President Donald Trump has admitted he was forced to pull scandal-plagued Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth aside for a dressing down.
“I think he’s gonna get it together.” Trump said of Hegseth in an interview with The Atlantic. “I had a talk with him, a positive talk, but I had a talk with him.”
The comments mark the first time Trump has acknowledged Hegseth’s struggles as defense secretary and suggest mounting frustration behind the scenes, despite his public display of confidence.
Hegseth has faced calls to resign, including from at least one Republican Congressman, amid growing chaos at the Pentagon and rising doubts that the former Fox News host is the right person to lead the department.
Publicly, Trump has steadfastly stood by Hegseth, defending him after a report on Easter Sunday revealed that the defense secretary had texted details on the Yemen airstrikes to his wife, brother, and personal attorney on yet another Signal group chat.
“It’s just fake news,” Trump said last Monday. “Sounds like disgruntled employees. You know, he was put there to get rid of a lot of bad people, and that’s what he’s doing. You don’t always have friends when you do that.”
The same day, Hegseth told reporters, “I have spoken to the president and we are going to continue fighting on the same page all the way.”
However, according to NBC News, which spoke with a U.S. official, Trump had called Hegseth to chastise him for texting the military plans to his wife Jennifer Rauchet, who does not hold an official position within the government, slamming it as a childish move.
In The Atlantic interview, Trump said he told his staff, “Maybe don’t use Signal, OK?”
Meanwhile, Hegseth has gone on a frantic hunt for suspected leakers inside the Pentagon who he says are waging a smear campaign against him. He has reportedly become increasingly isolated and paranoid as news of Pentagon plans leaked, including details of military plans for the Panama Canal, the movement of a U.S. carrier in the Red Sea, and billionaire Elon Musk’s visit to discuss China.
In March, he invited Musk for a top-secret military briefing on strategy in the event of a war with China, only for details on the briefing to leak to the press. Amid concerns over potential conflicts of interest—the Tesla CEO has extensive financial interests in China—the meeting’s sensitivity was downgraded.
“What the f— is Elon doing there? Make sure he doesn’t go,” Trump said, according to a top official who spoke to Axios.
As Hegseth purged multiple top aides this month, many of whom have subsequently questioned his ability to lead the Department of Defense.
“I think it’s kind of consumed the team a little bit… If you look at a pie chart of the secretary’s day, at this point, 50 percent of it is probably leak investigation,” one of the fired aides, Colin Carroll, said during the latest episode of The Megyn Kelly Show.
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