President Donald Trump has continued to support Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth regarding the Signal chat controversy.
In a meeting with reporters Friday on Air Force One en route to Rome for Pope Francis' funeral, Trump was asked about his confidence in Hegseth and particularly the Signal messaging app.
Trump dismissed the matter with a wave of his hand.
"I don't view Signal as important," Trump said. "I think that's fake news. So, I don't view it as important."
Hegseth came under fire after the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, reported he was included in a Signal chat discussion regarding an airstrike on Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen. He also reportedly went on Signal to discuss the airstrike with his wife, brother, and personal attorney.
Hegseth has steadfastly said he did nothing wrong, including this past week, when he reiterated: "What was shared over Signal then and now, however you characterize it, was informal, unclassified coordinations for media coordination and other things. That's what I've said from the beginning."
The Associated Press reported Thursday that Hegseth "had an internet connection that bypassed the Pentagon's security protocols set up in his office to use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer."
On Friday, Hegseth, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent were named in a federal lawsuit by the National Security Counselors, which is requesting that all Signal conversations from the past three months be turned over.
Despite it all, Trump remained in Hegseth's corner.
"Let me reiterate, the president stands strongly behind Secretary Hegseth in the change that he is bringing to the Pentagon," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. "And the results that he's achieved thus far speak for themselves."
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