Hegseth slips up during an international trip -- again Every international trip the Pentagon chief has taken has been

Hegseth slips up during an international trip — again

Every international trip the Pentagon chief has taken has been clouded by controversy.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/25/hegseth-group-chat-asia-00004320?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us




By Jack Detsch and Paul McLeary 03/25/2025 06:29 PM EDT

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is spiraling through yet another overseas trip eclipsed by a controversy largely of his own doing.

Hegseth’s first foreign trip to Brussels last month turned tense after he ruled out Ukraine joining NATO before the Trump administration had settled the debate. Now, as he lands in Asia, the Pentagon chief is in hot water again. This time, it’s for sharing war plans in a Signal chat — which accidentally included a journalist — about the military’s strikes against Yemen’s Houthi fighters...................




..........While Hegseth didn’t mention the Indo-Pacific in chat messages published by The Atlantic, he did express a “loathing of European free-loading” off America’s military and called it “PATHETIC.”

That has stirred anger across the Atlantic. One European diplomat called the texting situation “outrageous” and noted that NATO allies patrol the Red Sea with the U.S. Navy. The European Union is also conducting a naval mission in the contested waterway with 10 member countries.