The legacy media is working overtime to resurrect the long-settled “Signalgate” controversy, with fresh reporting portraying top Trump administration officials as defiant rule-breakers for continuing to use the Signal messaging app on government devices. The Atlantic, which broke the original March 2025 story about a journalist accidentally added to a chat discussing Yemen strikes, led the charge Monday with a piece highlighting newly released FOIA records.
Those records, obtained by the left-leaning group Democracy Forward, show other Signal group chats from the first half of 2025 involving Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine, Vice President JD Vance, and others. Chats showed group names like “Iran/Ukraine Planning.” Yahoo News, Mediaite, and The Independent quickly amplified the story, framing the continued use as evidence of improper record-keeping while raising questions about Federal Records Act compliance.
NEW: Hegseth, Rubio, and Caine Had an Auto-Deleting Signal Chat, request made to National Archives to inquire about possibility of lost records w/ @missy_ryan @nancyayoussef @shaneharris https://t.co/3zctOCJdBB
— Michael Scherer (@michaelscherer) June 30, 2026
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly called the revelations “old news” and highlighted that “Signal is an approved app that is pre-loaded on government phones.”
RELATED: White House Closes Ranks to Defend SecDef Hegseth From Coordinated Attacks
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A spokesman for Chairman Caine noted he uses the app “for administrative and coordinating matters within the parameters of DoD Instructions” and does not share classified information on it. The administration revealed last year that it previously installed record-capture software on devices to help preserve communications even when auto-delete is enabled. Many legal observers and records experts viewed the practice as compliant when used for unclassified coordination. National Archives guidance permits third-party messaging apps for official business provided records are properly captured and retained. Signal appears on various government-approved lists for non-classified use, and agencies routinely direct employees to forward or screenshot important messages to official systems.
This latest media push reignites ongoing tension between the Pentagon and much of the legacy press over accuracy in national security reporting. The Department of War’s Inspector General’s review concluded that Secretary Hegseth shared sensitive but non-classified operational details in the Signal chat, exercised his full authority as head of the department to declassify material as needed, and that no classified information was compromised. This led Pentagon officials and the administration to describe the findings as a “total exoneration.”
The establishment media is seemingly determined to mirror a pattern of publishing mendaciously framed national security stories to paint a picture of turmoil within the Pentagon. Intense scrutiny and war-crimes allegations surrounding the “double-tap” boat strike in the Caribbean and breathless claims about Susie Wiles violating procedure by wearing a Fitbit-style device in sensitive meetings are two examples that stand out. These controversies are often amplified by outlets and left-wing politicians like Adam Schiff before key facts emerge.
By hyping routine coordination on an approved platform as fresh scandal material more than a year later, legacy news outlets still appear more interested in keeping a politically useful narrative alive than in fairly assessing whether any actual rules were broken.
Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.
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