Will The Growing Drumbeat For Pete Hegseth's Resignation Amount To Anything?

Chaos In The Pentagon Is Very Bad... For The Whole World

Last January, when the cloture vote came to get Hegseth’s confirmation onto the floor, Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted with every Democrat— even Fetterman, Slotkin and Shaheen— against it. It passed 51-49. The following day, in the final confirmation vote, Mitch McConnell joined Collins and Murkowski voting no. It passed 50-50 and JD Vance had to break the tie to get Hegseth into the Pentagon. No doubt the 3 Republicans and all the Democrats are breathing a sigh of relief that they’re not responsible for all of Hegseth’s missteps and screwups. Dan Pfeiffer thought Hegseth was a terrible idea right from the beginning. “Who,” he asked, “could possibly have guessed that appointing a weekend cable anchor with a reported drinking problem and an array of ethical concerns would have gone poorly?… What a profoundly unserious, irresponsible moron— but what else can you expect from a guy whose primary responsibility was to fill in when Steve Doocy caught a cold?”

Although there are rumors that he’s being pressured to resign, it doesn’t necessarily appear that he will and it is likely he will go down as the worst Secretary of Defense since John Armstrong (1814), Simon Cameron (1862), William Belknap (1876), Louis Johnson (1950), Robert McNamara (1968) and Donald Rumsfeld (2006).

Just yesterday, the NY Times broke the story that Hegseth “shared detailed information about forthcoming strikes in Yemen on March 15 in a private Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer,” so not once, but twice. Some of “that the information Hegseth shared on the Signal chat included the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen... The previously unreported existence of a second Signal chat in which Hegseth shared highly sensitive military information is the latest in a series of developments that have put his management and judgment under scrutiny.”

John Ullyot was the chief Pentagon spokesman Trump’s first term. He resigned from the Pentagon last week and yesterday Politico published a scathing OpEd he wrote calling Hegseth’s tenure as a month from Hell and “total chaos”inside the Pentagon. “From leaks of sensitive operational plans to mass firings,” wrote Ullyot, “the dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president… [I]t’s hard to see Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer.”

The latest flashpoint is a near collapse inside the Pentagon’s top ranks. On Friday, Hegseth fired three of his most loyal senior staffers— senior adviser Dan Caldwell, deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll, chief of staff to the deputy secretary of Defense. In the aftermath, Defense Department officials working for Hegseth tried to smear the aides anonymously to reporters, claiming they were fired for leaking sensitive information as part of an investigation ordered earlier this month.

Yet none of this is true. While the department said that it would conduct polygraph tests as part of the probe, not one of the three has been given a lie detector test. In fact, at least one of them has told former colleagues that investigators advised him he was about to be cleared officially of any wrongdoing. Unfortunately, Hegseth’s team has developed a habit of spreading flat-out, easily debunked falsehoods anonymously about their colleagues on their way out the door.

On Friday, Politico reported that Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, was leaving his role. Kasper had requested the investigation into the Pentagon leaks, which reportedly included military operational plans for the Panama Canal and a pause in the collection of intelligence for Ukraine.

Hegseth is now presiding over a strange and baffling purge that will leave him without his two closest advisers of over a decade— Caldwell and Selnick— and without chiefs of staff for him and his deputy. More firings may be coming, according to rumors in the building.

In short, the building is in disarray under Hegseth’s leadership.

… [E]ven strong backers of the secretary like me must admit: The last month has been a full-blown meltdown at the Pentagon— and it’s becoming a real problem for the administration… There are very likely more shoes to drop in short order, with even bigger bombshell stories coming this week, key Pentagon reporters have been telling sources privately.

One reason the American people gave Trump a conclusive victory last November is that he’s not a go-along, get-along creature of the Beltway like many of his recent predecessors, but rather a shrewd businessman who expects results and holds his team accountable for serious mistakes that occur on their watch. Just ask Cabinet Secretaries Jim Mattis, Mark Esper, Rex Tillerson, David Shulkin, Tom Price and Ryan Zinke. They, like Hegseth, are all good men and patriots whom Trump dismissed in his first term when he found their performance wanting.

… The president deserves better than the current mishegoss at the Pentagon. Given his record of holding prior Cabinet leaders accountable, many in the secretary’s own inner circle will applaud quietly if Trump chooses to do the same in short order at the top of the Defense Department.