could cause us harm in the long run", he said. Top among those imbalances has been rapid inflation, running at around 10 percent. The Central Bank last week nudged interest rates down from a two-decade-high saying price rises were moderating. But those high borrowing costs -- combined with falling oil prices -- are the main factors behind the slowdown, economist Anton Tabakh told AFP. Russia's Urals blend of crude oil sold for an average of $52 a barrel in May, down from $68 in January -- a big reduction in energy revenues, which make up more than a quarter of government income. Russia this year has raised taxes on businesses and high earners, essentially forcing them to stump up more for the Ukraine offensive. But the new income "only covers the shortfall in oil sales", said Zubarevich. With tighter finances, Russia's parliament was this week forced to amend state spending plans for 2025. It now expects a budget deficit of 1.7 percent of GDP -- three times higher than initially predicted. Trump factor Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is urging Trump to whack a fresh set of economic sanctions on Moscow as punishment for rejecting ceasefire calls and continuing with its deadly bombardments of Ukrainian cities. "Russia doesn't really care about such human losses. What they do worry about are harsh sanctions," Zelensky said Thursday. "That's what really threatens them –- because it could cut off their funding for war and force them to seek peace," he added. Trump's intentions are unclear. He has publicly mulled both hitting Moscow with new sanctions and removing some of the measures already in place. Some US senators, including Republicans, have proposed hitting countries that buy Russian oil with massive tariffs, to try to dent the flow of billions of dollars to Moscow from the likes of China and India. In Moscow, officials flip between blasting sanctions as an "illegal" attack on Russia and brushing them off as an ineffective tool that has backfired on Europe and the United States. Russia has also talked up its ability to continue fighting for years -- whatever the West does -- and has geared its economy to serving the military. Moscow still has the cash to wage its conflict "for a long time", Zubarevich said. "Through 2025 definitely. 2026 will be a bit tougher but they will cut other expenses. This (military) spending will stay." © 2025 AFP
France 24
3 hours ago
- France 24
'We're done with Teams': German state hits uninstall on Microsoft
In less than three months' time, almost no civil servant, police officer or judge in Schleswig-Holstein will be using any of Microsoft's ubiquitous programs at work. Instead, the northern state will turn to open-source software to "take back control" over data storage and ensure "digital sovereignty", its digitalisation minister, Dirk Schroedter, told AFP. "We're done with Teams!" he said, referring to Microsoft's messaging and collaboration tool and speaking on a video call -- via an open-source German program, of course. The radical switch-over affects half of Schleswig-Holstein's 60,000 public servants, with 30,000 or so teachers due to follow suit in coming years. The state's shift towards open-source software began last year. The current first phase involves ending the use of Word and Excel software, which are being replaced by LibreOffice, while Open-Xchange is taking the place of Outlook for emails and calendars. Over the next few years, there will also be a switch to the Linux operating system in order to complete the move away from Windows. 'Digital dependencies' The principle of open-source software is to allow users to read the source code and modify it according to their own needs. The issue of the power wielded by American tech titans has been thrown into sharper relief by Donald Trump's return to the White House and the subsequent rise in US-EU tensions. In the case of Microsoft, there have long been worries about the dominant position it enjoys thanks to it owning both the Windows operating system and a suite of programs found in offices the world over. In 2023, the European Union launched an antitrust investigation against Microsoft over the way it tied Teams to its other programs for businesses. "The geopolitical developments of the past few months have strengthened interest in the path that we've taken," said Schroedter, adding that he had received requests for advice from across the world. "The war in Ukraine revealed our energy dependencies, and now we see there are also digital dependencies," he said. The government in Schleswig-Holstein is also planning to shift the storage of its data to a cloud system not under the control of Microsoft, said Schroedter. He explained that the state wants to rely on publicly owned German digital infrastructure rather than that of an American company. Taken 'by the throat' Experts point to economic incentives for the sort of shift Schleswig-Holstein is making, as investing in open-source alternatives and training staff to use them often costs less than the licences for Microsoft's programs. This is particularly the case when businesses and public bodies find themselves taken "by the throat" when hit by unexpected extra costs for mandatory updates, said Benjamin Jean from consulting firm Inno3. Schleswig-Holstein hopes that its move away from Microsoft will eventually save it tens of millions of euros. But organisations considering this sort of change have to reckon with resistance from staff who fear upheaval. "If people aren't guided through it, there's an outcry and everyone just wants to go back to how it was before," warned Francois Pellegrini, an IT professor at Bordeaux University. Pioneer administrations The potential pitfalls can be seen in the experience of Munich, whose city administration was a pioneer in using open-source programs in the 1990s. In 2017, the city announced an about-turn, citing a lack of political support and the difficulty of interacting with other systems. But other public bodies are staying the course: France's gendarmerie, around 100,000 strong, has been using the Linux operating system since the 2000s and India's defence ministry was in 2023 reported to have launched a homegrown system called "Maya OS". Across the border from Schleswig-Holstein, in Denmark, reports say that the local governments of Copenhagen and Aarhus are also looking into ditching Microsoft. Another factor that could push the trend is the EU "Interoperable Europe Act", which came into effect last year and encourages the use of open-source software.
