The Adam Mockler Show - Trump Panicked Over Second Hegseth Leak

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

Adam Mockler with MeidasTouch Network breaks down Donald Trump's reaction to Signalgate part 2. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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His brother was in there. People with nowhere near the security clearance necessary to know this information were in there. and now all hell has broken loose. I mean, this one says, full-blown meltdown at Pentagon after Pete Higg-Seth's second signal chat revealed. And we'll read this in one second. But this opinion piece may be one of the most damning things I've read since the Trump admin started, since the second Trump admin started, rather.

It says, former top Pentagon spokesperson details, quote, month from hell inside the agency. The Pentagon spokesperson that stepped down less than a week ago is now detailing how Pete Hegseth has created a shit show in less than a month and how Trump is stressed. Trump now wants them to step down. The entire admin regrets plucking this guy straight off Fox News. And like, I don't want to do the I Told You So thing, but I'll say, who could have known? Who could have known that pulling someone off of your favorite weekend show would not have ended up well?

So let's jump in here. The existence of a group chat, including Hegseth, his wife, his brother, and others have prompted calls for him to step down. And this entire piece points back to one first. that I've been using a lot. Loyalty over competence. At least that's how Trump wants it. Trump wants to prioritize loyalty over competence when it should be the other way around. Yes, there is a place for loyalty, especially in a place of business. You want people that are close to you, but you want them to be experienced and you want their experience to supersede their loyalty. So if they do want

to challenge you, they feel comfortable. That's how you create a solid work environment where you're all tight, you're all loyal, but you're building with each other so that you're okay with criticizing each other and taking feedback. I mean, some of my closest workers, my editor is, we're all loyal. But yeah, they'll tell me, Mockler, that's a bad idea. You shouldn't go down that path. Trump doesn't have that mechanism. So to go back to this, let's read this opinion piece. Make sure you drop a like if you want to see Pete Heggseth held accountable. And how do you want to see him held accountable? Let me know in the comment section below. Drop some blue hearts. I think he should immediately be impeached by the Senate. Honestly, he should step down before that.

I don't know if that's going to happen. This says, the total chaos at the Department of Defense is becoming a major distraction for the Trump admin, writes John Olliot, who is a former Pentagon spokesman. John Olliot is a former chief Pentagon spokesman and led communications at the NSC and the Department of Veterans Affairs in Trump's first term. He resigned from the Pentagon last week. That's the key thing. He resigned last week, and we can safely assume, I'm assuming here, that he resigned after he heard this story, because what publications do is they call around and try to get quotes. So the New York Times likely called and tried to get a quote, and John Olliot heard this and said, I'm gone. I cannot defend this.

Here is the op-ed. This is being written directly by Oll-Yat, so let's read this. It says, it's been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon, from leaks of sensitive operational plans to mass firings, that his function is now a major distraction for the president who deserves better from his senior leadership. President Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account. You have to remember, this is somebody who worked under the first Trump admin, so They're going to be framing this as if Trump is smarter than to have Pete Hegseth.

So just remember that. That's his framing here. Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account. If you want to call having a 92% turnover rate holding people accountable, then sure. Given that, it's hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer. The latest flashpoint is a near collapse inside the Pentagon's top ranks. On Friday, on Friday, Hegseth fired three of his most loyal senior staffers, senior advisor, Dan Caldwell, Deputy Chief of Staff, Darren Selnick, and Colin Carroll, Chief of Staff to the Deputy

Secretary of Defense. In the aftermath, Defense Department officials working for Heggseth tried to smear the aides anonymously to reporters claiming that they were fired for leaking sensitive information as part of an investigation earlier this month. Yet none of this is true. While the department said that it would conduct polygraph tests as part of the probe, not one of the three has been given a lie detector test. In fact, at least one of them is told former colleagues and investigators advised him. He was about to be cleared officially of any wrongdoing. What's in the absolute Orwellian fuck right now? Listen to this. The Department of Defense is smearing some of its top advisors. Some of Pete Heggsett's most loyal aides did one thing wrong and Hegsetth fires them

and tries to smear them. I feel like this is a plot line in House of Cards or Game of Thrones or something yet. This is not Game of Thrones. This is a real world democracy that is quite fragile, right? This says, none of this is true. The department said it would conduct polygraph tests, but they didn't. Unfortunately, Hegset's team has developed a habit of spreading flat out, easily debunked falsehoods anonymously about their colleagues on their way out of the door. On Friday, Politico reported that Hegset's chief of staff, Joe Casper, was leaving his role. Casper had requested the investigation into the Pentagon leaks, which reportedly included military operational plans for the Panama Canal and a pause in the collection of

