A New Survey Shows Trump and the GOP Collapsing. This Pollster Isn't Convinced.
Jasmine Crockett Was Asked About the 2026 Dem Midterm Playbook. Her Answer Was...
The Latest DOGE Hoax Just Dropped
A Secret Service Whistleblower Dropped a Damning Account of Joe Biden at the...
Former Hamas Hostage: Things Changed Drastically Once Trump Won the 2024 Election
Elon Musk Cooked The New York Times in the Oval Office...and Trump's Reaction...
The Collapse of the COVID Vaccine Project
Following the Backside in Front of Us
Trump’s Industrial Legacy: Steel, Sovereignty, and Strength
Trump’s Executive Order Confronts a Long History of Veteran Neglect
Sen. Paul Must Help to End Nuclear Subsidies
Moms Support Advancing Nuclear Power in America for Energy Independence
Democrats Truly Need NPR
Putin to Skip Peace Talks As Trump Pushes for Immediate End to War
Trump Doubles Steel Tariffs to 50%, Declares End to 'Shoddy Steel from Shanghai'
Tipsheet

Pentagon Watchdog Launches 'Signalgate' Investigation Into Pete Hegseth

AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

The Pentagon’s acting inspector general announced on Thursday that his agency will investigate Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the Signal messaging app to coordinate plans to bomb Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Advertisement

The chat came to light when The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg wrote a piece claiming he was accidentally invited to Signal group of top White House officials discussing the planned assault.

The Acting Inspector General Steven A. Stebbins sent a letter to Hegseth informing him of the probe.

“The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business,” the letter read. “Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements.”

Stebbins noted that his team will conduct the evaluation in Washington D.C. and Tampa, Florida.

The letter comes after Sen. Roger Wicker, who chairs the Armed Services Committee, requested the investigation in late March.

Advertisement

Sen. Roger Wicker, the Republican chair of the committee, and Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat, signed onto a letter to the acting inspector general at the Department of Defense for an inquiry into the potential “use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information, as well as the sharing of such information with those who do not have proper clearance and need to know.”

The senators’ assertion that classified information was potentially shared was notable, especially as Trump’s Republican administration has contended there was no classified information on the Signal chain that had included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine.

Democrats pounced on the Signalgate revelation, using it to attack the Trump administration and call for the resignations of Hegseth and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, whose staffer inadvertently invited Goldberg to the chat.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said the chat “put pilots at risk because of sloppiness and carelessness” and stated, “If this was an officer in the military – at any level – or enlisted person, they would have been fired already.”

Advertisement

Still, President Donald Trump has stood by both men, stating that he has no plans to fire anyone over the affair. The issue fell largely out of the spotlight – especially when the news cycle turned to anticipation of Trump’s impending tariffs.

I’m calling it now: Nothing major will come of this. We already know the facts of the case from Goldberg and the Trump administration. Democrats are likely salivating over the prospect of pushing Signalgate back into the news cycle once again.

But the reality is that there is no “there” there. It was a stupid mistake made by a staffer. Nobody was harmed in this making of this SNAFU. So yes, it’s an embarrassing error, but not much more than that.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement