(Reuters) -The White House recently rejected the Pentagon’s pick to head the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, Politico reported on Friday, citing three people familiar with the move.

It is not clear why the White House decided not to move forward with Army Lieutenant General Richard Angle’s nomination, Politico reported.

(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya and Jasper Ward; editing by Kanishka Singh)

There are now numerous reports the US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was sharing sensitive military plans in a second Signal chat — a development that has been slammed as the latest in a “month from hell” for the Pentagon.

The reports have prompted calls for Mr Hegseth to be fired and come as the former top Pentagon spokesperson alleges the past month has seen “chaos” and “dysfunction” reign under his leadership.

Last month, a reporter from The Atlantic published their account of being added to a group chat on the messaging app Signal and watching live as details about an imminent United States attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen were dropped into the thread by a user calling themselves Pete Hegseth.

At the time, the Pentagon boss tried to dismiss security concerns, saying: “Nobody was texting war plans.”

There were warnings the Signal mistake could really cost the Trump administration because national security is an issue of great importance to the president’s supporter base.

A Signal app message from Pete Hegseth shared by The Atlantic editor. (ABC)

But Donald Trump tried to minimise what was widely considered to be a security breach by describing it as “a glitch” and standing by both his national security adviser Mike Waltz, who launched the group chat, and Mr Hegseth, who populated it with information Senate Democrats argued should have been classified.

But the issue has not gone away, and pressure has been mounting on Mr Hegseth.

That is because now there are new reports in The New York Times, CNN and The Associated Press that Mr Hegseth had also been sharing information about the attack into a second Signal group chat.

The New York Times reported this second chat was started by Mr Hegseth, included members of his family and his private attorney, and was run from his personal phone.

Group chat blunder won’t help the world’s fading faith in America Photo shows Pete Hegseth, standing above Donald Trump, spread his hands. In any other presidency, the story would rock the US: top national security advisers mistakenly adding a journalist to their group chat. But Washington is not what it used to be.

The reports come just days after three of Mr Hegseth’s long-serving advisers were put on leave from their Pentagon positions under suspicion of leaking sensitive information, but reportedly without being given any details of any investigations into their conduct.

And a former senior spokesperson for the Department of Defense has published a scathing opinion piece in Politico saying: “It’s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon.”

John Ullyot wrote that the first Signal story — published by The Atlantic reporter Jeffrey Goldberg — was “the beginning of the Month from Hell”.

“Unfortunately, after a terrible month, the Pentagon focus is no longer on war-fighting, but on endless drama,” Mr Ullyot wrote.

“President Donald Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account. Given that, it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer.”

So far, the president is backing his man, insisting Mr Hegseth is “doing a great job” and suggesting that former staff are spreading “fake news”.

“I guess it sounds like disgruntled employees,” Mr Trump told reporters at Easter Monday celebrations at the White House.

“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.”

At the same event, Mr Hegseth said: “I have spoken to the president, and we are going to continue fighting on the same page all the way.”

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The first Republican to publicly condemn Mr Hegseth, Don Bacon, derided his use of his personal phone to send sensitive information.

“Russia and China put up thousands of people to monitor all these phone calls at the very top, and the number one target besides the president … would be the secretary of Defense,” Mr Bacon said on Monday, local time.

“Russia and China are all over his phone, and for him to be putting secret stuff on his phone is not right.

” He’s acting like he’s above the law — and that shows an amateur person. ”

This week, Washington will be focused on the fate of Mr Hegseth and watching his boss, Mr Trump, for any signs his controversial pick for secretary of defense might not survive.

Donald Trump picked Pete Hegseth to run the Department of Defense and the Pentagon despite his lack of management experience. (AP)

The alleged leaks, the probes and confusion

Back in December, Mr Hegseth was considered one of Mr Trump’s most surprising presidential nominations.

During Mr Hegseth’s confirmation hearing, Democrats voiced concerns about his inexperience, alleged drunkenness and past opposition to women in combat.

But he was sworn in as secretary of defense and gained control over an organisation with an annual budget of nearly $US1 trillion ($1.5 trillion), 1.3 million active-duty service members and nearly 1 million civilian workers.

