Pete Hegseth's No Good, Very Bad Day

A bombshell Pentagon inspector general report has concluded that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth endangered U.S. servicemembers and mission objectives by sharing highly sensitive details of a March airstrike against Houthi rebels in Yemen via the encrypted but unauthorized Signal messaging app.

The findings, delivered to Congress late Tuesday and set for public release Thursday, mark a sharp rebuke to the Trump administration official amid a string of national security controversies.

The nine-month investigation, led by Inspector General Steven Stebbins, zeroed in on two separate Signal group chats where Hegseth, using his personal phone from inside the secure Pentagon, transmitted real-time operational intel.

In one chat dubbed "PC Houthi Small Group," Hegseth relayed precise timings for fighter jet launches (e.g., F-18s), bomb drops, targets, and weapon packages to a mix of top officials including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and then-National Security Adviser Mike Waltz. The chat's explosive exposure came when The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added, prompting his March exposé.

A second, more personal chat included Hegseth's wife Jennifer, brother Phil (a DHS senior adviser), and personal lawyer Tim Parlatore, where similar strike details were discussed with casual flair, emojis, all-caps rants like "PATHETIC" about Europe's response to Red Sea threats, and exclamations.

Sources familiar with the report told NPR, CNN, and The Atlantic that the intel, classified "SECRET//NOFORN" by U.S. Central Command, stemmed from a secure email Hegseth forwarded. If intercepted by adversaries like the Houthis or Iran, it could have allowed them to down U.S. aircraft or fortify defenses, potentially costing American lives.

The IG report explicitly found Hegseth violated multiple Defense Department policies: using personal devices in classified spaces (where phones are banned and stored in lockers), transmitting battlefield specifics over commercial apps not approved for sensitive data, and bypassing secure government channels. "Had a foreign adversary intercepted the intelligence discussed in the chat, it would have endangered both U.S. servicemembers and the mission at large," the report states, per sources who reviewed it.Hegseth, a former Fox News host and Army veteran, declined an IG interview, submitting a written statement insisting the info was unclassified under his declassification authority and posed no risk.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell spun the report as a "TOTAL exoneration," claiming "no classified information was shared" and declaring the "case closed."

Hegseth echoed this on X: "No classified information. Total exoneration. Case closed. Houthis bombed into submission."

But the IG rejected these claims, noting the material's inherent sensitivity and recommending mandatory secure-communications training for senior leaders.The scandal, dubbed "Signalgate," has amplified bipartisan fury. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) demanded Hegseth's resignation: "An objective investigation leaves no doubt: Secretary Hegseth endangered the lives of American pilots."

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.)—who jointly requested the probe—called it a "serious lapse in judgment." Allies like Laura Loomer defended it as a "witch hunt," while critics on X, including @GulliverGadfly, blasted the Pentagon's spin: "Hegseth DID violate DoD policy... Risked lives & ops. Not 'exonerated.'"

This isn't Hegseth's first brush with scrutiny. The report coincides with probes into his role in a September Caribbean strike on alleged narco-traffickers, where a follow-up hit reportedly killed survivors—prompting war-crimes allegations and congressional inquiries by the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. Foreign partners have cited Signalgate to justify withholding intel from the U.S., per The Atlantic.