The Pentagon Inspector General’s office just lit the fuse on a fresh controversy inside the Trump administration, launching a formal investigation Thursday into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the double-encrypted messaging app Signal to discuss military actions — including U.S. airstrikes against Houthi terrorists in Yemen.
The inquiry, revealed in a memo from Acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins, aims to determine whether Hegseth or other Department of Defense officials violated federal policy by discussing potentially classified information over an unsecured commercial platform. The probe follows a bipartisan request from Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI), who expressed concern after reports emerged that Hegseth discussed the Yemen strikes in a Signal chat that included… wait for it… The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg.
Yes, the same Jeffrey Goldberg who once led the media’s charge against President Trump for allegedly calling veterans “losers” and “suckers.” He was reportedly added to a group chat by mistake by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and allowed to remain in a Signal thread dubbed “Houthi PC Small Group,” where Hegseth was communicating with other high-level officials.
According to Hegseth, no operational war plans or classified information were shared in the chat. “It was a post-strike discussion. Not exactly the launch codes,” Hegseth said, defending the use of Signal for internal communications. But that hasn’t stopped the D.C. feeding frenzy, with leaks pouring into The Wall Street Journal, Politico, and other Beltway rags faster than Biden’s approval ratings dropped after the 2024 debate.
Among the juicier leaks? That Hegseth brought his wife, Jennifer, to two meetings with foreign defense officials, including one with U.K. Secretary of Defense John Healey in March at the Pentagon. Jennifer Hegseth isn’t a government employee — just a fiercely loyal spouse who’s been by her husband’s side through thick and thin. But in Washington, that’s enough to spark hand-wringing over “protocol” and “optics,” especially when the target is a MAGA-aligned Trump appointee.
Let’s be real: this isn’t about Signal. This is about undermining Hegseth, one of the few national security officials who talks like a warfighter, not a bureaucrat. The fact that this all started because Goldberg was added to a chat thread? Classic D.C. clownery.
Now we’ll see if the investigation is about protecting national security — or just another deep state effort to neutralize Trump’s team before 2028.
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