Just months into the job, he faces serious challenges.

He is being investigated by the Pentagon watchdog over the initial Signal group chat.

National security adviser takes responsibility for chat mistake Photo shows Donald Trump with his hands out and Mike Waltz standing behind him. The journalist was added to a group chat that had officials in it, discussing a planned military operation in Yemen earlier this month.

There have been calls for that to be broadened to include the second group chat too.

All the while, there has been a crackdown by the Trump administration on the leaking of classified and sensitive information.

Mr Hegseth has seized on that to launch probes into his staff on the grounds of national security.

So while wars rage, and Mr Hegseth messages details of upcoming military strikes to Signal group chats, heads within his organisation have started to roll over national security concerns.

Three top Pentagon officials who worked closely under him have been sent on leave as part of an ongoing probe into “unauthorised disclosures of national security information”.

“The use of polygraphs in the execution of this investigation will be in accordance with applicable law and policy,” Mr Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, wrote in a memo on March 21.

One of Mr Hegseth’s senior advisers, Dan Caldwell, was escorted from the Pentagon after being identified in the probe.

The two other senior officials sent on leave were Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, and Darin Selnick, Mr Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff.

All three said they were “incredibly disappointed” by the way their “service at the Department of Defense ended”.

“We still have not been told what exactly we were investigated for, if there is still an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation of ‘leaks’ to begin with,” they said in a statement posted to X.

There’s not been any official word about exactly what was leaked, or who the information was given to.

But Politico reported the leaks related to a proposed visit to the Pentagon by Elon Musk to discuss China, suspending intelligence collecting for Ukraine, military plans in the Panama Canal and increasing the size of US naval forces in the Middle East with a second aircraft carrier going to the Red Sea.

Mr Trump was reportedly so enraged by the leaks of Mr Musk’s intended visit to the Pentagon he shut it down himself.

“What the f**k is Elon doing there? Make sure he doesn’t go,” Mr Trump said, according to Axios.

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Mr Hegseth is now down a deputy chief of staff and a senior adviser, and reportedly he will soon also lose his chief of staff, Mr Kasper.

“There is a complete meltdown in the building, and this is really reflecting on the secretary’s leadership,” a senior Defense official told Politico.

Along with the leading officials sent on leave under the leaking investigation, other senior military officers have been fired.

That list includes the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top admiral in the navy, and the head of the US Cyber Command, according to Reuters.

Mr Ullyot, Mr Hegseth’s former press secretary, has also left.

He said he was not “a victim of this purge of his senior leadership”. The Pentagon said, however, that Mr Ullyot was asked to resign.

In his critical opinion piece, Mr Ullyot said the month of chaos at the Pentagon was “a major distraction for the president — who deserves better from his senior leadership”.

The White House has dismissed the report of the second Signal chat as a “non-story”.

“This is what happens when the entire Pentagon is working against you and working against the monumental change that you are trying to implement,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday.

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‘Pete Hegseth must be fired’

The Associated Press has reported that there were 13 people in the second Signal group chat.

The New York Times reported the chat included Pete Hegseth’s wife Jennifer Rauchet as well as his brother Phil and lawyer Tim Parlatore — two men who are now Department of Defense employees.

Mr Hegseth’s brother Phil is a Department of Homeland Security liaison to the Pentagon.

But the Pentagon’s so-called “month from hell” has also seen The Wall Street Journal reporting on Ms Rauchet’s attendance at high-level meetings.

Ms Rauchet is a former Fox News producer and has attended sensitive meetings with foreign military counterparts, according to images the Pentagon has publicly posted.

During a meeting Mr Hegseth had with his British counterpart at the Pentagon in March, his wife could be seen sitting behind him.

Pete Hegseth’s wife Jennifer Rauchet was sitting behind him during a meeting with UK Secretary of State for Defence John Healey in March. (Supplied: DoD/US Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Alexander Kubitza)

As the US tries to broker a deal between Moscow and Kyiv to end the war in Ukraine and wages its own trade war on China, while pushing every other trading partner into robust negotiations, Mr Hegseth is coming under fire for seemingly avoidable things.

