Defense secretary says he didn’t text war plans, was sending updates to keep Trump’s national security team informed
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth doubled down Wednesday that no war plans or classified information were shared during a Signal group chat of Trump administration officials about possible strikes on Houthi targets, which was mistakenly shared with a journalist.
The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, published a story this week detailing the group chat messages, prompting pushback from the administration and calls from Democrats for Hegseth and other defense officials to resign.
“Nobody’s texting war plans,” Hegseth said Wednesday before boarding a plane in Hawaii. “I noticed this morning out came something that doesn’t look like war plans. And as a matter of fact, they even changed the title to attack plans because they know it’s not war plans.”
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National security advisor Michael Waltz, left, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have been at the center of the leaked Signal chat group detailing U.S. military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. (Reuters )
“There’s no units, no locations, no routes, no flight paths, no sources, no methods, no classified information,” he added, saying no sensitive information was divulged in the chat.
Hegseth said he was keeping President Donald Trump’s national security team informed in real time.
“My job, as I said, on top of that, everybody’s seen it now,” Hegseth said. “[The] team update is to provide updates in real time – general updates in real time. Keep everybody informed. That’s what I did. That’s my job.”
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., an Army veteran who served in Iraq, said Hegseth should “resign in disgrace.”
“Pete Hegseth is a f****** liar. This is so clearly classified info he recklessly leaked that could’ve gotten our pilots killed,” Duckworth said in a statement. “He needs to resign in disgrace immediately.”
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends a NATO Defense Ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 13. (Reuters/Yves Herman)
“Hegseth and every other official who was included in this group chat must be subject to an independent investigation,” she added. “If Republicans won’t join us in holding the Trump Administration accountable, then they are complicit in this dangerous and likely criminal breach of our national security.”
Goldberg said he received a request to join the group chat on the encrypted messaging service Signal on March 11 from what appeared to be national security advisor Michael Waltz. Goldberg released screenshots of some of the message exchanges he observed.
He reported that officials were discussing “war plans” but didn’t publish some of the highly sensitive information he saw, including precise information about weapons packages, targets and timing, due to potential threats to national security and military operations.
Earlier in the day, Hegseth scolded Goldberg in a post on X, who he said has never “seen a war plan.”
“So, let’s me get this straight. The Atlantic released the so-called ‘war plans’ and those ‘plans’ include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information,” he wrote. “Those are some really s—– war plans.”
“This only proves one thing: Jeff Goldberg has never seen a war plan or an “attack plan” (as he now calls it). Not even close,” he added.
