Former national security adviser John Bolton said Defense Secretary Pete Hegses was “lightweight” that exhausted all “goodwill” with President Trump after it was revealed that he had a second signal group chat to share the attack plan with his family.
“I think Hegseth has proven himself lightweight and I don’t think he’s long for work,” Bolton told CNN on Tuesday.
Bolton, who served under the first Trump administration and often criticised the president, said that Trump may wait a while for the administration to banish Hegses because he doesn’t want to appear to succumb to political pressure.
“He’s exhausted his goodwill with the administration,” Bolton said of Heggs. “He’s supposed to defend Trump, not defend him.”
Trump said his secretary was doing a “great job” and stood by Hegses in a new report about group chat, telling people to “study how he’s doing.”
Hegseth claimed in the chat that “war plans” were not shared, reportedly including his wife, brother and personal lawyers. He made a similar claim after revealing that the Atlantic editor-in-chief had been added to a signal group discussing the strike of the Hooty Rebels in Yemen.
“What was shared at the signal at the time, even if it characterised it, was an informal, uncategorized adjustment, for media adjustments, etc,” Hegses said Tuesday. Between “Fox and Friends” Interview. “That’s what I said from the beginning.”
Last month, Bolton criticized Trump officials for using signals rather than a safer US government system.
Bolton said his advice to Hegses in the second signal scandal is to think about his next job move.
“I don’t know if he’ll do that, but I haven’t seen his tenure last for more than a few months in the future,” Bolton said.
Oka reached out to the Department of Defense for comments.