After multiple uses of Signal to share highly sensitive military information, his family’s presence at high-level meetings and a purge of senior staff inside his department, there are calls for him to be removed as Secretary of Defense.

Democrats Chuck Schumer and Pete Buttigieg renewed the calls on Sunday, local time.

“The details keep coming out. We keep learning how Pete Hegseth put lives at risk. But Trump is still too weak to fire him. Pete Hegseth must be fired,” Mr Schumer posted to social media platform X.

Mr Buttigieg wrote: “The Secretary is unfit to lead.”

Mr Trump is approaching the first 100 days milestone of his second presidential term. In American politics, it’s a significant moment and pundits will take the chance to analyse his performance.

As Mr Hegseth’s former press secretary Mr Ullyot wrote, it may also be that people inside his administration are also ready to analyse how he deals with the current state of the Pentagon.

“Given his record of holding prior Cabinet leaders accountable, many in the secretary’s own inner circle will applaud quietly if Trump chooses to do the same in short order at the top of the Defense Department.”

White House fires National Security Agency chief

4 April 2025 Share Save Bernd Debusmann BBC News Reporting from Air Force One Share Save

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The Trump administration has fired the head of both the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command, the BBC’s US partner CBS has reported. The removal of General Timothy Haugh comes amid what appears to be a wider purge of top security officials at the agency and at the White House. Democrats have said they are “deeply disturbed” by the move and say it jeopardises national security. It is not clear why Gen Haugh was removed, but it comes after a meeting between President Donald Trump and far-right activist Laura Loomer on Wednesday.

Ms Loomer reportedly urged Trump to fire specific employees whom she suspected lacked support for his agenda. She posted on X that Gen Haugh and his deputy Wendy Noble, who US media reported was also sacked, “have been disloyal to President Trump. That is why they have been fired.” Trump, meanwhile, has denied that Ms Loomer played a role in the firings. Before the firings were reported, Trump told reporters he would get rid of any staff deemed to be disloyal. “We’re always going to let go of people – people we don’t like or people that take advantage of, or people that may have loyalties to someone else,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One. When asked whether Ms Loomer played a role, he said: “No, not at all.” Trump made the comments as reports emerged of the firings of at least three other officials at the White House National Security Council (NSC), following the reported meeting with Ms Loomer. The president did not confirm names. The National Security Agency (NSA) referred the BBC to the Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs for comment, which said on Friday it had seen the reports but had nothing to offer at this time, and would provide more information when it became available. The White House previously told the BBC that the NSC “won’t comment on personnel” matters. The top Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees – Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, and Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence – disclosed Gen Haugh’s firing to CBS. Himes said in a statement that he was “deeply disturbed” by the decision, CBS reported. “I have known General Haugh to be an honest and forthright leader who followed the law and put national security first — I fear those are precisely the qualities that could lead to his firing in this Administration,” Himes said. Those fired from the NSC on Thursday included Brian Walsh, a director for intelligence; Thomas Boodry, a senior director for legislative affairs; and David Feith, a senior director overseeing technology and national security, CBS reported. It was not clear if Gen Haugh and Ms Noble’s removals were connected to those at the NSC. The firings follow a major controversy involving the NSC last month when senior officials inadvertently added a journalist to a Signal messaging thread about military strikes in Yemen. Gen Haugh, who was not on the Signal chat, testified on Capitol Hill last week about the leak. The extent to which that controversy played a role in the firings is unclear. Trump has so far stood by top officials involved in the incident, including National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, who took responsibility for the Atlantic magazine reporter being added to the Signal chat, and said it was an accident.

