Poll Shows Voters Want One Thing From Pete Hegseth After Signalgate
No one is happy with Donald Trump’s defense secretary right now.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s reckless treatment of classified information has left the majority of voters thinking that he should resign, according to a poll published Monday.
A poll by J.L. Partners for the Daily Mail found that 54 percent of voters believed that Hegseth should resign over his involvement in the recent Signalgate scandal.
While all of the senior Trump officials who were members in the nonsecure group chat failed to notice the presence of Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, as they discussed a strike against the Houthis, it was Hegseth alone who sent details about the timing of the attacks—definitionally classified information.
Twenty-four percent of respondents said they weren’t sure what he should do, while only 22 percent said he should remain in his post.
Republicans were slightly more likely to back Hegseth, but not by much. Only 38 percent said he should stay, but 33 percent said he should go. The rest were not sure. Meanwhile, 54 percent of independents said he should resign, while 22 said he should remain in office.
Respondents seemed slightly aggressive about Mike Waltz, Donald Trump’s national security adviser who mistakenly added Goldberg to the group chat. Forty-seven percent of respondents wanted Walz to resign, while only 21 percent said he should stay. Waltz has struggled to explain the immense gaffe, and most recently claimed that the editor’s number had simply been “sucked in” to his phone.
Although the Trump administration seems interested in sweeping the national security slipup under the rug, Republicans are increasingly primed to paint Hegseth as the major culprit in Signalgate.
One senior Republican official told Politico after Signalgate that “privately, there is a lot of concern about his judgment, more than with Waltz,” in Washington. The former Fox & Friends co-host’s judgment was previously questioned when allegations of sexual assault and excessive drinking were brought to light after he was tapped to lead the Pentagon.