Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is spiraling through yet another overseas trip eclipsed by a controversy largely of his own doing.
Hegseth’s first foreign trip to Brussels last month turned tense after he ruled out Ukraine joining NATO before the Trump administration had settled the debate. Now, as he lands in Asia, the Pentagon chief is in hot water again. This time, it’s for sharing war plans in a Signal chat — which accidentally included a journalist — about the military’s strikes against Yemen’s Houthi fighters.
The latest slip-up — a contrast to his camera-ready social media persona — threatens to overshadow Hegseth’s introduction to two key Indo-Pacific allies, Japan and the Philippines. The incidents also vindicate criticism from Democrats and some Republicans that the former Fox News host is unqualified for the role.
“You do not need to be a member of the military or intelligence community to know that this information is exactly what the enemy would want to know,” said Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant Defense secretary under the first Trump administration. “And it does clearly put our military members at risk.”
Hegseth will spend his Asia trip attempting to shore up alliances in the Pacific that could be critical to countering China. He’ll head to Guam, the epicenter of U.S. air defense in the Indo-Pacific, and then meet with the Japanese and Philippine presidents in both countries. But he’ll be dogged by questions about whether he mishandled classified information and violated the law, even if the White House denies that information shared in the chat was classified.
“It is certainly an unhelpful distraction,” said a former defense official with experience in the Indo-Pacific, who like others, was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. “You would expect the secretary’s first trip to the Indo-Pacific to be an opportunity for him to prioritize the region. Instead, he’s going to be bogged down in explaining how this happened and what went wrong.”
Hegseth already appears to have contradicted the administration. He told reporters on Monday night that “nobody texted war plans,” although a National Security Council spokesperson confirmed the existence of the group chat and did not deny the content of the messages between national security adviser Mike Waltz, Vice President JD Vance and other top-ranking officials.
“Allies don’t have high expectations for him as is,” said a second former defense official. “This is par for the course.”
The Pentagon insisted the story would not distract from Hegseth’s weeklong trip.
“Secretary Hegseth’s official visit to the Indo-Pacific to strengthen our alliances and to advance President Trump’s national security priorities has been — and will continue to be — a resounding success,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in an emailed statement. “Sensationalist, legacy media narratives are not, and will never be, a distraction. We are laser-focused on our mission.”
While Hegseth didn’t mention the Indo-Pacific in chat messages published by The Atlantic, he did express a “loathing of European free-loading” off America’s military and called it “PATHETIC.”
That has stirred anger across the Atlantic. One European diplomat called the texting situation “outrageous” and noted that NATO allies patrol the Red Sea with the U.S. Navy. The European Union is also conducting a naval mission in the contested waterway with 10 member countries.
The first former defense official said that allies such as Japan and the Philippines are unlikely to raise specifics of the group chat controversy, even privately. Neither country is a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance.
But the controversies that have engulfed Hegseth’s foreign trips as Defense secretary may have damaged trust among U.S. allies, who could now question how the administration views them behind closed doors in Washington.
“It’s all anyone wants to talk about,” said a former Trump administration official, who has been involved in planning trips for senior leaders. “How are you going to talk about the U.S. relationship with Indo-Pacific countries when they’re wondering if the [vice president] is talking shit about them in the group chat?”
And now, instead of focusing on Hegseth’s message to allies about China, people close to the White House are watching to see if the evolving crisis gets worse.
It’s not clear yet whether the administration or Congress will take any action. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who was named by The Atlantic as a member of the chat group, denied taking part in discussions and told a Senate hearing on Tuesday that the National Security Council was investigating the incident. She insisted that no classified information had been shared.
At least four Senate Democrats — Mark Warner of Virginia, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Ron Wyden of Oregon — have called for Hegseth to resign following the Signal chat incident. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries went further, suggesting that Hegseth should be fired for misconduct.
Even John Cornyn (R-Texas) called the leaked group chat texts “a huge screw up.”
And as Hegseth traveled through Asia, some within the ranks wanted to see the Defense secretary held responsible.
“The orders and regulations about discussing classified material on unauthorized mediums are pretty clear,” said a military official. “The administration touted accountability as a key point of emphasis — let’s see some people held accountable.”
