Poor Pete Hegseth, he is just not a technological genius. Yes, are very own Defense Secretary struggles with communication devices. One app in particular causes him all kinds of consternation. And if you have been paying attention to Donald Trump’s “Reign of Terror,” you are acutely aware of the problems that a few administration officials (including Hegseth) have had with communicating sensitive information through an unauthorized app.

But with Ole’ Pete, you get a double header. Mr. Secretary was involved in a sensitive conversation with other Trump officials (oh and one journalist) on the Signal app over a Middle East bombing raid. A flood of bipartisan criticism followed the disclosure of this conversation which led to an avalanche of ridicule and concern. But it also turns out that Hegseth shared the same information in a separate chat that included friends and family. What a guy!

Start of Hegseth’s Communication Issues

So, it has been one confusing period with this new administration so let me remind you about the previous incident and bring you up to speed on the most recent one. On March 11, a group of Trump national security leaders held a conversation using the Signal App to discuss a military operation against the Houthis in Yemen. This was top-secret stuff. Unfortunately, the originator of the meeting, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz accidently included the editor-in-chief of Atlantic Magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg in the call group.

This conversation included information about sensitive and classified details of the impending airstrikes, including types of aircraft, missiles used, and launch and attack times. Among the participants on the call were Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and Hegseth. All of the Trump Administration officials attempted to cover up their gaffe but were exposed when Goldberg out of concern for national security published articles that contained the full text of the conversation.

In a potential violation of the Espionage Act, the group used Signal which is not an approved government platform for sharing classified information. And Waltz set up the message to delete in one-four weeks, which is a potential violation of federal records laws requiring preservation of communications regarding official government business.

Sneaky Pete Does it Again

Unfortunately, Hegseth is not too smart. One would think that any high-ranking government official would be smart enough to know that classified communications, especially conversations that are held on an unauthorized app should never be shared with family and friends. But not Ole’ Sneaky Pete. Hegseth deliberately created another Signal messaging group that included his wife and brother where he shared similar details of the March military airstrike.

Purportedly, the chat included 13 people and was dubbed “Defense ‘ Team Huddle. Hegseth used his private phone for the chat rather than his government issued one. Besides his wife and brother, his personal lawyer was also included on the chat. Pete created the separate Signal group initially as a forum for discussing routine administrative or scheduling information and typically did not use it to discuss sensitive military information. No other cabinet-level officials were included in this group.

Fallout and Repurcussions

As you can imagine, Hegseth and the White House did their best to “circle the wagons” on this one. Trump told reporters yesterday.

“Pete’s doing a great job. Everybody’s happy with him. It’s just fake news. They just bring up stories. I guess [it] sounds like disgruntled employees. You know, he was put there to get rid of a lot of bad people, and that’s what he’s doing. So you don’t always have friends when you do that.”

Hegseth himself said.

“These claims were made by disgruntled former employees. The president and I are on the same page all the way.” Hegseth further brushed off the incident saying, “these are just “anonymous smears and old news.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has denied a report that the administration has started the process of searching for a new Defense Secretary.  But the buzzards are circling the beltway and soon it will be “happy trails” for Ole Sneaky Pete.