As the "leak scandal" resurfaces, U.S. President Trump latest statement said he still supports U.S. Defense Secretary Hackett.

According to comprehensive reports from Reuters, NBC News and other media outlets, White House spokesperson Lettitt was a guest on a Fox News program on the 21st local time and stated that Trump "firmly supports" Hackett, "he is doing an excellent job leading the Pentagon." Lettitt said, "The president absolutely trusts Secretary Hackett. I just talked with him about this matter this morning, and he supports Hackett."

Lettitt also defended him by saying that the overwhelming criticism of Hackett was due to "the entire Pentagon opposing his attempt to implement major reforms."

On the 20th local time, The New York Times reported that on March 15, the day when the U.S. military carried out an airstrike on the Houthi armed group in Yemen, Hackett not only shared the strike plan for the Houthi armed group in a high-level U.S. national security official chat group where a reporter mistakenly entered, but also released detailed action plans in another private group chat including his wife, brother, and personal lawyer, causing another nationwide uproar.

Source information disclosed that before he officially assumed the position of defense minister, Hackett created a Signal chat group named "Defense | Team Huddle" in January this year, which included himself and key people in the Pentagon's "inner circle". This group chat did not include other cabinet officials in the Trump administration, mainly discussing daily administrative affairs or schedule arrangements.

U.S. President Trump and Defense Secretary Hackett IC Photo

In response to the above news, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell sharply criticized on social media on the 20th, "The New York Times - and all other fake news outlets that repeat sensationalized garbage stories, are keen to use disgruntled former employees' complaints as the sole source of their articles," and stated that "media obsessed with hating Trump are still obsessed with destroying those who carry out the president's agenda." He emphasized, "There is no classified information in any Signal chat."

Besides the political turmoil caused by the software leak incident, the U.S. Department of Defense has recently launched investigations into several other leakage incidents, causing personnel upheaval in the Pentagon.

The Hill reported that since last month, the Pentagon has initiated multiple investigations to determine how sensitive information such as the deployment of the second U.S. aircraft carrier to the Red Sea, the military action plan targeting the Panama Canal, the visit of "Department of Government Efficiency" head Musk to the Pentagon, and the U.S. suspension of intelligence collection for Ukraine were leaked to the media.

The investigation has affected three senior Pentagon officials, namely Dan Caldwell, Hackett's senior advisor, Darin Serenik, deputy director of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense, and Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Varberg. Sources said these three senior officials were accused of "unauthorized disclosure of national security information" and were dismissed on April 18 local time.

Politico pointed out that this has left Hackett without three important senior advisors. A senior U.S. defense official believes that the situation within the Pentagon is already out of control, "A complete collapse is happening in the building, which actually reflects the secretary's leadership ability. People around Hackett do not care about his interests."

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