A Hoax Leads Liberal Social Media Accounts to Claim Hegseth’s Phone Number was Leaked to Russian Spies
By Macrina Wang
What happened: Liberal social media users are falsely claiming that Germany’s intelligence services arrested two suspected Russian spies who were found with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s private phone number in their phones.
Context: In late April 2025, German newspaper Der Spiegel was the first to report that Hegseth had a personal phone number that was easily accessible online, raising concerns about potential national-security risks.
A closer look: Shortly after the report was published, left-leaning accounts cited Der Spiegel to claim that Germany arrested Russian spies who were in possession of Hegseth’s phone number.
Liberal X user @jdpoc, who is based in the U.K., stated on April 26: “German Intelligence have just arrested two suspected Russian spies, they had US Sec Defence Hegseth’s private phone number in their mobiles. (Der Speigel).” The post received 2.4 million views and 50,000 likes in six days.
Canadian media commentator Dean Blundell, who frequently criticizes Trump, stated in an April 28 Substack article: “Two suspected Russian spies, arrested by German Intelligence, had the private phone number of U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stored in their mobiles…. This bombshell, first reported by Der Spiegel, raises alarming questions about the competence of the current administration.” The article garnered 570 likes and 240 reposts in four days.
Actually: Der Spiegel issued no such report, and German officials denied arresting any Russian spies of late.
A spokesperson for Der Spiegel told fact-checking organization Snopes (NewsGuard Trust Score: 100/100) in April 2025, “There is no article in Der SPIEGEL reporting on this topic.”
The Office of the Federal Public Prosecutor General of Germany, which prosecutes cases related to state security, denied that officials had arrested two Russian spies in April 2025.
More context: The real phone number controversy came in the wake of another dustup relating to Hegseth and his security practices — that he shared military plans with an Atlantic journalist and, separately, with his wife and brother over the messaging app Signal.