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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Ben Makuch

Fears grow that Signal leaks make Pete Hegseth top espionage target

a man in a suit holds a phone to his ear in a crowd of people
Pete Hegseth attends the Easter egg roll at the White House on 21 April 2025. Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images

As more develops about the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and his repeated disclosures of sensitive military intelligence in unsecured Signal group chats, there are growing concerns his behavior has weakened the Pentagon in the eyes of its foreign adversaries and made him and his entourage a top espionage target.

Allies, already concerned by Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs, have also begun to see the US as an intelligence-sharing liability. There are fears that the mounting firings and leak inquiries in Hegseth’s orbit, along with his inability to manage these internal crises, exposes the entire global US war footing – especially, if a geopolitical and external crisis comes across his desk.

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