President Donald Trump torched a reporter after she was asked about the Pentagon’s investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for using the app Signal to discuss information about a military mission.
While speaking to members of the press on Air Force One, the reporter asked Trump, “On Pete Hegseth and this [inspector general] investigation, do you want to weigh in on that?”
“What is it?” Trump asked.
After the reporter informed him, “There’s an I.G. investigation into the secretary of defense’s use of the Signal app,” Trump replied, “Oh, you’re bringing that up again? Don’t bring that up again. Your editors probably. That’s such a wasted story, so what else?”
The reporter then asked Trump about Chinese ownership of American farmland and what he thought about that.
Acting Pentagon Inspector General Steven Stebbins told Hegseth that his “use of an unclassified commercially available messaging application to discuss information about military actions in Yemen” would be looked into.
“The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business,” Stebbins explained. “Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday that the Signal case had “been closed.”
“This case has been closed here at the White House, as far as we are concerned,” she said. “There have been steps made to ensure that something like that can obviously never happen again, and we’re moving forward.”
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While aboard Air Force One, Trump also spoke about billionaire Elon Musk and his role on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Reporter: “Sir, do you have a sense of how long Elon Musk’s mission will last and when he will depart?”
Trump: “Elon is fantastic. And I think it’s — he is a patriot, and I think it’s a shame what they’re doing with his car company, and a great car. It’s a great car, great product. And it tells you what a patriot he is. He is amazing. No, I mean, as long as he’d like. I like smart people and he is a smart person. I also like him personally. When he endorsed me, that’s when I really got to know him. I knew him a little bit before that, but not much, and then he endorsed me. And it was a very strong and bracing endorsement, as we all know. I would say Elon will stay for a certain period of time and then he’s going to want to get back to his businesses full-time. But he’s done a fantastic job. We found hundreds of — think of it — just hundreds of million dollars of fraud and abuse and waste. And they are still going. They are going strong. They found something today that’s horrible. It’s horrible. So, what they found, you will find out very soon, what they found is incredible. And I give him a lot of credit. He’s got some very smart people with him. They are working very closely with our secretaries and the people that are the heads of [inaudible].”
Reporter 2: “Do you think you would appoint him to a another position once his 130 days —“
Trump: “Well, I would. I think Elon is great, but he also has a company to run, or a number of companies to run. And he can do this and he can find the time, he loves the country, that’s why he does it. But we are in no rush. But there will be a point at which time Elon is going to have to leave.”
Reporter 2: “[inaudible] a specific date?”
Trump: “I would think a few months.”
Reporter 3: “Even when Elon leaves and goes back to being CEO, will DOGE stick around in some kind of capacity?”
Trump: “Yeah. It will stay — DOGE? DOGE itself? Yeah. At some point — just so you understand, I don’t want to get it wrong, I want Elon to stay as long as possible. Number one, I like him. Number two, he is doing a great job. Number three, he is a patriot, that’s why he’s doing this. It’s very costly for him. But — so, I want him to stay as long as possible, but there will be a point where he is going to have to leave. And when he does, the secretaries will take totally over and DOGE will stay active. We have a lot of smart people. A lot of those people, I believe, are going to go into the agencies and they’ll work on it from the inside.”
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