of intelligence for Ukraine. God, it's just hard to read out loud. Hegsep is now presiding over a strange and baffling purge that will leave him without two of his closest advisors of over a decade, Caldwell and Selnick. Dude, you know you messed up bad. When you're two closest advisors for a decade, you have to fire them. Who would have thought that plugging someone directly from Fox News into one of the most sensitive posts in the U.S. government would not go well? I mean, nobody thought it would result in a near immediate collapse inside the building. I didn't think that 20 days after the entire Pentagon would be on fire, yet here we are. His leadership has triggered mass purges, botched briefings, mass firings, media leaks,

growing disarray, sensitive information leaks all within roughly 30 days. None of this is speculation. This is written by the former Pentagon spokesperson who, despite being a Trump supporter, resigned last week and is now calling him out. But let's continue here. In short, the building is in disarray under Hexon. Set's leadership, sorry. Fortunately, I was not a victim of this purge of senior leadership.

Like Caldwell and Selnick, I am a long-time backer of the secretary. In December, when a Senate confirmation was in jeopardy, I wrote an opinion piece, arguing strongly that he was the best man to shake things up. Pete Hexsett is the best choice, right? John Olleyut. How did that age so poorly in the course of three months? But you know what? He's now coming out and using his platform to shit on Pete Hexeth.

So I'm not going to, I'm going to save it for another video. In December, he says, I wrote an opinion piece, a month. later. Hex Seth invited me to stand up and lead the Pentagon Public Affairs. We accomplished a lot together, including bringing new, largely more conservative media outlets into the space. Last week, a month after leading my public affairs role, I respectfully declined the Secretary's generous offer for a new position and informative of my decision to leave the department. I value his friendship, and I'm grateful for him giving me the opportunity. Yet even strong backers of the secretary like me must admit the last month has been a full-blown meltdown at the

the Pentagon. We told you, sorry, I got to calm down, but we told Trump that this would not go well, and now 30 days into it, we are vindicated. It was a full-blown meltdown. Even strong backers of the secretary admit the last month has been a meltdown, and it's becoming a real problem for the admin. First, there was Signal Gates. We all know about Signalgate. The Secretary shared detailed operational plans and an insecure group chat. After the Signalgate story broke, Hegset followed his horrible crisis communications advice from his new public affairs team, who somehow convinced him to try to debunk the reporting through a vague Clinton-esque non-denial that, quote, nobody was texting war plans.

This was a violation of PR rule number one. Get the bad news out right away. His nebulous disavowel prompted the reporter, Jeffrey Goldberg, that then release Hegset's full chat string two days later, turning an already big story into a multi-week embarrassment for the president's national security team. And you know what? I'm not going to say they almost got away with it because they didn't, but the story was beginning to wash away off of the radar due to Abrago and the tariffs.

I do think the story was beginning to wash away. Now we are not going to let that happen. I am not going to stop covering this because they got us once and the story faded away. We're not letting this one fade away. Make sure you drop some blue hearts and I'll like the video to help boost this message. Okay. This was just the beginning of the month from hell. The Wall Street Journal and other outlets reported that Heggseth, quote, brought his wife,

A former Fox News producer to two meetings with foreign military counterparts where sensitive info was discussed. Next, the Pentagon set up a top secret briefing by the Joint Chief of Staff on China for Elon Musk, who has extensive business interests in China. After learning about it, the White House canceled the meeting. Then came the purges, and the news keeps coming. On Sunday night, the New York Times reporter that Hegsseth detailed or shared detailed plans about the Yemen strike in a signal chat that included his wife and brother. There are very likely more shoes to drop in short order with even bigger bombshell stories coming this week. Key Pentagon reporters have been telling sources privately. One reason the American people gave Trump a conclusive victory last November is that he's not a go-along, get-along creature of the Beltway.

All right, F-off, I'm not reading this glazing of Donald Trump. You guys, you guys messed up. And you defended him, dude. Focus on Hexeth as the main villain because he is. Hexeth is incompetent, and this is embarrassing for America. Just imagine for one second if Joe Biden's defense secretary had secretly shared war plans over a signal, brought his spouse into confidential meetings, presided over multiple public humiliations of our country, the GOP would never stop screaming for impeachment.

They would be screaming for execution. Biden did way less. He ate like a chocolate, chocolate chip ice cream cone, and they wanted to impeach him for that. Yet the Pentagon is currently leaderless. With vacant chief of staff roles, morale is reportedly plummeting, and a defense secretary without a brain. And Trump is now boxed in. Either you fire Hexeth and you admit that your pick was a massive mistake 30 days later and that maybe you don't pick the best people or you leave him in place and continue to gamble with U.S. security. But the notion that this is

sustainable is completely laughable. Pentagon insiders are openly saying more shoes are about to drop and you know, we'll leave it there. I will continue to relentlessly cover this. So drop a like, subscribe. I'll see you all in the next video and peace out.