WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put U.S. troops at risk by sharing sensitive plans about an upcoming military strike in Yemen on his personal phone, according to a Pentagon inspector general's report made public Thursday that criticized the use of unapproved messaging apps and devices across the Defense Department.
Hegseth had the authority to declassify the material he shared with others in a Signal chat, the watchdog found. But it said the release of sensitive details about the strike on Houthi militants violated internal Pentagon rules about handling sensitive information that could put service members or their missions in danger.
The report noted that the information that Hegseth sent — the quantity and strike times of manned U.S. aircraft over hostile territory about two hours to four hours before those strikes — “created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots.”
“If this information had fallen into the hands of U.S. adversaries, Houthi forces might have been able to counter U.S. forces or reposition personnel and assets to avoid planned U.S. strikes,” the report said.
Hegseth’s use of the app came to light when a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, was inadvertently added to a Signal text chain by then-national security adviser Mike Waltz. Hegseth also created another Signal chat with 13 people, including his wife and brother, where he shared similar details of the same strike.
The report's nuanced findings — that Hegseth's actions put troops at risk but that he had the right to declassify the material — are not likely to relieve the pressure on the former Fox News Channel host.
He also is facing scrutiny on Capitol Hill over a news report that a follow-up strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea in September killed survivors after Hegseth had issued a verbal order to “kill everybody.” A Navy admiral who oversaw the operation disputed in a closed-door meeting with lawmakers Thursday that Hegseth gave such an order.
Hegseth wrote on social media about the inspector general’s report: “No classified information. Total exoneration. Case closed. Houthis bombed into submission.” It comes after Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson this summer called the investigation “a witch hunt and a total sham and being conducted in bad faith."
Hegseth's Signal messages included particulars about the timing and location of the attack as well as the types of weapons and aircraft to be used. He later said the information he shared was “informal, unclassified."
The report noted that while Hegseth had the power to declassify the material in his position as defense secretary, Pentagon policy prohibits the use of personal devices or nonapproved commercial apps such as Signal to transmit “nonpublic or classified” material.
Signal uses end-to-end encryption to secure direct messages and group chats. This safeguard has made Signal an increasingly popular option for many people, not just national security officials.
Signal is considered more secure than other messaging, but it is not foolproof. Those using the service — and their devices — are vulnerable to phishing or other digital attacks based on impersonation. As Hegseth’s use of Signal shows, there are no controls on who can be added to group chats or what kind of sensitive material can be sent.
The defense secretary declined to be interviewed for the watchdog's review. In a one-page statement to the inspector general, Hegseth said he had the authority to declassify the information he was sharing on Signal and that there “was nothing classified in this text.”
“There were no locations or targets identified,” he wrote. “There were no details that would endanger our troops or the mission.”
Hegseth said he was only sharing “an unclassified summary” of operations and that the full details of what was happening were shared separately on a secure network used by the military.
The information he shared on Signal was limited to the “overt actions” of U.S. forces, which he said “would be readily apparent to any observer in the area.”
The revelations are drawing close scrutiny. Democratic lawmakers and a small number of Republicans said Hegseth's posting of the information to the Signal chats before the military jets had reached their targets potentially put those pilots’ lives at risk.
Lawmakers also noted that if lower-ranking members of the military had acted similarly, they would have been fired or severely disciplined for failing to maintain operational security.
The inspector general's office recommended better training on information security for Department of Defense employees. It also noted several earlier instances when personnel used personal devices or unapproved apps for government business, and said that was one reason its recommendations were not focused on Hegseth's actions alone.
"We are not making any recommendations in this report related to the Secretary’s use of Signal to send sensitive nonpublic information because it represented only one instance of an identified, DoD-wide issue," the investigators wrote.
In one example, investigators found that in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, some defense officials used personal phones or laptops or nonapproved video conferencing systems because the department did not have policies to support remote work.
The use of nonapproved devices and apps can also make it harder for officials to retain government records in compliance with the law, the report noted.
The Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who had requested the investigation earlier this year, offered notably diverging takeaways from the report.
Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the chairman, said in a statement that it’s “clear from the reports that the Secretary acted within his authority to communicate the information in question to other cabinet level officials.”
