When the abuse of inmates at Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison broke into the open in 2004, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld offered to resign. Twice. Both times President George W. Bush rejected Rumsfeld’s offer; he only fired him after the Democrats took both the House and the Senate in the 2006 mid-term elections.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has made no such offers. Confirmed by the Senate with only the thinnest possible margin – with Vice President J.D. Vance casting the tie-breaking vote in his favor – Hegseth remains firmly in his post despite a series of missteps that, in aggregate, could be viewed as far more damaging to his reputation than Abu Ghraib was to Rumsfeld’s.
As is well known, Hegseth was a participant in the Signal messaging app scandal, now widely termed “Signalgate.” At issue was a major leak of a discussion that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz had convened for his senior national security colleagues to discuss an impending American military operation against the Yemeni Houthi rebels. Waltz erroneously included in the call a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic magazine. Goldberg promptly revealed the general contents of the discussion, though he declined to provide specifics regarding the attack. When the Trump administration claimed that Goldberg was reporting ‘fake news,” he responded by revealing those elements of the discussion that he had previously not reported because he felt their release would undermine national security.
During the course of the call, it was Hegseth who provided the participants with details of the imminent American airstrikes. These included specifics regarding which aircraft and missiles American forces would employ, as well as launch and attack times. Yet when challenged regarding what seemed to be a breach of classified information, since the Signal app is not fully secure from penetration by an adversary, Hegseth vehemently denied that he had released any sensitive information relating to the fight against the Houthis. As he put it, “Nobody was texting war plans. And that’s all I have to say about that.”
What Hegseth did not say was that the information that he did offer to his colleagues was to all intents and purposes the operational plan regarding the impending attack. In any event, President Trump did not fire Hegseth, nor did the Secretary follow Rumsfeld’s example and offer to resign.
Shortly thereafter, yet another story broke regarding the planned attack on the Houthis. Several media outlets reported that prior to the operation the Secretary had revealed many of its details in a separate Signal chat with his wife, his lawyer, and his brother, an employee of the Department of Homeland Security detailed to DoD. Both Hegseth’s brother and lawyer have security clearances, though whether their clearances were high enough to enable them to join a discussion of operational plans is uncertain. Even less clear is whether Jennifer Hegseth had any clearance; she is not a DoD employee. In the event, none of the three appear to have had what is termed a “need to know,” which overrides whatever security clearance they might have held. Once again, however, Hegseth denied having revealed any classified information, and again there was no reaction from the White House, other than statements of support.
It subsequently was reported that Mrs. Hegseth had also attended so-called “bilateral” meetings that the Secretary holds with his foreign counterparts. These meetings are invariably classified, as are the materials and talking points that staff provides to prepare the secretary for them. Mrs. Hegseth did not yet have a security clearance, however. Nevertheless, once again there was no negative reaction coming from the White House. To the contrary, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt asserted that Hegseth is doing “a tremendous job… bringing a monumental change to the Pentagon.” She characterized the reports of his alleged misdoings as nothing more than a “smear campaign.”
In the event it was Mike Waltz who lost his job, not Pete Hegseth. Waltz has been nominated to serve as ambassador to the United Nations, a position that often, but not always, carries with it cabinet rank. As for the Secretary of Defense, he is unlikely to leave his post anytime soon. Leavitt’s assertion of a smear campaign against Hegseth reflects White House antipathy toward what it views as Left-leaning outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, Politico, Axios, and The Atlantic, all of which have been the primary sources for reports regarding Hegseth’s alleged missteps involving Signal, which they continue to reveal. There is no way that President Donald Trump, or his immediate staff, would tolerate the impression that it was these outlets that drove Hegseth from office. For that reason, and rather ironically, the more the liberal mainstream press finds fault with the Secretary, the more secure his position is likely to be with the White House.
President George W. Bush only accepted Rumsfeld’s offer to resign immediately after the 2006 election when Democrats won the majority in the House of Representatives and were poised to take the Senate as well (which they ultimately did). Perhaps Hegseth will offer to resign if the Democrats repeat their sweep of two decades earlier; in any event, there is always high administration staff turnover after a mid-term election. But the 2026 election is still a long way off, and in the meantime, Hegseth will continue to serve at the pleasure of the President, who has until now shown no indication that he has decided to seek a new leader for the Department of Defense.
