Trump stands behind Hegseth after reports Yemen plans shared again, White House says

Thomson Reuters

· Posted: Apr 21, 2025 12:06 PM EDT | Last Updated: 23 minutes ago

U.S. President Donald Trump stands down Pete Hegseth, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Monday, aft reports the defence secretary shared details of a March onslaught connected Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis successful a connection radical that included his wife, member and idiosyncratic lawyer.

"The president perfectly has assurance successful Secretary Hegseth. I spoke to him [Trump] astir it this morning, and helium stands down him," Leavitt told reporters.

Revelations Hegseth utilized the unclassified messaging strategy Signal to stock highly delicate information details for the 2nd clip travel astatine a delicate infinitesimal for him, as senior officials were ousted from the Pentagon past week arsenic portion of an interior leak investigation.

In the 2nd chat, Hegseth shared details of the onslaught akin to those revealed past period by The Atlantic mag aft its exertion successful chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was included successful a abstracted chat connected the Signal app by mistake, Reuters reported connected Sunday.

The 2nd chat included astir a twelve radical and was created during Hegseth's confirmation process to sermon administrative issues alternatively than elaborate subject planning. Among them was Hegseth's brother, who is simply a Department of Homeland Security liaison to the Pentagon.

Leavitt said Hegseth shared nary classified accusation connected either Signal chat.

Speaking to reporters astatine the White House connected Monday, Hegseth said, "I person spoken to the president, and we are going to proceed warring connected the aforesaid leafage each the way."

WATCH | Trump administration's information squad denies classified info was released:

The latest revelation comes days aft Dan Caldwell, 1 of Hegseth's starring advisers, was escorted from the Pentagon aft being identified during an probe into leaks astatine the U.S. Department of Defence.

Caldwell played a captious relation for Hegseth and was named arsenic the Pentagon's constituent idiosyncratic by the caput successful the archetypal Signal chat.

"We are incredibly disappointed by the mode successful which our work astatine the Department of Defence ended," Caldwell posted connected X, formerly Twitter, connected Saturday. "Unnamed Pentagon officials person slandered our quality with baseless attacks connected our mode retired the door."

Following Caldwell's departure, little elder officials Darin Selnick, who precocious became Hegseth's lawman main of staff, and Colin Carroll, who was main of unit to Deputy Defence Secretary Steve Feinberg, were enactment connected administrative permission and fired connected Friday.

John Ullyot, the Pentagon's erstwhile apical spokesperson who stepped down past week, criticized the Pentagon person successful a Politico magazine sentiment portion published Sunday. Ullyot alleged Hegseth's team dispersed unverified claims astir 3 apical officials who were fired past week, falsely accusing them of leaking delicate accusation to media outlets.