Pentagon Leadership Crisis Deepens Under Pete Hegseth Amid Staff Turmoil

The first-time government official now lacks senior personnel who are familiar with Washington after the departure of the Defense secretary’s closest advisers.

Pentagon leadership crisis is intensifying under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as his circle of top advisers has shrunk dramatically in recent days — reduced to his wife, lawyer, and two lower-level officials. This sudden shift has left the Pentagon’s lead office without longtime expertise or clear direction. Hegseth’s decision to fire three senior aides last week and reassign his chief of staff has created a vacuum in his leadership team, cutting off vital lines of communication across the department and sparking fears of dangerous missteps, including delays to critical weapons programs.

The rapidity of the wholesale changeover within the first 100 days of Hegseth’s appointment has been impressive. Additionally, it has left the new government official without reliable employees who know Washington — at a time when he is dealing with the repercussions from a slew of scandals that have sparked a lot of conjecture within the building about how long he will remain in office.

One individual with knowledge of the dynamics of the workplace, who was given anonymity to speak openly about the matter, described it as a “free-for-all.”

“Memories and actions that used to be routine are being delayed,” the individual stated. With a procession of people passing through the Pentagon chief’s third-floor apartment and little control over who enters and exits, Hegseth’s office is “up to its eyes” in terms of what it can manage.

Beyond his wife Jennifer, a former Fox New producer, and his personal attorney Tim Parlatore, whom he has commissioned as a Navy commander, Hegseth’s closest advisors are his former junior military adviser, Col. Ricky Buria, and his former platoon sergeant from an Iraq deployment, Eric Geressy. Phil, Hegseth’s brother, works at a nearby office as a liaison between the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

A second individual with knowledge of office dynamics, who was given the same anonymity as others to speak about a delicate subject, stated, “Everyone has been jockeying for position.”

The insider claimed that the system’s processing of paperwork, including crucial decisions about the Golden Dome, President Donald Trump’s signature project to construct a national missile defense system, had slowed down as a result of staff infighting and firings. The unrest may also have an impact on the Pentagon’s budget announcement next month, which is anticipated to reach a record $1 trillion and involve a significant reorganization of the military’s procurement initiatives.

Current and former defense officials are concerned that some of the less photogenic activities may be postponed since the staff is concentrating on creating an aura around Hegseth by releasing recordings of his memo signings and early morning workouts.

According to Chris Meagher, the Biden administration’s assistant secretary for public affairs at the Pentagon, “the longer these positions remain unfilled, the longer the department will be rudderless and without leaders who can provide cohesive direction.”

A request for comment from the Pentagon was not answered.

The secretary is typically led and prepared for meetings by senior personnel. Along with managing the dozens of special assistants and other advisers, they also deal with matters that come to the office’s notice but may not require Hegseth’s intervention.

According to a former defense official who has held comparable positions, “they will conduct numerous pre-meetings and scope all the meetings in such a way that the main events don’t waste the secretary’s time.” They have a purpose and create well-defined agendas. They basically provide the secretary the ability to conduct the meeting by writing the talking points.

Five senior officers have departed the Pentagon in the last week. Following an open feud with Joe Kasper, the chief of staff for the Defense secretary, Hegseth dismissed senior adviser Dan Caldwell, deputy head of staff Darin Selnick, and the deputy secretary’s chief of staff Colin Carroll.

In an interview on Thursday, Kasper said that he was quitting the Pentagon right away. Last Monday, former Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot, who had been absent for several months, resigned from his position.

The office of Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, who was confirmed by the Senate in mid-March, is still being reorganized as a result of the official purge. According to a defense official, Hegseth did not inform Feinberg of his decision to fire Carroll.

Feinberg has appointed Bryn Woollacott MacDonnell as his new chief of staff. Until a replacement is found, MacDonnell will continue to serve as the Pentagon’s comptroller and chief financial officer.

According to a person familiar with the matter, the White House has struggled to locate a qualified candidate for the position, making the comptroller’s office one of the few in the Pentagon without a nominee in the wings. It is anticipated that Feinberg would hire at least one individual from Cerberus Capital Management, the venture capital business he created and oversaw prior to joining the Pentagon this year, while he works to assemble the remainder of his staff.

Career civilian and military officials are already dealing with a challenging environment, and this uncertainty is making it worse.

“From junior enlisted to four-star generals, the uniformed military sees right through these clowns, from their inexperience and backstabbing to their careless handling of highly classified information and their disastrous policy rollouts,” stated Alex Wagner, the former assistant Air Force secretary for manpower and reserve affairs under the Biden administration.

“If my coworkers saw me and my fellow appointees, including the secretary, as a joke, I don’t know how I would be able to accomplish anything lasting alongside the uniformed military.”

According to a former Pentagon officer, one potential counterbalance to the disturbance is the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “They’re working extremely hard because they don’t want the department to fail.”

The individual claimed that the departures left “a vast hole.”

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