Donald Trump has been urged to fire US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth as the fallout from the leak of highly sensitive war plans via an encrypted messaging app continues.
The conversation on the messaging app Signal – between US officials, including vice president JD Vance and Mr Hegseth – was leaked to an American journalist, who was added to the chat in error.
They discussed plans to conduct airstrikes on Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis, which took place on 15 March.
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Democrat minority leader Hakeem Jeffries described Mr Hegseth as “the most unqualified Secretary of Defence in American history” in a short letter.
“His continued presence in the top position of leadership at the Pentagon threatens the nation’s security and puts our brave men and women in uniform throughout the world in danger,” he wrote.
“His behaviour shocks the conscience, risked American lives and likely violated the law.
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“Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth should be fired immediately.”
Speaking from the White House, Mr Trump downplayed the incident and said he believed the chat contained “no classified information”.
“They were using an app, as I understand it, that a lot of people in government use, a lot of people in the media use,” he told reporters.
Trump expressed support for his national security adviser, Michael Waltz, who had mistakenly added Goldberg to the Signal discussion.
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump told NBC News.
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Mr Trump said officials would “probably” not use Signal any longer but did not agree to a full investigation of what Democrats have called a major security breach which required high-level resignations.
Included in the conversation on Signal were Mr Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Mr Hegseth.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA director John Ratcliffe – who were both also in the chat – testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday that no classified material was shared.
But Democratic senators have voiced scepticism, noting that the journalist, The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, reported Mr Hegseth posted operational details “including information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing”.
Republican majority leader, John Thune, said on Tuesday he expected the Senate Armed Services Committee to look into Trump administration officials’ use of Signal.
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Meanwhile, the White House has mostly attacked the journalist responsible for the original story instead of admitting culpability. The integrity of Mr Goldberg has been repeatedly called into question.
Posting on X, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Mr Goldberg of sensationalising the story, and White House communications director Steven Cheung called the media coverage of the security breach a “witch hunt”.
Security and Defence Editor
If a British defence minister was found to have shared details about a live military operation in an unofficial messaging group with colleagues, they would be sacked.
That President Donald Trump has tried to dismiss the revelation that his top defence and security team not only did just that but accidentally included a journalist in the chat will be watched with deepening horror by US allies and growing glee by American enemies.
In public, the UK government is still insisting security ties with the US are as strong as ever.
But in private there will doubtless be horror – though perhaps not surprise – within Whitehall at this extraordinary lapse in the most basic operational security by the president’s national security adviser, defence secretary, national intelligence chief and even the boss of the CIA.
Any information about plans to – for example – launch bombing raids against Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen would ordinarily only be shared on specially designated government systems that ensure classified information is secure.
The fact that Mike Waltz, the national security adviser, felt it was acceptable to set up a group on the commercial messaging app Signal – which does provide encryption but is only as secure as the device that it is being used on (so not secure at all if a mobile phone or laptop is compromised) – to discuss plans to attack the Houthis is bad enough.
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The Atlantic has hit back, dismissing those claims. “Attempts to disparage and discredit The Atlantic, our editor, and our reporting follow an obvious playbook by elected officials and others in power who are hostile to journalists and the First Amendment rights of all Americans,” it said in a statement.
Mr Hegseth told reporters on Monday no one had texted war plans – prompting Mr Goldberg to call those comments a lie during an interview on CNN.
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It remains unclear why the officials chose to chat via Signal instead of secure government channels typically used for sensitive discussions.
The Pentagon reportedly warned of a known vulnerability on the Signal chat app, in an email sent out prior to the publication of The Atlantic article, according to reports by Sky News’ US partner network NBC News.
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The email reported: “Russia-aligned threat groups are actively targeting the Signal Messenger application of individuals likely to exchange sensitive military and government communications related to the war in Ukraine”.
Employees were told the vulnerability could be mitigated by updating to the latest version of the app and applying proper settings.
