Trump Stands behind Hegseth after Attack Plans Shared in Second Signal Chat, White House Says

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth attends the 2025 Easter Egg Roll with his family on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, USA 21 April 2025. (EPA)
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth attends the 2025 Easter Egg Roll with his family on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, USA 21 April 2025. (EPA)
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Trump Stands behind Hegseth after Attack Plans Shared in Second Signal Chat, White House Says

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth attends the 2025 Easter Egg Roll with his family on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, USA 21 April 2025. (EPA)
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth attends the 2025 Easter Egg Roll with his family on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, USA 21 April 2025. (EPA)

President Donald Trump stands behind US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Monday, after reports that he shared details of a March attack on Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis in a message group that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer.

The revelations that Hegseth used the unclassified messaging system Signal to share highly sensitive security details for the second time come at a delicate moment for him, with senior officials ousted from the Pentagon last week as part of an internal leak investigation.

“The president absolutely has confidence in Secretary Hegseth. I spoke to him about it this morning, and he stands behind him," Leavitt told reporters on Monday.

In the second chat, Hegseth shared details of the attack similar to those revealed last month by The Atlantic magazine after its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was included in a separate chat on the Signal app by mistake, Reuters reported on Sunday.

The second chat included about a dozen people and was created during Hegseth's confirmation process to discuss administrative issues rather than detailed military planning. Among them was Hegseth's brother, who is a Department of Homeland Security liaison to the Pentagon.

Leavitt said Hegseth shared no classified information on either Signal chat.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Hegseth said, "I have spoken to the president, and we are going to continue fighting on the same page all the way."

The latest revelation comes days after Dan Caldwell, one of Hegseth's leading advisers, was escorted from the Pentagon after being identified during an investigation into leaks at the Department of Defense.

Caldwell played a critical role for Hegseth and was named as the Pentagon's point person by the secretary in the first Signal chat.

"We are incredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended," Caldwell posted on X on Saturday. "Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door."

Following Caldwell's departure, less-senior officials Darin Selnick, who recently became Hegseth's deputy chief of staff, and Colin Carroll, who was chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, were put on administrative leave and fired on Friday.

John Ullyot, the Pentagon’s former top spokesperson who stepped down last week, criticized the Pentagon leader in a POLITICO Magazine opinion piece published Sunday. Ullyot alleged that Hegseth’s team spread unverified claims about three top officials who were fired last week, falsely accusing them of leaking sensitive information to media outlets.



Record Floods Devastate Eastern Australia

Flooding is seen around Settlement Point Road in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia, 22 May 2025. EPA/Lindsay Moller
Flooding is seen around Settlement Point Road in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia, 22 May 2025. EPA/Lindsay Moller
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Record Floods Devastate Eastern Australia

Flooding is seen around Settlement Point Road in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia, 22 May 2025. EPA/Lindsay Moller
Flooding is seen around Settlement Point Road in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia, 22 May 2025. EPA/Lindsay Moller

Record floods cut a destructive path through eastern Australia on Friday, caking houses in silt, washing out roads and separating 50,000 people from help.

Four bodies have been pulled from vast tides of floodwater engulfing parts of northern New South Wales, a fertile region of rivers and valleys some 400 kilometers (250 miles) up the coast from Sydney.

Salvage crews launched a major clean-up operation as waters receded Friday, surveying the damage from half a year's worth of rain dumped in just three days.

"Emotions were high as we were rescuing a lot of people who are distraught when we get to them," rescue worker Jason Harvey told AFP on Friday, describing "frantic" efforts over recent days.

Kinne Ring, mayor of the flood-stricken farming town of Kempsey, said dozens of businesses had been swamped.

"Houses have been inundated," she told national broadcaster ABC.

"There's water coming through the bottom of houses, it's really awful to see and the water is going to take a bit of time to recede."

State Emergency Service boss Dallas Burnes said more than 2,000 workers had been deployed on rescue and recovery missions.

"A real focus for us at the moment will be resupplying the isolated communities," he said, adding that 50,000 people were still stranded.

Burnes said rescue crews had plucked more than 600 people to safety since waters started rising earlier this week.

People clambered atop cars, houses and highway bridges before helicopters winched them away.

Although the floods were easing, Burnes said the stagnant lakes of muddy water still posed a threat -- including from snakes that may have slithered into homes in search of shelter.

"Floodwaters have contaminants. There can be vermin, snakes. You need to assess those risks.

"Electricity can also pose a danger as well."

-'Horrific circumstances' -

The storms have dumped more than six months' worth of rain over three days, the government weather bureau has said, smashing flood-height records in some areas.

"These are horrific circumstances," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Friday as he travelled into the disaster zone.

"The Australian Defense Force will be made available. There's going to be a big recovery effort required," he told local radio.

"There's been massive damage to infrastructure and we're going to have to all really pitch in."

In Taree, local business owner Jeremy Thornton said the "gut-wrenching" flood was among the worst he had seen.

"It is pretty tough, we've had a few moments but you have to suck it up and push on," he told AFP on Thursday.

"We are reliving it every second -- hearing the rain, hearing the helicopters, hearing the siren."

Locals spotted dead cows washing up on beaches after swollen rivers swept them from their pastures inland.

Although a string of flood warnings have been downgraded, some towns were still cut off on Friday afternoon, making it difficult to assess the damage.

The government has declared a natural disaster, unlocking greater resources for affected areas.

- 'Compelling evidence' -

From the arid outback to the tropical coast, swaths of Australia have recently been pummeled by wild weather.

The oceans surrounding Australia have been "abnormally warm" in recent months, according to Australia's government weather bureau.

Warmer seas evaporate more moisture into the atmosphere, which can eventually lead to more intense rains.

Although difficult to link to specific disasters, climate change is already fueling more extreme weather patterns, scientists warn.

Flood modelling expert Mahdi Sedighkia said this week's emergency offered "compelling evidence" of how climate change could affect regional weather patterns.