The White House has started a process to look for a new Pentagon chief, a US broadcaster said Monday, following media reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared sensitive military information in a group chat that included his wife and brother.
Citing an unnamed US official, NPR reported that the process started, after The New York Times said Sunday that Hegseth shared information about US strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen on March 15 in a Signal messaging chat.
Hegseth had already faced controversy over his reported sharing of details on strikes in Yemen in a separate Signal chat that accidentally included a journalist.
Earlier in the day, President Donald Trump called the NYT report "fake news."
"Pete's doing a great job. Everybody's happy," Trump told reporters during the White House Easter Egg Roll event.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also dismissed the NPR report as "fake news."
"This @NPR story is total FAKE NEWS based on one anonymous source who clearly has no idea what they are talking about," Leavitt wrote on X. "As the President said this morning, he stands strongly behind @SecDef."
SecDef is short for secretary of defense. (Yonhap)