But Wicker said senior leaders also need more tools to share classified information “in real time and a variety of environments.”
“I think we have some work to do in providing those tools to our national security leaders,” Wicker said.
Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the committee’s top Democrat, said Hegseth violated military regulations and showed “reckless disregard for the safety American servicemembers.”
“These were precise strike timings and locations that, had they fallen into enemy hands, could have enabled the Houthis to target American pilots,” Reed said in a statement, adding that anyone else would have faced “severe consequences, including potential prosecution.”
AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A Navy admiral told lawmakers Thursday that there was no “kill them all” order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but grave questions and concerns remain as Congress scrutinizes an attack that killed two survivors of an initial strike on an alleged drug boat in international waters near Venezuela.
Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley “was very clear that he was given no such order, to give no quarter or to kill them all,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, as he exited a classified briefing.
While Cotton, R-Ark., defended the attack, Democrats who were also briefed and saw video of the survivors being killed questioned the Trump administration’s rationale and said the boat strike was deeply concerning.
“The order was basically: Destroy the drugs, kill the 11 people on the boat,” said Washington Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. Smith, who is demanding further investigation, said the survivors were “basically two shirtless people clinging to the bow of a capsized and inoperable boat, drifting in the water.”
Lawmakers want a full accounting after The Washington Post reported that Bradley on Sept. 2 ordered an attack on the survivors to comply with a directive from Hegseth to “kill everybody.” Legal experts say the attack amounts to a crime if the survivors were targeted.
Here's the latest:
Trump said the United States was signing bilateral agreements with the Congo and Rwanda that will unlock new opportunities for the United States to access critical minerals. The deals will benefit all three nations’ economies.
“And we’ll be involved with sending some of our biggest and greatest U.S. companies over to the two countries,” Trump said. He added, “Everybody’s going to make a lot of money.”
The region, rich in critical minerals, has been of interest to Trump as Washington looks for ways to circumvent China to acquire rare earths, essential to manufacturing fighter jets, cellphones and more. China accounts for nearly 70% of the world’s rare earth mining and controls roughly 90% of global rare earths processing.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday she planned to discuss trade and the remaining tariffs on imports from Mexico with Trump on the sidelines of the draw for the 2026 World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
The Mexican leader said she would also meet with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. The three countries are co-hosting next summer’s soccer tournament.
“Everything appears to indicate that we are going to have a small meeting” with Trump, Sheinbaum said during her daily press briefing Thursday. She had announced Wednesday that she would be attending the event.
It will Sheinbaum’s first face-to-face meeting with Trump. She said she wants to advance negotiations over tariffs on automobiles, steel and aluminum. among other things.
The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services panel is calling on the Pentagon to release video of a U.S. attack that killed two survivors of a strike on an alleged drug boat in international waters earlier this year.
Reed and the other leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services and intelligence panels viewed the video at classified briefings by top national security officials in the Capitol on Thursday. He said afterward that the Pentagon should release the video and also the legal opinion authorizing the strike in waters near Venezuela.
“The video will I think answer all of the questions that are floating around and the legal opinion will provide the justification for the general operation,” Reed said.
Republicans and Democrats have vowed to investigate the incident. Reed said the video was disturbing but declined to provide any additional details.
Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said even without a direct verbal command from Hegseth or anyone else to “kill them all” the order for the mission was to kill those on board.
“Admiral Bradley was very clear that he did not say ‘kill them all.’ However, there were 11 people on that boat, and the order was basically: Destroy the drugs, kill the 11 people on the boat,” Smith told the AP.
He described the video showing “basically two shirtless people clinging to the bow of a capsized and inoperable boat, drifting in the water — until the missiles come and kill them.”
The Trump administration has instructed U.S. embassies and consulates around the world to prioritize visa applications from foreigners wishing to visit the United States to either invest in America or attend the 2026 World Cup, 2028 Olympics and other major sporting events.
The administration also has added new criteria for highly skilled foreign workers seeking a particular visa.
The new rules would deny entry to applicants deemed to have directed or participated in the censorship of American citizens on social media through content moderation initiatives that have sprung up throughout Europe and elsewhere to combat extremist speech.
