A Breakdown of Pete Hegseth's Epic Crashout

Pete Hegseth has had quite the month. He's getting heat for not one but 2 non-government approved Signal chats that detail classified information, wasting thousands of taxpayer dollars on a makeup room, setting up an unsecure internet line in his office in order to use the afformrntioned Signal chat, threatening Generals with polygraph tests, and putting massive framed photos of his wife all over Pentagon walls for whatever reason.

My theory about that last one is that he needs to see her constantly so he remembers not to cheat on her. Again. My second theory is that his wife requested this to remind female Pentagon workers he's married to her. After all, he was married when they began their office romance, so maybe she's afraid of karma.

Two sources familiar with the situation told the AP that Hegseth has a “dirty line”—which routes directly into public internet—raising alarms that any information shared over the line could be compromised by hackers or foreign surveillance networks.

The setup is against the Pentagon’s security policy, yet Hegseth appears to have gone out of his way to set up the system, according to a report by The Washington Post.

It appears Hegseth “cloned” the Signal app from his personal phone after asking his aides how to bypass a lack of cell signal in the Pentagon.

According to the sources, Hegseth then had Signal installed on a second computer in his Pentagon office, with the aim of sending messages to his Signal chats from the device.

Signalgate

The first “Signalgate”—which saw the leaking of sensitive bombing plans to The Atlantic’s Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg in a Signal chat—has reportedly plunged the Department of Defense into chaos.

It got worse when a second Signal chat hit the Pentagon, where he discussed more military intel with his lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, and his brother, Phil Hegseth. Hegseth has brought on Parlatore as a special aide. His brother, a conservative podcaster, has been granted “special advisor” status.

While Hegseth’s brother and lawyer do work at the Defense Department, his wife, Jennifer Rachet, does not. But that hasn't stopped her from attending meetings with her husband and applying for a security clearance. It’s unclear at this time if one was granted.

Greg Williams, the director of the Project on Government Oversight’s Center for Defense Information, said this raised issues around whether Hegseth is a trustworthy keeper of sensitive information.

Following a slew of negative headlines, Hegseth oversaw a purge of his handpicked top aides—including Dan Caldwell, Colin Carroll, Darin Selnick, and his chief of staff, Joe Kasper, who announced his exit from the Pentagon Thursday.

The former Fox News host’s chaotic tenure has resulted in condemnation from both Republicans and Democrats, yet Hegseth has insisted that he “won’t blink” in the face of calls to resign.

“President Trump asked me to bring warfighting back to the Pentagon every single day, right? That is our focus, and if people don’t like it, they can come after me,” he said in an interview with Fox News earlier this week. “I haven’t blinked, and I won’t blink because this job is too big and too important.”

Polygraph Tests for Generals

A flailing Pete Hegseth has taken to threatening colleagues with polygraph tests in an effort to find out who keeps snitching about all of the illegal and insane things he does.

“I’ll hook you up to a f---ing polygraph!” Hegseth yelled at Admiral Christopher Grady, the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after leaks began circulating that the Pentagon was planning a classified briefing about China to Elon Musk.

Amid these reports, the department has seen several abrupt firings and resignations.

Last week, three aides were shown the door, and in a joint statement, they claimed that they didn’t know basic information about the circumstances of their exit.

“At this time, 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.

Another personnel change involved Hegseth’s former chief of staff, Joe Kasper, who originally said he would be transferring to another job within the Pentagon. Kasper is facing allegations of inappropriate workplace behavior which included "bragging about partying with strippers" during briefings and meetings.

To compound matters, the Pentagon’s inspector general is investigating Hegseth for allegedly mishandling classified information.

Hegseth's death spiral continued on Easter when he was interviewed at the White House:

“What a big surprise that a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out from the same media that peddled the Russia hoax,” he said at the White House Easter Egg Roll, as his 7 children looked on, clearly embarrassed. “This is what the media does. They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees, and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations.”

As a former Fox News host, he should know ALL about that.

Pete Hegseth's Wife

The walls of the Pentagon are littered with photographs of his wife, which is unnecessary as she is an inescapable presence in the building, despite holding no government position.

Pentagon staffers, who are growing increasingly annoyed and angry at how often Jennifer Rauchet Hegseth is around, have been quoted, “What I’ve seen with [Pete] Hegseth—never in my life have I ever seen this,” one insider said of the situation.

The former Fox News producer, the defense chief’s third wife, is seen front and center in three photographs hung around one briefing room. In one, she is seen holding a Bible as Vice President JD Vance swore in her husband in January. Another photo, also from Hegseth’s swearing in, shows the happy couple, while a third also details the ceremony.

It is not known exactly when the photos were hung, but they are further evidence of the overstepping Rauchet has done in the Pentagon.

Her constant presence has reportedly rattled staffers, some of whom can’t believe that she has been allowed to sit in on important meetings.

“I have never in my professional life seen a spouse sit in on a meeting with counterparts from other countries, where they talk through substantive matters related to our relationship with these foreign militaries,” they said.

Chris Meagher, another former Pentagon press chief, went on record to call it “bewildering.”

Insiders have reported that she scribbles notes and even takes photographs during meetings. She has also tagged along to meetings with lawmakers, with one Senate aide saying that she attended all of Hegseth’s meetings with Republican Senators before his confirmation.

Her presence “totally changed the dynamic” of conversations around allegations of a 2017 sexual assault made against her husband, one source told the publication. Hegseth denies the allegations, saying the encounter with the unidentified woman in a California hotel was consensual.

Rauchet's distrust of the non-MAGA press and her experience as a producer at Fox News are guiding her quest to help her husband navigate the media landscape.

This has led some insiders to call her Hegseth’s “human leash”. Another insider said Rauchet acts as a “parole officer and PR agent all at once,” adding that her role is to “keep his sobriety from slipping, eyes from wandering and pants zipped.”