Staff turnover across the Pentagon has Trump administration officials and GOP leaders questioning Pete Hegseth’s fitness to lead the Department of Defense’s 3.4 million employees.
Sources told The Wall Street Journal that Defense Secretary Hegseth’s lack of managerial skills—and several public missteps, such as the Signalgate security breach, in which top members of the administration discussed plans to bomb Yemen on a chat that included a journalist—have some officials losing faith in the former Fox News host’s “warrior spirit.”
“If you just look at the broader turnover and the lack of consistency there in terms of executive management, I think it’s a red flag,” Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis told the Journal.
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Tillis, who announced he was not running for re-election after criticizing President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill in June, also ripped Hegseth as “out of his depth” in a July interview, a surprising comment given that Tillis cast the decisive 50th vote to confirm Hegseth as defense secretary.
The Journal reported that a particular point of contention between Hegseth and the White House has been his refusal to replace his acting chief of staff, Ricky Buria. Trump officials had tried to oust Buria, viewing him as a liability, only to abandon their plans, The Guardian reported.
Hegseth’s first chief of staff, Joe Kasper, left amid reports of a major upheaval in the secretary’s front office, fueled by disarray and distrust on the heels of Hegseth allegedly subjecting staff to polygraph tests.
On top of a damning report that suggested Hegseth’s chats with national security officials over Signal did, in fact, include classified information, according to a probe, Hegseth’s performance has not inspired confidence.
After firing a number of generals on a whim, Hegseth has reportedly made little effort to replace the staff he has lost, leading to lapses in communications, according to current and former defense officials, the Journal reported. As a result, President Donald Trump was left in the dark about a temporary halt in weapons deliveries for Ukraine, The Independent reported. However, Trump was able to reverse the pause.
In public, Trump has only reaffirmed his support for Hegseth.
“President Trump has full confidence in Secretary Hegseth, who is doing an incredible job leading the DOD,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told the Journal.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell added, “These anonymous sources have no idea what they’re talking about and are just plain wrong.”
