Trump stands ‘strongly in the back of’ Hegseth, White House says

President Donald Trump stands “strongly behind” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned Tuesday, in spite of new reviews that he talk about extremely delicate army data on a Signal chat with friends and family.

Hegseth is “doing a tremendous job, and he is bringing monumental change to the Pentagon,” mentioned Leavitt.

“There’s a lot of people in the city who reject monumental change, and I think, frankly, that’s why we’ve seen a smear campaign against the Secretary of Defense,” she added.

The newest protection of Hegseth got here after NBC News reported Monday that U.S. army plans the protection secretary shared over Signal had in the beginning been despatched to him the use of a safe executive line for extremely delicate data.

Within 10 mins of receiving the plans on March 15, Hegseth had shared them in a 13-person Signal crew chat that incorporated his spouse and brother.

The White House insists that not anything Hegseth shared on Signal used to be categorized.

Hegseth previous on Tuesday blamed “leakers” who not paintings on the Pentagon for the most recent revelation about his use of Signal to talk about army data.

“Once a leaker, always a leaker, often a leaker,” Hegseth mentioned on Fox News. “I don’t have time for leakers, I don’t have time for the hoax press that peddles old stories from disgruntled employees,” he added.

Hegseth additionally defended his communique on Signal, pronouncing that “what was shared … however you characterize it, was informal, unclassified coordinations, for media coordination and other things.”

The newest reporting comes about one month after preliminary revelations about Hegseth discussing main points of pending army moves in Yemen on a distinct Signal textual content thread that inadvertently incorporated Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in leader of “The Atlantic.”

Trump has to this point stood in the back of Hegseth amid the debate, pronouncing on Monday that he used to be “doing a great job.”

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