President Donald Trump said he thinks beleaguered defense secretary Pete Hegseth is “gonna get it together” after reports of chaos at the Pentagon under his leadership.
Trump revealed in a sit-down interview with The Atlantic that he has “had a talk” with Hegseth following reports that the Pentagon is in “full-blown meltdown.” The president did not reveal details of said talk, but stressed that he still supports to the former Fox News host.
“I think he’s gonna get it together,” Trump told the outlet. “I had a talk with him, a positive talk, but I had a talk with him.”
Trump is standing by Hegseth for now after it emerged he created a second Signal chat group on his private phone about strikes against Houthis in Yemen, which included his own wife.
Hegseth also texted sensitive war plans involving a wave of U.S. air strikes in Yemen in a chat called “Houthi PC small group” that inadvertently included The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg. The chat was created by Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz.
Trump said that Waltz was “fine” despite being “beat up” that he accidentally added Goldberg into the chat. The president told his staff: “Maybe don’t use Signal, OK?” after the gaffes, The Atlantic reports.
Hegseth, a combat veteran, was quick to blame fired staffers for the leaks about the second Signal chat group and accused them of trying to “sabotage” Trump’s agenda.
“Those folks who are leaking, who have been pushed out of the building, are now attempting to leak and sabotage the president’s agenda,” Hegseth said last week as he came out fighting for his job. “We’re for the war fighters. We’re for the president. And none of this is based in reality.”
One of the fired Pentagon aides has claimed that Hegseth is spending much of his time looking into leaks.
“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. Press. It’s that,” former chief of staff to the deputy secretary of defense Colin Carroll said on The Megyn Kelly Show.
“That’s a bad thing for America. It’s a bad thing for the president’s objectives,” Carroll said. “And in order to combat that image, it’s like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna go work out with the troops.’”
Carroll was referring to a New York Times report that said Hegseth has posted 16 videos and photos of himself working out with troops on his social media platforms.
“If you’re taking a half-day trip to the Naval Academy at the same time the budget is due, and we really need some support here, come on, you gotta weigh priorities,” Carroll said.
