Fresh revelations about Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s disclosure of sensitive military information via an unsecured messaging app intensified calls for his resignation on Wednesday, extending the fallout from the scandal into a third day.

So, is Pete Hegseth about to lose his job? 

On Monday, The Atlantic published a transcript of messages accidentally sent to its editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, after he was mistakenly added to a Signal chat involving senior US officials.

The leak by the magazine revealed operational details of forthcoming US strikes, including the timing, the aircraft deployed, and the weaponry – missiles or drones – used.

Efforts by the Trump administration to cast blame on Goldberg for being added to the chat and denying publishing classified information were doused.

However, when The Atlantic released the full transcript, it became clear that Goldberg had been added to the chat by the National Security Advisor and Representative Mike Waltz.

Outrage on all sides

The fallout has been swift and the security concerns have sparked bipartisan backlash. 

While it was Waltz who mistakenly added Goldberg to the chat, Democrats have focused on Hegseth, a former Fox News contributor and veteran, arguing that he was reckless in sharing such details.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senator Tammy Duckworth are a few of the leaders who have led calls for his resignation, with Duckworth going further, urging Trump to sack all officials involved in the chat.

Yet Trump remains resolute that “Hegseth is doing a great job” and “had nothing to do with this”, asking reporters, "How do you bring Hegseth into this? Look, look, it's all a witch hunt."

The backlash is not limited to Democrats.

When reporters asked Representative Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska, about Hegseth’s insistence that no classified information was shared, his response was blunt:

“That’s baloney. Just be honest and own up to it.”

Senator Roger Wicker for Mississippi, the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, announced that a bipartisan Senate panel would investigate the leak. “We’re very concerned about it,” he said.

Senator Wicker’s statement echoes worry of former and current military officials, who are saying that Hegseth’s divulging of classified details could have risked the life of American fighters abroad. 

Such concerns, particularly from Republicans and those in the defence sector, could mean Trump would have to capitulate after a Senate panel.

Should the Senate panel uncover further damaging details, Trump may be left with little choice but to cut Hegseth loose—despite his initial insistence that the Defence Secretary had “nothing to do with this.”

Hegseth’s last test? 

Hegseth’s past indiscretions and long string of controversies do him no favours.

Allegations of heavy drinking—such as reportedly consuming three gin and tonics at a weekday breakfast meeting in 2023—dominated his confirmation process.

Hegseth, who has a tattoo of the word ‘kafir’ in Arabic on his arm, also garnered controversy when leading the Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America.

Sexual harassment accusations, along with claims of financial mismanagement and misconduct during his tenure at Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America, further tainted his reputation. The New York Times reported that his alleged mismanagement nearly bankrupted the organisation.

As Defence Secretary, his controversial statements have strained alliances.

At a NATO meeting with Ukrainian officials in February, he suggested that returning to Ukrainian pre-2014 borders was “an unrealistic objective” and eliminated the prospect of Kiev's NATO membership. Trump later backed him up on a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This ultimately prompted accusations of betrayal from European allies and President Zelenskyy. 

His tenure has also seen questionable decisions on domestic military history.

Other controversies include the removal by the Defence Department of an online article regarding the military background of the first African American to play in Major League Baseball. It should be noted that the removal of Black figures from government web pages is not isolated to the defence ministry itself during the Trump administration.

Widening security breach?

Adding to the White House’s woes, Der Spiegel has reported that mobile phone numbers, email addresses, and passwords linked to key national security figures—including Hegseth, Waltz, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard—are available online via commercial data-search services and hacked data uploaded online. 

The data, mostly current, were sometimes used for Instagram and LinkedIn profiles, Dropbox and apps that monitor a user’s location. The German magazine reported that such leaks exposed them to having spyware installed on their devices.

In this regard, Steve Witkoff’s presence in Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin two days before the strike poses a potential fresh threat to US security. 

VS Subrahmanian, a professor of computer science at Northwestern University and head of its AI and security laboratory, told Fortune that the real risk comes from devices rather than messaging apps specifically.

Subramahmanian refers to an attack called “juice jacking,” where plugging a phone into an unsecured outlet can install malware, a growing concern.

With concerns over security and breaches of protocol mounting, particularly from defence stalwarts, Hegseth and Waltz may turn out to be the first sacrifice for Trump’s second term.