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‘No dysfunction at all’: Trump backs Defence Secretary Hegseth after reports of second Signal chat leak

The controversy of leaking US military’s attack plan on Houthis comes a month after a journalist was added to a US government’s official Signal chat group which included cabinet officials.

United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, signal chat leak, trump

United States Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth listens to opening statements during a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact group at NATO headquarters in Brussels. (AP Photo)

US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he stood behind Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth as reports claimed that he shared US military attack details on Yemen’s Houthi group in a Signal chat group that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer.

The alleged controversy of leaking US military’s March attack plan on Houthi group comes a month after a journalist was added to a US government’s official Signal chat group which included cabinet officials, including Hegseth where plans to attack Houthis in Yemen were discussed.

According to a BBC report, in the second Signal chat leak, defence secretary Hegseth shared information about airstrikes against Yemen based Houthis.

.@SecDef Hegseth on “Signal chat controversy”: “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, won’t give back their Pulitzers, they got Pulitzers for a bunch of lies … This is what… pic.twitter.com/qYH8O98EtX

— CSPAN (@cspan) April 21, 2025

The revelations of leaking highly sensitive security details come at an uncertain time for Hegseth and Pentagon as senior officials were ousted last week as part of an internal leak investigation.

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However, Hegseth received support from President Donald Trump who told reporters on Monday that “Pete’s doing a great job. Everybody’s happy with him.”

When asked by reporters if the Pentagon had become dysfunctional with Hegseth at the helm, Trump responded saying “There’s no dysfunction at all. Ask the Houthis how much dysfunction they have.”

Also Read | US Defence Secretary Hegseth shared Yemen war plans in Signal chat with family: Reports

Trump said that he has “great confidence” in defence secretary Hegseth and downplayed the second Signal chat leak claiming that the source of the story “sounds like disgruntled employees”.

Meanwhile, the White House in a statement to New York Times said that no classified information was shared on behalf of Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

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Trump, while interacting with the media further added, “Are you bringing up Signal again? I thought they gave that up two weeks ago. It’s the same old stuff from the media. Try finding something new,” BBC reported.

Earlier, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt denied a report by National Public Radio that the Trump administration was looking for a leadership change in the defence department.

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