{"id":480,"date":"2025-04-26T17:16:02","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T17:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/logicalware.net\/?p=480"},"modified":"2025-04-29T19:45:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T19:45:51","slug":"trump-brushes-off-hegseth-criticism-i-dont-view-signal-as-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/logicalware.net\/index.php\/2025\/04\/26\/trump-brushes-off-hegseth-criticism-i-dont-view-signal-as-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump brushes off Hegseth criticism: 'I don\u2019t view Signal as important'"},"content":{"rendered":"
President Trump on Friday denounced critics<\/a> who have raised concern over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal<\/a>, a discrete messaging app, to disseminate sensitive military information. <\/p>\n Asked whether his confidence has changed in Hegseth after a second chat controversy<\/a> thrust him back into the spotlight<\/a> earlier this week, Trump brushed off the sentiment. Instead, he cast blame once again on the media.<\/p>\n “I don\u2019t view Signal as important,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday, en route to Rome for Pope Francis’s funeral<\/a>. “I think that\u2019s fake news. So, I don\u2019t view it as important.”<\/p>\n His remarks come days after The New York Times reported<\/a> that the Defense chief in mid-March disclosed sensitive information about military attack plans in a Signal chain with his wife, brother and personal lawyer. Hegseth has argued the messages<\/a> contained “informal” and “unclassified” info.<\/p>\n The same argument was used to justify an earlier breach on the app<\/a>, when a top journalist was inadvertently added to a Signal chain with top Trump administration officials<\/a> containing information about planned strikes in Yemen, which have since been carried out. The president met<\/a> with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, the aforementioned reporter, earlier this week. <\/p>\n Trump and his allies have contended that the media has made it a bigger issue than it is. Following the first Signal controversy<\/a>, Trump ripped news outlets<\/a> for “the never ending Signal story, adding a post on Truth Social that, “They just don\u2019t stop \u2014 Over and over they go!\u201d<\/p>\n The White House and allies of the president have rallied around Hegseth, beating back calls<\/a> for the Defense chief to resign over the fallout. During the annual Easter Egg Roll, Trump doubled down on his support<\/a> for the secretary.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is doing a great job. \u2026 Ask the Houthis how he\u2019s doing,\u201d Trump told reporters on Monday, while also pointing a finger at the Pentagon officials who had recently been fired<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just fake news,\u201d he said. \u201cThey just bring up stories. I guess it sounds like disgruntled employees. You know, he was put there to get rid of a lot of bad people.\u201d<\/p>\n Hegseth has also blasted the former employees<\/a> \u2014 who were ousted after an internal probe into leaks<\/a> within the Defense Department, per the administration<\/a> \u2014 in the wake of the Times report.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat a big surprise that a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out from the same media that peddled the Russia hoax,\u201d the Defense chief said Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Trump on Friday denounced critics who have raised concern over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal, a discrete messaging app, to disseminate sensitive military information. Asked whether his<\/p>\n