{"id":41307,"date":"2025-04-21T19:57:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T00:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=41307"},"modified":"2025-04-21T23:00:59","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T04:00:59","slug":"trump-world-circles-wagons-on-hegseth-amid-new-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=41307","title":{"rendered":"Trump world circles wagons on Hegseth amid new scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Trump World is playing defense amid mounting criticism of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2002<\/u><\/a>after new revelations that he shared sensitive military information with family members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hegseth lashed out at the media and what he claimed were \u201cdisgruntled former employees\u201d<\/strong> Monday for the chorus of criticism for his handling of battle plans on a Signal group chat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Defense also saw a series of high-profile suspensions in recent days over an internal investigation into leaks, and a former top spokesperson penned an op-ed Sunday saying chaos reigns at the Pentagon<\/strong> under Hegseth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Don Bacon\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Neb.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, on Monday became the first Republican<\/strong> to suggest Hegseth is not fit to lead the Pentagon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s true that he had another [Signal] chat with his family, about the missions against the Houthis, it\u2019s totally unacceptable<\/strong>,\u201d Bacon said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not in the White House, and I\u2019m not going to tell the White House how to manage this \u2026 but I find it unacceptable, and I wouldn\u2019t tolerate it if I was in charge<\/strong>,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even with the surge of damning headlines, President Trump on Monday publicly backed Hegseth, who he claimed is \u201cdoing a great job.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no dysfunction at all<\/strong>,\u201d Trump told reporters at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied a report from NPR<\/u><\/a> that the administration had started the process of searching for a new Defense secretary<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hegseth also appeared defiant, telling reporters that he and Trump spoke and are \u201con the same page all the way.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trump administration\u2019s combat mode<\/strong> over Hegseth mirrors the stance it took last month after the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic revealed he had been included in a Signal group chat with more than a dozen top Trump administration officials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, White House officials have remained adamant about sticking by Hegseth, even as criticism has mounted<\/strong> in recent weeks and questions about his judgment have resurfaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wider concerns were amplified in an op-ed penned by former top Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot, p-blished in Politico Magazine<\/u><\/a> on Sunday, in which he warned of \u201ctotal chaos\u201d<\/strong> in the building over the past month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump World is playing defense amid mounting criticism of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2002after new revelations that he shared sensitive military information with family members. Hegseth lashed out at the media and what he claimed were \u201cdisgruntled former employees\u201d Monday for the chorus of criticism for his handling of battle plans on a Signal group chat. The Department of Defense also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":41308,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[31240,1230,1859],"class_list":["post-41307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-hegseth","tag-trump","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41307"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41310,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41307\/revisions\/41310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}