Pete Hegseth’s Signalgate Scandal Somehow Just Got Worse

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth should stop using the Signal messaging app at this point.

The Washington Post reports that the former Fox News host had Signal installed on his office computer at the Pentagon, a major security risk and further evidence that Hegseth used the messaging tool frequently for government business. According to the Post, the desktop app mirrored Hegseth’s phone and helped the secretary overcome the lack of cell phone service within the Pentagon.

Cell phones and other personal electronic devices are not permitted within classified spaces, and installing Signal on his desktop computer allowed Hegseth to get around that prohibition. At least one of Hegseth’s top aides, his chief of staff Joe Kasper, also expressed interest in using Signal on Department of Defense computers, but it’s not clear how widespread the app is among Pentagon employees.

Hegseth and his team are also required by law to preserve messages sent to one another, and there’s no indication that they have done so with their conversations on Signal, which allows messages to automatically disappear. A spokesperson for Hegseth, Sean Parnell, told the Post in a statement that Hegseth “has never used and does not currently use Signal on his government computer.”

According to the Post’s sources, Hegseth had Signal installed on a second computer in his Pentagon office and was interested in an app that allowed him to send conventional text messages from his computer.

Hegseth is under fire for using Signal last month to discuss attack plans against targets in Yemen with other top administration officials in a group chat with a journalist, Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, accidentally present. On Sunday, Hegseth was in hot water again when it was discovered that he discussed the attack plans in another, personal group chat with his wife, personal lawyer, and brother, among others.

Classified information is not supposed to be shared within private messaging apps such as Signal, and Hegseth has faced calls to resign, as well as reports that President Trump has begun the search for a new secretary of defense. Trump has publicly denied these reports, and says he stands by Hegseth.

But Hegseth is facing more turmoil within the DOD, with three top employees being fired last week as the result of a leaked investigation. Others within the department think he may not last much longer, especially considering he doesn’t have much support in Congress, having narrowly been confirmed by the Senate thanks to a tiebreaker vote from Vice President JD Vance.

Hegseth’s actions, if they weren’t scrutinized before, will now be under a microscope, and any other scandals, even small ones, could sink his tenure.

And just like that, the bromance is over. Elon Musk is preparing to step away from DOGE in May, and President Trump seems to be looking forward to being rid of his “special employee.” The president is already referring to the billionaire DOGE head in the past tense, even with a month left on his tenure.

“He was a tremendous help, both in the campaign and in what he’s done with DOGE,” Trump said at a press conference from the Oval Office Wednesday evening. “He was treated very unfairly by the—I guess you call it the public.… They took it out on Tesla.… He really helped the country. Saved us a lot of money.… He was always gonna ease out.”

Musk has cast himself as this sacrificial lamb, taking on both so much responsibility with DOGE and so much hate and nastiness from the public that he simply cannot go on. And while the hate has been real—Tesla stocks have plummeted as Musk’s E.V. car company took a massive reputational hit—the damage Musk has already done to our federal government may be here long after he’s gone.

The State Department can’t seem to handle its own heat.

State Secretary Marco Rubio spontaneously pulled out of Ukraine peace talks Wednesday, leaving State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce bickering with CNN’s Pamela Brown after the Trump mouthpiece refused to talk shop about the potential peace deal or answer basic questions.

“I know you want to have a sense of what ratings might be, or pulling people in, but it is, I and—” Bruce said, before Brown interjected that “it’s not that, it’s just trying to get answers for our viewers.”

“We will not have this debate, certainly it’s not going to be a negotiation between you and me, and you know that, I know that, and the audience should know this is a dynamic that is very different than this kind of an exchange which is unfortunate,” Bruce continued.

“Okay, you are the State Department spokesperson, it is very fair for me to ask you basic questions about what has been said publicly,” Brown clarified.

“I’m trying to be!” the former Fox News contributor responded.

“You didn’t answer some of my questions, which is why I followed up, which is my job,” Brown pushed back.

“I didn’t answer the way you wanted me to answer it,” Bruce said. “That’s the difference. I answered them but not in the way you wanted.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy plainly rejected a U.S. deal that would permanently hand over Crimea to Russia.

“Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea,” Zelenskiy said at a press conference in Kyiv Tuesday. “There’s nothing to talk about here. This is against our Constitution.”

Responding via a post on Truth Social Wednesday, Trump claimed that the territory was “lost years ago” and “and is not even a point of discussion.”

In a statement released later in the day, Zelenskiy noted that “emotions have run high today.”

“But it is good that [five] countries met to bring peace closer. Ukraine, the USA, the UK, France and Germany. The sides expressed their views and respectfully received each other’s positions,” Zelenskiy wrote on X. “We are grateful to partners. Ukraine will always act in accordance with its Constitution and we are absolutely sure that our partners, in particular the USA, will act in line with its strong decisions.”

Donald Trump’s tariffs will end up hurting most Americans, acting as a tax increase for nearly every income group, with a minimal impact on the top one percent of earners.

Those are the findings of an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released Wednesday. The study found that if Trump’s tariffs of 10 percent on most countries, 25 percent tariffs on certain sectors for specific countries like Mexico and Canada, and 145 percent tariffs on China were still around in 2026, the poor would be hit the hardest.

Specifically, the bottom 20 percent of Americans making less than $29,000 per year would in effect have a tax increase of 6.2 percent on their yearly income. The middle 20 percent of Americans, with incomes between $55,000 and $94,000, would see the equivalent of a tax hike of 5 percent of their yearly income. But the top one percent of Americans, making more than $915,000 per year, would only see a relative tax increase of just 1.7 percent.

Even before the 2024 elections, Trump’s tariff idea was painted as a giveaway to the richest Americans, benefiting those with major assets. Small businesses are already seeing negative effects from Trump’s moves, unable to keep up with higher prices from suppliers. At one point, even the government wasn’t making any money off of the tariffs—a glitch at U.S. ports prevented their collection.

Even aside from glitches, the government’s tariff revenue is far below the billions promised by Trump. And his constant flip-flops smack of market manipulation—Trump even bragged about how much money his wealthy executive friends made when stocks jumped after he announced a pause in most of his tariffs earlier this month. The president also has his own scheme to personally cash in.

But the markets are still sliding lower each day the tariffs are in effect. Trump has backed off of his attacks on China and Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell for now. However, until there’s some kind of deal with China and other countries that allows Trump to save face on an obviously ill-though out concept of a plan, the economy will continue to suffer as Americans are forced to live under a tax hike.

Vice President JD Vance thought it was “crazy” that he was one of the last people to see Pope Francis before he died early Monday morning.

“I thought a lot about that, it’s pretty crazy actually,” Vance told reporters while on a visit to Agra, India, on the tarmac on Wednesday. 

“Obviously I was able to see him very briefly the morning of Easter Sunday. I knew he was very ill, I didn’t realize how sick he was. The thing that I will always remember Pope Francis for is that he was a great pastor. People on the margins, poor people, people suffering from diseases, they saw in Pope Francis an advocate, and I think a true expression of Christian love.”

Pope Francis has had a tenuous relationship with Trump, Vance, and the Christian right in America for the entirety of his papacy. He was a noted environmentalist who often chastised the Trump administration for its lack of humanity on immigration and climate change and its misuse of Catholic Social Teaching.  

Pope Francis’s funeral will be held on Saturday, according to the Vatican.