The White House on Tuesday backed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for the second straight day, saying he is doing a "tremendous job" amid several controversies and that President Donald Trump "stands strongly" behind him.
A report Monday by NPR, which the White House denounced, alleged the administration was seeking to oust Hegseth after allegations he used the Signal messaging app on his personal smartphone to detail classified information about airstrikes on Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist targets in Yemen with his wife, brother, and attorney.
Hegseth also allegedly shared similar details in a Signal group chat in March with top White House officials that accidentally included a journalist.
The NPR report came amid a number of top Pentagon aides being fired or reassigned after an investigation into media leaks. Senior Pentagon adviser Dan Caldwell, Hegseth's deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick, and Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, were placed on administrative leave after an investigation into leaks at the agency. All three reportedly were fired Friday.
"They were Pentagon employees who leaked against their boss to news agencies in this room," said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, responding to a question at Tuesday's briefing if the firings of employees was a sign of mismanagement at the Pentagon. The briefing aired live on Newsmax and the free Newsmax2 online streaming platform.
"It's been clear since Day 1 from this administration that we are not going to tolerate individuals who leak to the mainstream media, particularly when it comes to sensitive information," Leavitt said. "And the secretary of defense is doing a tremendous job, and he is bringing monumental change to the Pentagon.
"And there's a lot of people in this city who reject monumental change. And I think, frankly, that's why we've seen a smear campaign against the secretary of defense since the moment that President Trump announced his nomination before the United States Senate."
Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesperson, reportedly is temporarily shifting his responsibilities to a more direct role with Hegseth while Hegseth's chief of staff, Joe Kasper, has been reassigned to another position handling "special projects" at the agency.
"Let me reiterate, the president stands strongly behind Secretary Hegseth in the change that he is bringing to the Pentagon," Leavitt said. "And the results that he's achieved thus far speak for themselves."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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