On Monday, the very same day that President Donald Trump defended Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth while speaking to the press at the White House East Egg roll, NPR claimed in a report that the White House was seeking Hegseth's replacement. It's a claim that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is making clear is "fake news."
This @NPR story is total FAKE NEWS based on one anonymous source who clearly has no idea what they are talking about.
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) April 21, 2025
As the President said this morning, he stands strongly behind @SecDef. https://t.co/5Npig8968v
News of the report spread over X, with Laura Rozen repeating the claim over X. She could not cite a link, though a report was indeed published at 1:22pm by Tom Bowman to the NPR website, as Leavitt's post mentioned.
is there a link?
— Lisa Letostak (@lisaletostak) April 21, 2025
I could not find one, but WAMU repeated the NPR 1pm top of hour report,
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) April 21, 2025
"The White House has begun the process of looking for a new secretary of defense, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly," the NPR piece claimed, relying on an unnamed source. The piece was dubbed "breaking" and as an "exclusive," with an update eventually coming. "White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied that there's an effort to replace Hegseth, posting on X that President Trump "stands strongly behind him," the report has since added.
Leavitt also spoke to Townhall about the NPR report, offering that "it‘s completely fake and their story seems to be based on one anonymous source who obviously has no idea what they’re talking about."
"I spoke with the president this morning, multiple times, and he remains strongly in support of Pete [Hegseth]," Leavitt also aded.
Trump was not the only one defending Hegseth while at the White House for the Easter egg roll. Hegseth himself also addressed what he regarded as fake news and brought up a comparison to "the Russia hoax." He too slammed "anonymous sources."
Pete Hegseth shuts down the fake news media:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 21, 2025
"What a big surprise that a bunch of leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out from the same media that peddled the Russia hoax."
"This is what the media does. They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former… pic.twitter.com/H4AmR88BJR
Trump on Hegseth: "It's just fake news. They just bring up stories. It sounds like disgruntled employees."💯pic.twitter.com/0tFA3XCDFJ
— Hunter Eagleman™ (@Hunter_Eagleman) April 21, 2025
As Matt covered earlier, The New York Times reported that Hegseth, according to anonymous sources, spoke about Yemen strikes in a Signal group chat with his wife. John Ullyot, who has written columns for Townhall before, recently resigned from the department and is concerned with the handling of the department, as he expressed in an opinion piece for POLITICO.