The steps were outlined in cables sent this week to all U.S. diplomatic missions and obtained by The Associated Press.
“No one was asking President Trump to take up this task. Our region is far from the headlines,” said Rwandan President Paul Kagame at the signing ceremony. “But when the president saw the opportunity to contribute to peace, he immediately took it.”
Dan Bongino, the deputy director of the FBI, said authorities identified Brian Cole Jr. as a suspect in the Washington, D.C., pipe bomb case based on the FBI’s investigation.
“This was not a new public tip that this came from,” Bongino said. “This was our own internal work at the FBI.”
Brian Cole has been charged with use of an explosive device.
“We were going to track this person to the end of the earth. There was no way he was getting away,” Bongino said.
No attorney information was yet available and attempts to reach family and a cellphone listed as Cole’s were not answered.
The long-running bromance between the U.S. president and Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, is still going strong. Trump nodded to Infantino at the DRC-Rwanda peace deal signing, calling him a “great leader in sports and a great gentleman.”
Infantino is in town ahead of the World Cup draw on Friday. The event is being held at the Kennedy Center, or the “Trump Kennedy Center,” as the president called it.
“Oh, excuse me — at the Kennedy Center,” Trump jokingly corrected himself. “Pardon me, such a terrible mistake.”
Trump also said ticket sales for next year’s World Cup, which the U.S. is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico, have broken records.
“I can report to you that we have sold more tickets than any country, anywhere in the world at this stage of the game,” he said.
FIFA said late last month that nearly two million tickets had been purchased during two phases of ticket sales. The third phase begins Dec. 11.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau and Department of Justice brought in a new team of investigators and experts to sift through existing evidence and chase down leads. He said that was, “Something the prior administration failed to do.”
Patel went on to call the arrest “flawless,” saying no officers were hurt taking down what he characterized as a dangerous suspect.
“We solved it. He will have his day in court,” Patel said.
Presidents Felix Tshisekedi of Congo and Paul Kagame of Rwanda are signing a deal aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Congo and opening access to the region’s critical minerals.
Tshisekedi offered a hopeful message about the precarious peace.
“I do believe this day is the beginning of a new path, a demanding path, yes. Indeed, quite difficult,” Tshisekedi said. “But this is a path where peace will not just be a wish, an aspiration, but a turning point.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi says a man named Brian Coles Jr. was arrested Thursday in with the Jan. 5, 2021, pipe bombs left outside the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Cole is charged with use of an explosive device, Bondi said during a news conference. She said the investigation is still underway, and more charges could be filed in the future.
“As we speak, search warrants are being executed,” Bondi said.
Trump celebrated a peace agreement between the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda on Thursday by praising the building hosting the event.
“It’s a spectacular building and we all appreciate it,” Trump said. His administration is involved in a court battle over the think tank.
The State Department on Wednesday said that it renamed it as the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace.
“Thank you for putting a certain name on that,” Trump said to Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the event. “That blew up last night.”
The White House is expected to submit plans for its new ballroom to a planning commission later this month, the Trump-appointed head of the panel said Thursday.
“Once plans are submitted, that’s really when the role of this commission, and its professional staff, will begin,” Will Scharf, the chair of the National Capital Planning Commission, said.
In Fairfax, Virginia, federal agents gathered outside an office marked “Brian Cole Bail Bonds,” its entrance wrapped in yellow crime-scene tape that flicked in the afternoon wind.
A man in an FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force jacket stood near the entrance, conferring with local officers who were guarding the building.
The business shares the suspect’s name. In public records, it appears to be associated with members of his family, though authorities have not detailed the connection.
The Republican and Democratic leaders on the Senate Armed Services Committee offered diverging takeaways from the Pentagon inspector general report on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal to share sensitive information.
Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican chair, said in a statement that Hegseth “acted within his authority to communicate the information in question to other cabinet level officials.”
But Wicker said that senior leaders also need more tools to share classified information “in real time and a variety of environments.”
Sen. Jack Reed of Oregon, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said Hegseth violated military regulations and showed “reckless disregard for the safety American servicemembers.”
