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Pete Buttigieg (left) and Pete Hegseth
Donald Trump's defense secretary is embroiled in another scandal. The gay former transportation secretary won't let him forget it.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Sunday publicly condemned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, calling him “unfit to lead.” New revelations showed Hegseth shared classified U.S. military plans—including details of a Yemen airstrike—with his wife, brother, personal lawyer, and others in an encrypted Signal group chat. The disclosure comes weeks after Hegseth was revealed to have discussed plans for a military strike in an unsecured Signal chat to which The Atlantic’s editor Jeffrey Goldberg had been added.
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“Of course, advance information on US combat operations is classified,” Buttigieg, a Navy veteran who served as an intelligence officer, wrote on Facebook. “Pretending otherwise is an insult to our troops, who all know this. The Secretary is unfit to lead.”
The comment came after The New York Timesreported that Hegseth disclosed flight schedules of fighter jets involved in March 15 strikes during private Signal messages sent from his personal phone. The chat, called “Defense | Team Huddle,” included 13 people—none of whom had security clearance for real-time war plans, according to the paper. Among them were his wife, Jennifer Rauchet, a former Fox News producer; his brother, a Homeland Security adviser; and Timothy Parlatore, his longtime personal lawyer turned Navy reservist.
Related: Internet drags Pete Hegseth after he mocked judge who blocked Trump's trans military ban
The Associated Press confirmed the reporting. “Hegseth created a second Signal channel that included his wife and brother—and shared the sensitive Yemen strike details with them there as well,” AP Pentagon correspondent Tara Copp posted on X, citing a source familiar with the chat.
The news builds on earlier reporting that Hegseth and other top Trump officials—including National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio—shared similarly sensitive military details in another Signal group. That thread mistakenly included Goldberg, who later said he watched as real-time messages unfolded in sync with a live military operation.
Back in March, Buttigieg went viral for responding to that breach on Instagram: “Today’s news of an astonishing security failure at the White House… is the highest level of fuckup imaginable,” he wrote. “These people cannot keep America safe.”
Critics warn that the unauthorized use of a commercial app—even if encrypted—could violate the Espionage Act and federal records laws. Sen. Jack Reed, the Senate Armed Services Committee’s top Democrat, called it “one of the most egregious failures of operational security and common sense I have ever seen.”
Related: Pete Buttigieg: Trump Cabinet’s use of Signal app for military ops is ‘highest level of f**kup imaginable’
While the Pentagon’s acting inspector general has launched an investigation into Hegseth’s use of Signal and personal devices, the defense secretary has remained focused not on damage control, but on doubling down on right-wing culture war attacks.
Since his January confirmation, Hegseth has spearheaded what legal experts call the most aggressive rollback of LGBTQ+ military rights in modern history. In February, he ordered an immediate halt to gender-affirming medical care for transgender service members, blocked new enlistments from individuals with a history of gender dysphoria, and paused promotions for those already serving. The order follows President Donald Trump’s executive directive erasing federal recognition of transgender people.
Hegseth has openly dehumanized trans troops, describing their identities as “a falsehood” and claiming inclusion weakens military cohesion. In court, his public rhetoric is now being used against the administration, as a federal district court judge in Washington, D.C., issued a preliminary injunction against the Pentagon’s ban on military service by transgender people.
Days ago, children and families of military service members filed a federal lawsuit against Hegseth and the Department of Defense Education Activity, accusing them of violating military students’ First Amendment rights by purging school libraries and curricula of LGBTQ+ and racial content.
The lawsuit, filed by the ACLU on behalf of 12 students from military families, alleges that under Hegseth’s orders, DoDEA schools banned books, canceled Black History and Pride Month events, and barred any reference to “gender ideology.” Entire chapters on puberty, reproduction, and consent were stripped from health classes, and even student yearbooks were ordered to omit LGBTQ+ references.
Critics say the chaos inside the Pentagon isn’t limited to bad judgment and political extremism—it’s destabilizing national security. Last week, three top Hegseth aides, Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick, both reportedly members of the leaked Signal chat, were fired and escorted from the building amid a leak probe, The New York Times reports.
Hegseth’s former press secretary, John Ullyot, who resigned this month, said the department is now in “total chaos.” In a Politicoop-ed, Ullyot wrote, “Even strong backers of the secretary like me must admit: The last month has been a full-blown meltdown at the Pentagon—and it’s becoming a real problem for the administration.”
