Fears grow that Signal leaks make Pete Hegseth top espionage target

Allies, already concerned by Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs, have also begun to see the US as an intelligence-sharing liability. One person said Russian and Chinese spies were no doubt directly targeting susceptible people in Hegseth’s inner circle. “Pete Hegseth is texting his wife and his wife is posting on Instagram, clicks a link, and gets malware on her phone,” said Goldsmith, describing a hypothetical scenario. But if the advice, devices and apps provided to those officials go ignored, foreign adversaries have an opening. Hegseth’s adherence to operational security, “opsec” for short among national security professionals, referring to the general tradecraft of preventing sensitive information from being leaked, has advertised to foreign adversaries how to compromise him.