Defense secretary, US vice-president and senior Trump advisers wrote openly about the strikes on Yemen

The appointment of the Fox News host to head the Pentagon was highly controversial. A former Army National Guard officer, Pete Hegseth, 44, has faced allegations of sexual misconduct, financial mismanagement and alcohol abuse.

His contributions to the group chat include suggesting that because Americans were unfamiliar with the Houthi armed group in Yemen that messaging could instead focus on the alleged failures of the former US president Joe Biden.

He also appeared to be one of the most gung-ho participants, warning: “Waiting a few weeks or a month does not fundamentally change the calculus. 2 immediate risks on waiting: 1) this leaks, and we look indecisive; 2) Israel takes an action first – or Gaza ceasefire falls apart – and we don’t get to start this on our own terms.” Hegseth also makes references to enforcing “100%” operational security in the event the action was paused, despite the fact it was already compromised by a journalist’s presence in the group.

Most alarming, however, was Hegseth’s sharing of a “TEAM UPDATE” the Atlantic decided not to publish because of the risk it said that it posed to US servicemen and operations in the Middle East.

JD Vance:

The 40-year-old served as a press officer in Iraq for six months in a non-combat role before studying law at Yale and beginning his political career after the success of his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.

In the chat, Vance, who has often appeared as Trump’s tag team partner, not least in the Oval Office pile-on of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, displays more independence of thought in the conversation.

“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate-to-severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”

Later in the chat he reinforces his animus towards Europe, previously seen at the Munich Security Conference, in a message responding to Hegseth: “If you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again.”

Read More: White House security leak: who’s who in the Signal group chat

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