Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s standing with some in the administration is on thin ice as top officials have grown tired of the secretary’s stream of controversies, two sources close to the White House told NOTUS.
Hegseth went to the White House for a meeting Thursday, one day after The Washington Post reported that information he sent on Signal came from a classified email system, a source familiar with the defense secretary’s schedule said.
Hegseth was previously scheduled to travel to two bases in Georgia but canceled in order to attend the meeting at the White House, the Pentagon confirmed.
The meeting comes as Hegseth, once again, is in the headlines over his handling of sensitive information and leadership at the Pentagon.
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White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said the president “is extremely pleased with the work of Secretary Hegseth, who has taken decisive action this week to protect DOD information technology and was crucial to the success of Operation Midnight Hammer.”
“The President meets regularly with his talented Cabinet officials because he values their expertise in his decision-making,” she continued.
But a source close to the White House described one of President Donald Trump’s top aides as being “pissed off” about Hegseth’s time leading the Defense Department and feeling like it was “time for him to go.” A second source close to the White House confirmed the characterization of the aide’s stance.
This White House aide’s grievances extended beyond the Signal scandal, the two sources said, and revolved around Hegseth generally surprising the White House on issues, including his recent decision to temporarily pause a munitions shipment to Ukraine.
In response to questions about Hegseth’s standing, a Pentagon spokesperson touted military recruiting numbers and referenced Trump’s past comments that Hegseth is “doing a great job.”
“Men and women across the country are proud to have a Secretary of Defense who is getting back to basics, reviving the warrior ethos and putting America First,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told NOTUS in a statement.
Allegations of Hegseth mishandling sensitive information have dogged the secretary and his staff since The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg revealed he was accidentally added to a top-level Signal chat about U.S. strikes in Yemen in early March.
The Department of Defense inspector general is currently investigating Hegseth’s use of Signal to communicate sensitive issues. The initial report, not yet released, includes evidence that messages sent to Hegseth came from a classified system, according to The Washington Post. Hegseth sent information over Signal originating from a classified “SECRET” email from Gen. Michael Kurilla, who was in charge of the strikes against the Houthis, a person familiar with the communications told NOTUS.
So far, Hegseth has not publicly faced any consequences for the Signal scandal.
On Capitol Hill, some Republicans acknowledge that Hegseth’s actions should have been met with some punishments — though they did not feel it was Congress’ place to hold the Cabinet official accountable.
Sen. Mike Rounds, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told NOTUS that he expects “somebody got taken to the woodshed” for the Signal controversy. He acknowledged that “there would have been disciplinary actions” for anyone inside the Department of Defense for a similar leak. Still, there’s no need for checks and balances from Congress on this matter, he said.
“I don’t think it’s partisan, but I do think it’s challenging for one branch to tell another branch that we are going to hold them accountable,” Rounds said. “The entity that has to hold a secretary of defense accountable specifically is his boss, and that’s the president.”
During the most recent House Armed Services Committee markup of the National Defense Authorization Act, Rep. Don Bacon was the only Republican on the committee to vote in favor of a “sense of Congress” measure that would say revealing classified information is wrong and should receive disciplinary action.
“It was common sense that was [classified as] secret,” Bacon said this week after The Post’s report. Bacon served in the Air Force for nearly 30 years, leaving that career as a brigadier general. “They’re stating the obvious. I’m glad that they made it official.”
The IG received evidence that Hegseth relayed information that originated from emails sent across the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, or SIPRNet, The Washington Post reported. It automatically labels any information sent across the network as “SECRET” with corresponding bold letters and colored labels that cannot be removed easily.
“A Signal system doesn’t link into a SIPRNet,” Rep. Ryan Zinke told NOTUS. Zinke, a former commander with the U.S. Navy SEALs, is intimately familiar with both SIPRNet and the higher-level top-secret systems.
“Someone would have to type it out because the systems just aren’t transferable,” Zinke said. “You could take a picture of something to transfer it down, but you can’t transfer documents between the two.”
Support for Hegseth in Congress isn’t totally stable, either.
Rep. Rich McCormick, a former Marine helicopter pilot and Navy commander, said that the issues with Signal were Hegseth’s one mulligan.
“I get Bacon’s point, but I’m not politicizing anything that happened,” he said. “I’m saying, live and learn. If you don’t learn, then go on.”
McCormick isn’t in the mindset of forgive and forget. In his mind, the operational security slip-up that Hegseth made wasn’t a small issue. It was one they needed to correct — and quickly. He sees the recent Iran strikes and the lack of leaks there as a sign they’re heading in the right direction.
But that doesn’t get Hegseth off the hook.
“If it happens again, then we’ve got to start talking about it,” McCormick said. “People make mistakes; the mistakes we repeat are the ones that matter.”
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