Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's Nickname Is Now Whiskeyleaks — What a Time to Be Alive

Although social media feels more broken than it's ever been, every once in a while, people come together under one cause. What usually unites folks who are still hanging on to X (formerly Twitter) is an event that is classified as either wild, delightful, or incredibly stupid. For example, Will Smith smacking Chris Rock at the Oscars was trending for days. We could never forget the flared jeans Kendrick Lamar wore during the Super Bowl LIX halftime show.

Ever since President Donald Trump took office a second time, the world has felt a little hopeless. We've been besieged by countless executive orders that have stripped people of their dignity and/or their jobs. Elon Musk and the DOGE boys are dismantling the federal government, with no end in sight. Then there is the president's cabinet, which includes Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, whose new nickname is Whiskeyleaks. The internet has done it again. What does it mean? Here's what we know.

If you plug the hashtag Whiskeyleaks into X, you'll be met with a string of references to Hegseth. This shiny new moniker references two things. The first is the fact that Hegseth has been accused of having a drinking problem. According to NPR, his ex-wife's sister alleged that she saw her former brother-in-law "abuse alcohol numerous times over the years to the point of actually passing out during a holiday gathering."

In December 2024, NBC News spoke with 10 previous or current employees at Fox News who told the outlet that Hegseth "drank in ways that concerned his colleagues." Two people said that on more than a dozen occasions, while Hegseth was a co-host on Fox & Friends Weekend, they smelled alcohol on his breath before he was scheduled to go on air. That takes care of the whiskey part, but what about the leaks business?

In March 2025, Hegseth, along with a slew of other top Trump administrators, was part of a Signal text chain that accidentally included the editor of The Atlantic. Jeffrey Goldberg initially thought his inclusion in what appeared to be a discussion about planning a strike against the Houthis in Yemen might be a disinformation campaign. It was not. Hegseth would go on to discuss "precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing."

After Goldberg published the exchanges in a piece for The Atlantic, the individuals involved began to scramble. CIA Director John Ratcliffe and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, both in the Signal group text, testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee, per NBC News. They said Hegseth had "classification authority" to decide what military information was actually classified. Hegseth said something totally different.

Hegseth was asked about the Signal messages the day after Goldberg's story came out. He told the reporter that the "strikes against the Houthis, that night, were devastatingly effective." The Defense Secretary went on to say he was incredibly proud of the courage and skill of the troops involved. He pivoted to blaming former President Biden's approach to dealing with the Houthis before claiming that "nobody's texting war plans."

Here's the thing: It would appear that war plans were definitely texted, as The Atlantic responded by releasing the entire string of messages exchanged on Signal. In the spirit of Julian Assange, whose WikiLeaks media company has been responsible for publishing classified documents since 2006, we give you Whiskeyleaks.