Existence of group chat including Hegseth, his wife and others prompt calls for defense secretary to step down

A former top Pentagon spokesperson has slammed Pete Hegseth’s leadership of the department of defense, as pressure mounts on the US’s top military official following reports of a second Signal chatroom used to discuss sensitive military operations.

John Ullyot, who resigned last week after initially serving as Pentagon spokesperson, said in a opinion essay published by Politico on Sunday that the Pentagon has been overwhelmed by staff drama and turnover in the initial months of the second Trump administration.

Ullyot called the situation a “full-blown meltdown” that could cost Hegseth, a 44-year-old former Fox News host and National Guard officer, his job as defense secretary.

    • Today@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      3 months ago

      There’s a joke here about his wife and his brother getting sucked in, but I haven’t figured it out yet.

  • Monkey With A Shell@lemmy.socdojo.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    Let’s tack Donnie into that call for losing their job for not doing a damn thing to prevent this after the first time around. Incompetent management, why do we not have a no-confidence vote mechanism?

      • ceoofanarchism@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        3 months ago

        Yep its rather disgusting how lots of people frame these things to just criticize his unprofessionalism and gloss over and ignore the war crimes.

        • C45513@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          3 months ago

          rampant war crimes aren’t surprising; the US has been doing that for forever. But there used to be the veneer of competence, so I understand why that’s the part that’s getting the focus.

          • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            edit-2
            3 months ago

            At least in the time of Obama they changed the definition of “Killed Enemy Combatant” to be “Every dead male of military age” to make the collateral casualty numbers of their “targetted” drone murders in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan look less outrageous.

            The current bunch don’t even care enough or are competent enough to manage the optics by “adjusting” a few definitions to shift the counts.

            Mind you, for those on the receiving end of the bombings, the effects are still the same.

        • A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          3 months ago

          Probably because criticizing the US for war crimes leads to Democrats too

          There are reasons the US doesn’t give a shit about the ICC

        • KittyKalledKarma@slrpnk.net
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          Considereding the Hague invasion clause is still in place in the U.S.A it’s not surprising.

          No one has ever been meaningfully punished there for war crimes or mass murder but if you’re incompetent/ a leaker the state department is on your ass quick.

          I mean ffs the democratic party threw anti genocide protestors under the bus rather then critique Israel over its ongoing genocide. It’s honestly just a reflection of what seems to be the average American mentality.

    • kikutwo@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      3 months ago

      No need, these days you just get a bunch of people in black and secret him away in a van.

  • cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    What I don’t get about this is the reason. You’d think maybe more insider trading, but why would you need such specific information for that? A simple "attack on Yemen at…“ would be enough. In the first chat at least the people were tangentially concerned with the content, but his wife and lawyer? And ten more associates? For what, bragging rights? He must have known on some level that this is quite sensitive information and should not be shared with just about anyone. The sheer stupidity of all this is incomprehensible to me, it truly boggles the mind.

    And one more thing: all of this has had no real consequences for the troops yet, but these kinds of failures will lead to catastrophic outcomes eventually. The Pentagon is now a clown-show and it is dealing with live-and-death decisions constantly. What a crazy time.

    • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      3 months ago

      What I don’t get about this is the reason.

      The man is, as predicted, staggeringly incompetent. He’s just that bad at his job.

      • Eldritch@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        3 months ago

        That’s legitimately his only qualification for the job. That and being a brown nosing Yes Man.

    • Wilco@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      3 months ago

      Pretty much everyone that doesnt have Trumps balls in his mouth called that one.

      The same goes for the antivax weirdo with a brain worm and pretty much all the MAGA picks.

  • PunkRockSportsFan@fanaticus.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    Pretending like Putin didn’t order an insecure alcoholic wife beating racist to be secdef and the plan is going perfectly for him in America is weird

  • BetaBlake@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    Others do and HAVE been court martialed for less. Like no hyperbole, you are fucked if you are anyone else.

    • Dlayknee@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      3 months ago

      That’s what I can’t get over. I mean sure, we know double standards are rife in this administration but OMG how is the entire security community and leadership (looking at you, Congress) not absolutely losing their minds at this? Didn’t they send a SWAT team or something after one of the War Thunder forum leakers for posting a simple manual?! This is just insane.

  • NotSteve_@lemmy.ca
    cake
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    Not gunna lie, I’m feeling a bit better about any potential invasions of sovereign nations

    • neukenindekeuken@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      3 months ago

      "Signal group chat leaked that a bombing run of Vancouver is planned. Chat was leaked by Hesgeths mom, who didn’t know why she was added and just wanted to ask questions about when would be a good time to buy eggs.

      In response, Hesgeth blamed the media for reporting on things and stuff."

      • ClanOfTheOcho@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        3 months ago

        “What do you mean this isn’t Greenland, Captain?! If it isn’t Greenland, then where are we? I mean, look at how green everything here is, it must be Greenland, right? Falkland Islands? What’s that??”

        • zaphodb2002@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          3 months ago

          I mean, that’s kinda what blitzkrieg was. Just give your mechanized units a bunch of meth and tell them to just push as far as they can as fast as they can with no coordination. Worked to take France.

    • Sixty@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      3 months ago

      As Canadians, absolutely.

      Plus their behavior in regards to snubbing states during environmental disasters and gutting emergency response/aid relief would do wonders for any displaced angry guerilla Canadians wandering through a drought prone USA forest during a fire ban as just one hyper specific example I’m mentioning with zero ill intent as it’s all hypotheticals… of course. Indubitably.

    • Monkey With A Shell@lemmy.socdojo.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      3 months ago

      There where a couple women in charge of military divisions, head of the coast guard was one I think. I’m sure there have been plenty that he sees as DEI that got tossed without a lot of reporting.

        • crank0271@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          3 months ago

          Pretty sure he got rid of some of his first term appointees. Maybe some inspectors general and he may have railed against a judicial appointee or three as a “radical Marxist”?

          • booly@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            3 months ago

            General Milley was his first term appointee for Chair of the Joint Chiefs, and one of the first things Trump did in his second term was to strip Milley of his security clearance, security detail, and even his placement of his portrait with the other former chairs.

            Jerome Powell was Trump’s pick for Chair of the Federal Reserve, replacing Yellen (the first time that a Fed chair had not gotten a second term, and Trump has been clamoring for the power to fire him.

    • booly@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      3 months ago

      He’s fired a bunch of lower level officials.

      His pick for acting US Attorney for SDNY (basically Manhattan) was fired a few weeks later for refusing to drop charges against Eric Adams.

      The acting IRS commissioner has changed over 5 times in the 90 days of this current presidency, including the most recent firing of a guy that was too close to Elon (in some kind of Bessent-Musk feud), just a few days after his appointment. The previous acting commissioner was fired for refusing to illegally share IRS data with DHS to help with immigration enforcement.

      And the current turmoil in the Pentagon is the firings of people he appointed to these positions. It’s a mess.

    • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      No, he’s fired an IRS director because one of the other members of the legion of doom pointed out that Elon’s pick investigated J6ers or something