Trump: Hegseth Is 'Doing a Great Job'

GOP lawmaker says defense secretary should be fired over latest reports of Signal leak
Posted Apr 21, 2025 5:15 PM CDT
Trump: Hegseth Is 'Doing a Great Job'
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, April 21, 2025, in Washington.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is rumored to be in danger of losing his job over the latest reports of sensitive information being shared in a Signal chat, but President Trump said Monday that he is "doing a great job. Just ask the Houthis how he's doing." Trump, speaking at the White House Easter Egg Roll, said the reports were "just fake news," the Wall Street Journal reports. "You know, he was put there to get rid of a lot of bad people, and that's what he's doing," Trump said. "You don't always have friends when you do that."

  • GOP lawmaker says he should be fired. Rep. Don Bacon, a member of the House Armed Service Committee, is the first Republican lawmaker to openly call for Hegseth's firing. "I had concerns from the get-go because Pete Hegseth didn't have a lot of experience," Bacon tells Politico. "I like him on Fox. But does he have the experience to lead one of the largest organizations in the world? That's a concern." He says if it's true Hegseth shared information about strikes on Yemen in a chat that included his wife and his brother, it's "totally unacceptable."

  • Hegseth lashes out. Hegseth, also speaking at the White House Easter Egg Roll, slammed the media as "hoaxsters" Monday. "What a big surprise that a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out from the same media that peddled the Russia hoax," he said, per the Hill. "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."
  • NPR says White House is looking for a replacement. NPR, citing a "US official who was not authorized to speak publicly," reported Monday that the White House was already looking for a replacement for Hegseth. In a post on X, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump "stands strongly behind" Hegseth and that the NPR story is "total FAKE NEWS based on one anonymous source who clearly has no idea what they are talking about."
  • A "month of chaos." Former top Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot, who resigned last week, may have been one of the "disgruntled former employees" Hegseth was talking about. "It's been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon," Ullyot wrote in a Politico op-ed on Sunday. "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 accused Hegseth of presiding over a "strange and baffling purge" of loyal aides at the Pentagon, saying that more firings are expected this week and that the "building is in disarray under Hegseth's leadership."
(More Pete Hegseth stories.)

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