Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth returned to his Fox News stomping grounds on Thursday in an appearance at the Fox Nation Patriot Awards, where he tried to make light of one of his largest scandals — to mixed results.
Hegseth made a surprise appearance at the ceremony to celebrate the network’s “Salute to Service” honoree, Maj. James Capers Jr., before launching into a monologue reiterating his quest to rid the Defense Department of diversity initiatives and highlighting the “honor” it is to serve President Donald Trump. But as he spotted U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz in the crowd, he couldn’t help himself from joking about their shared love of the messaging app Signal.
“I see Mike Waltz,” he said. “Mike, I’ll hit you up on Signal later.”
The quip was in reference to then-National Security Adviser Waltz mistakenly adding Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a group chat on the app that featured Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others discussing attack plans on Yemeni militants. The scandal engulfed the Trump administration for weeks and led to calls for Hegseth, Waltz and others to resign (Waltz eventually was asked to serve as the U.N. ambassador).
“Too soon?” Hegseth joked as the audience launched into a mixture of cheers and groans, with some boos making the broadcast. You can watch a video of the remarks, above.
