Fox News Contributor Rips Trump Admin Over Signal Texts Claim: ‘Undeniable’

Fox News contributor Andrew McCarthy ripped into the Trump administration’s claims that the information shared in a Signal app chat among high-ranking Cabinet members and a journalist was not classified.

The Department of Defense referred Newsweek to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s remarks on X, formerly Twitter, when reached via email for additional comment Wednesday.

Why It Matters

Social media erupted in the aftermath of reports of the communications held by Vice President JD Vance, Hegseth, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, among others.

Goldberg says he was included in the message thread with President Donald Trump officials on the encrypted messaging app Signal earlier this month. The journalist reported that the text exchange included U.S. military plans involving airstrikes against the Houthis, Iran-backed rebels in Yemen who’ve been launching attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea amid a clash over control of shipping routes.

The handling of private military discussions among top officials in Trump’s Cabinet has also triggered significant U.S. security concerns.

Hegseth rebuked Goldberg’s report on Monday, saying, “Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that.” Waltz also took a swipe at Goldberg on Tuesday, calling him the “bottom scum of journalists.”

What To Know

In a New York Post opinion article on Wednesday, McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor, called out the administration, saying in part, “It is undeniable, or at least it should be, that ‘information providing advance warning that the US or its allies are preparing an attack’ is to be classified as ‘top secret.'”

The headline of the article is: “Trump team can’t argue these messages weren’t classified — of course they were!”

McCarthy continued that the military strike against the Houthis this month “was a worthy military operation” and that administration officials “deserve credit for carrying it out.” However, “the blunder of discussing the details on a Signal group chat that is not authorized for the communication of national defense information — to say nothing of top secret intelligence — was an unconscionable security breach,” McCarthy continued.

Concluding in the article, McCarthy said, “Suffice it to say the Trump administration is not making this one better. The result is that the value of a crucial operation against the Houthis, an American enemy, is being lost.”

Trump officials including Hegseth have rejected assertions that the information shared was classified or were even “war plans,” as The Atlantic called them.

Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Trump was directly asked if the information shared on the chat was not classified. The president said he was unsure.

“Well, that’s what I’ve heard,” Trump said. “I don’t know. I’m not sure. You have to ask the various people involved. I really don’t know.”

President Donald Trump is seen speaking during an ambassador meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on March 25 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

What People Are Saying

Hegseth posted to X on Wednesday: “So, let’s [sic] me get this straight. The Atlantic released the so-called ‘war plans’ and those ‘plans’ include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information. Those are some really sh**** war plans. This only proves one thing: Jeff Goldberg has never seen a war plan or an ‘attack plan’ (as he now calls it). Not even close. As I type this, my team and I are traveling the INDOPACOM region, meeting w/ Commanders (the guys who make REAL ‘war plans’) and talking to troops. We will continue to do our job, while the media does what it does best: peddle hoaxes.”

Broadcaster Piers Morgan posted to X on Wednesday: “If you don’t consider this to be classified info about imminent war plans, it *may* be that you’re too partisan to recognise the truth when it slaps you around your tribal chops. If this had happened on Biden’s watch, Republicans would have rightly gone berserk.”

Former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, responding to Morgan on X on Wednesday: “Never thought I’d be retweeting Piers Morgan, but he’s right!”

Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan posted to X on Wednesday: “Classified, operational information was disclosed by Secretary Hegseth in the now infamous Signal chat, and it could have put lives at risk. He should own his mistakes. If the Secretary continues to refuse any responsibility, he’ll lose credibility with the force, and become a bigger and bigger distraction to the mission. If that’s the case, he should resign or President Trump should fire him. Let me break down why. ⬇️” (A video follows of the senator speaking on the potential ramifications and dangers of the Signal messages getting intercepted.)