Reed said in his statement that anyone else would have faced “severe consequences, including potential prosecution.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to have a brief meeting with Trump while at the Kennedy Center in Washington for the World Cup draw Friday.
Carney’s spokesperson Audrey Champoux says Carney will also have a brief meeting with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
The United States, Canada and Mexico are hosting the 64-nation World Cup next year.
A Navy admiral has told lawmakers that there was no “kill them all” order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
That disclosure Thursday comes as Congress scrutinizes an attack that killed two survivors of an initial strike on an alleged drug boat in international waters near Venezuela.
Sen. Tom Cotton told reporters about what he heard from Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley in classified briefing and Cotton is defending the attack. But a Democratic lawmaker who was also briefed says he’s deeply concerned by video of the second strike
The Pentagon inspector general’s report released Thursday criticized the use of unapproved messaging apps and devices across the department.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had the authority to declassify the material he shared with others in a Signal chat, the watchdog found. But it also says the release of details about the strike on Houthi militants in Yemen violated internal Pentagon rules about handling sensitive information that could put service members or their missions in danger.
The report noted that the information that Hegseth sent — the quantity and strike times of manned U.S. aircraft over hostile territory about two hours to four hours before those strikes — “created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots.”
Hegseth wrote on social media: “No classified information. Total exoneration. Case closed. Houthis bombed into submission.”
The South Carolina Republican told reporters during a virtual news conference on Thursday that she’s going to finish her term but is “100%” frustrated with the slow pace of the House.
Mace was asked about reporting by The New York Times that she is looking to meet with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to discuss following the lead of the Georgia Republican, who has announced she’s leaving Congress in January.
Mace said she’s expressed her frustrations to House Speaker Mike Johnson, whom she supports and said she expects to outlast recent criticism of his management of the House.
Mace, first elected in 2020, is seeking the GOP nomination for South Carolina governor in next year’s elections and is not expected to run for another House term.
Protesters held signs that read “No Collaboration with ICE/DHS” and begged city leaders to create “ICE-Free zones” during a City Council meeting Thursday. It was the second day of a federal immigration enforcement operation in the city.
After public comment was suspended, and protesters refused to yield their time at the podium, City Council members paused the meeting and left the room.
As protesters chanted “Shame,” city police officers ordered them to leave the building. While some protesters complied, multiple others were pushed or physically carried out by officers.
Trump administration lawyers on Thursday accused plaintiffs of “throwing in the towel” with “procedural gamesmanship” after they moved to dismiss their lawsuit over the aggressive tactics of federal immigration officers in the Chicago area.
The coalition of protesters and journalists behind the suit called the dismissal a victory, saying the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” had largely wound down. But the case was on its way to a skeptical appeals court that had already frozen an order limiting agents’ use of force.
“The moment they have to explain themselves to an appellate court, they run for the hills,” said Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.
Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer says a bill Democrats will bring to the Senate floor for a vote next week would allow for a three-year extension of enhanced health insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of this year.
Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune promised Democrats a vote on a proposal of their choosing as part of a path forward to ending the historic, 43-day government shutdown earlier this fall.
Schumer said every Democrat will support the bill. It’s most likely to fail, though.
“Republicans have one week to decide where they stand. Vote for this bill and bring health care costs down or block this bill and send premiums skyrocketing,” Schumer said.
A White House official said Trump would be making the trip Tuesday to discuss ending the inflation crisis he says was inherited from his predecessor, Joe Biden. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the trip hasn’t been formally announced. It wasn’t immediately clear where in Pennsylvania Trump would be visiting.
Last month’s off-year elections showed a shift away from Republicans as public concerns about affordability persist. White House officials said afterward that Trump — who has done relatively few events domestically — would put a greater emphasis on talking directly to the public about his economic policies.
The president has said that any affordability worries are part of a Democratic “hoax” and that people simply need to hear his perspective to change their minds — an approach also embraced by Biden, who in early 2024 went to the Pennsylvania borough of Emmaus to take credit for economic improvements after inflation spiked in 2022.
— Josh Boak
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U.S. Navy Adm. Frank M. Bradley, accompanied by Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, right, walks to a meeting with senators on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump speaks during an event on fuel economy standards in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