Getty Images Laura Loomer is a staunch Trump supporter

According to CBS, a source familiar with the situation said the Signal incident “opened the door” to looking into staff members believed not to be sufficiently aligned with Trump, while Ms Loomer’s visit sealed the fate for those who were terminated. The administration has been looking at outside meetings held by national security staff, reprimanding some for meeting people not believed to be aligned with the president, according to the source. Aboard Air Force One en route to Miami, Florida, on Thursday, Trump praised Ms Loomer and confirmed he had met with her, calling her a “great patriot” and a “very strong person”. “She makes recommendations… sometimes I listen to those recommendations,” he said. “I listen to everybody and then I make a decision.” In a phone call with the BBC, Ms Loomer said it would be “inappropriate” to divulge details of her meeting with Trump on Wednesday. “It was a confidential meeting,” she said. “It’s a shame that there are still leakers at the White House who leaked this information.” She texted a statement that said: “It was an honor to meet with President Trump and present him with my research findings. “I will continue working hard to support his agenda, and I will continue reiterating the importance of STRONG VETTING, for the sake of protecting the President of the United States of America and our national security.” Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who posted information in the chat, is now the subject of an internal review into his use of Signal and whether he complied with his department’s policies, the Pentagon’s office of the acting inspector general said on Thursday. Inspector general offices routinely conduct independent investigations and audits of federal agencies, and look into possible security breaches. Upon returning to the White House in January, Trump removed many of the government’s inspectors general and has installed acting heads of the watchdogs at the defence, commerce, labour and health departments. On Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi was asked at an event in Florida whether she would also investigate the incident. She said she had not discussed the matter with the president and the incident was being reviewed internally. “Nothing has been referred to us,” she said. “These are intelligence agencies, and they are reviewing it internally.”

National Security Agency of United States logo is seen in this illustration taken March 26, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

June 20 (Reuters) – The White House recently rejected the Pentagon’s pick to head the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, Politico reported on Friday, citing three people familiar with the move.

It is not clear why the White House decided not to move forward with Army Lieutenant General Richard Angle’s nomination, Politico reported.

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Reporting by Bhargav Acharya and Jasper Ward; editing by Kanishka Singh

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WASHINGTON — The head of US Cyber Command and Director of the National Security Agency (NSA), Gen. Timothy Haugh, was ousted from his post Thursday evening, Breaking Defense has confirmed.

Haugh, who took his position as head of CYBERCOM and the NSA in February of 2024, was fired by the Trump administration along with his deputy Wendy Noble. The reason for Haugh’s firing is unclear. Asked for comment, the NSA deferred to the Pentagon. In a statement Friday afternoon, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell, put out a statement saying, “The Defense Department thanks General Timothy Haugh for his decades of service to our nation, culminating as U.S. Cyber Command Commander and National Security Agency Director. We wish him and his family well.”

However, an NSA spokesperson confirmed to Breaking Defense that Lt. Gen William Hartman, who served as Haugh’s deputy at Cyber Command, will take over Haugh’s CYBERCOM duties.

According to the The Washington Post, which first reported the news, Noble was reassigned to a position within the Defense Department’s Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. The Post also reported that Sheila Thomas, NSA’s deputy director, will assume Haugh’s’ NSA responsibilities — a situation that, if left to linger, could serve as a de facto decoupling of the NSA/CYBERCOM assignment.

In recent months, reports circulated detailing President Donald Trump’s potential plans to split the “dual hat” arrangement between CYBERCOM and the NSA.

Democrats were quick to condemn the firings. Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, posted on social media platform X, “At a time when the United States is facing unprecedented cyber threats, as the Salt Typhoon cyberattack from China has so clearly underscored, how does firing him make Americans any safer?”

Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, took to Facebook say he was “deeply disturbed by the decision.”

Haugh joined the Air Force in 1992 and eventually served as deputy commander of CYBERCOM until former President Joe Biden picked him to lead CYBERCOM and the NSA last February.

Haugh and Noble’s dismissals come after the firings of a handful of aides on the White House’s National Security Council staff. According to multiple reports, those firings were driven by Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist and 9/11 conspiracy theorist who recently met with Trump. The New York Times reported today that Loomer was also the driving influence behind firing Haugh.

After the news broke, Loomer posted on X, stating “NSA Director Tim Haugh and his deputy Wendy Noble have been disloyal to President Trump. That is why they have been fired.

“As a Biden appointee, General Haugh had no place serving in the Trump admin given the fact that he was HAND PICKED by General Milley, who was accused of committing treason by President Trump. Why would we want an NSA Director who was referred to Biden after being hand selected by Milley, who told China he would side with them over Trump!?!?”

UPDATED April 5, 2025 at 4:16 pm ET to include comment from the Pentagon.