Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth slammed The Atlantic on Wednesday over its reporting on a Signal chat group where he gave updates to top administration officials that inadvertently included a journalist from the publication about the United States’ recent military strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen.
Hegseth made the remarks while addressing reporters from a tarmac in Hawaii where he was visiting U.S. forces as part of a larger trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where the administration is currently working to counter a rising Chinese threat.
Hegseth said that the attacks against the Houthis have been “devastatingly effective” as the military campaign now enters its second week.
“Nobody’s texting war plans,” he said. “Well, I noticed this morning out came something that doesn’t look like war plans. And as a matter of fact, they even changed the title to attack plans because they know it’s not war plans. There’s no units, no locations, no routes, no flight paths, no sources, no methods, no classified information.”
“You know who sees war plans? I see ’em. Every single day. I looked at them this morning,” he said while indicating that he believes that there is a difference between “war plans” and “attack plans.”
He said that his role in the Signal group chat was to “provide updates in real time, general updates in real time, keep everybody informed.”
“That’s what I did. That’s my job,” he said. “The war fighters will take the fight to the enemy, and I love what they do. And with President Trump’s leadership, our enemies are on notice. We will have peace through strength, and we’ll keep putting our troops first.”
WATCH:
One more time…
I see war plans every single day. No one is texting war plans. pic.twitter.com/ujU7IvHGmL
— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) March 26, 2025
