Pete Hegseth made sure there was no confusion about his identity while texting bombing plans on Signal. Screenshots published Wednesday reveal that he set his profile picture in the app to the same one he uses on his public Facebook page. The Defense Secretary is among top Trump officials, including Vice President JD Vance, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who were exposed as using the messaging app to discuss highly sensitive military airstrikes on Yemen. But the former Fox News host was the only Cabinet member to go the extra mile and upload a photo of himself to his Signal profile. While the app uses end-to-end encryption, experts say it is still vulnerable to hacking, and only days before the leak was exposed by The Atlantic, the Pentagon itself had warned the department against using the messaging app, citing an identified vulnerability. Although the White House has confirmed the baffling security breach, Hegseth has tried to play it down, asserting to reporters Monday, “Nobody was texting war plans.” However, The Atlantic released new text messages Wednesday showing Hegseth shared the timings for airstrikes before they were launched March 15.
