Leak-prone Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has imposed new rules on journalists at the Pentagon.
The rules limit access to several sections of the Pentagon, including office spaces belonging to Hegseth and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They also bar the press from accessing the Pentagon Athletic Center, writing in a Friday X post that the new rules are meant to “reduce the opportunities for in-person inadvertent and unauthorized disclosures.”
Journalists wanting to venture outside zones defined in the memo must be accompanied by a formal Department of Defense (DOD) escort.
The news comes on the heels of a series of leaks from the DOD under Hegseth, including “Signalgate” in March, in which top Trump administration officials, including Hegseth, used the commercial messaging app Signal to discuss a then-upcoming attack on Yemen with a journalist on the thread.
Other information that has recently leaked from the Pentagon includes military operational plans for the Panama Canal, the deployment of a second aircraft carrier to the Red Sea, information surrounding Elon Musk’s visit to China, and news of a pause in intelligence-collection for Ukraine.
As a result, according to a former Pentagon aide, Hegseth has become increasingly isolated and paranoid as he spends much of his time investigating leaks. Several Pentagon aides were placed on administrative leave last month following a probe into the “turf war“ that prompted the leaks and threw the Pentagon into chaos.
Under the new rules, journalists will also be issued “clearer” credential badges with a “PRESS” identifier. The memo also states that additional security measures are forthcoming.
Reposting Hegseth’s announcement, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said, “These are pragmatic changes to protect operational security & ultimately brings the Pentagon in line with other government buildings.”
The Trump administration announced earlier this year that it was “rotating out” four major news outlets from the Pentagon Press Corps, including The New York Times, NBC News, National Public Radio, and Politico. In their stead, The New York Post and HuffPost were added, as well as the conservative One America News Network and Breitbart News Network.
President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media recently resulted in the U.S. plummeting in the global press freedom index issued by Reporters Without Borders. The country now ranks 57th in the world, alongside countries like Gambia and Uruguay, with the group warning of an “authoritarian shift” in the administration’s treatment of the press.
