Pete Hegseth’s former spokesman said the Pentagon has been overwhelmed by staff drama and turnover in the initial months of the second Trump administration, calling it a “full-blown meltdown” that could cost the defense secretary his job.
The warning from John Ullyot, who resigned last week after serving briefly as Pentagon spokesman, followed statements by three top Defense Department officials who were reportedly fired amid an inquiry into leaks and said they weren’t told what they were being investigated for or if there was even a leaks probe underway.
Trump “stands strongly” behind Hegseth, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday on Fox News. “And this is what happens when the entire Pentagon is working against you and working against the monumental change that you are trying to implement.”
Hegseth, a 44-year-old former Fox News host and National Guard officer, had already been under scrutiny for sharing confidential information detailing an imminent attack against Houthi militants in Yemen in a Signal chat group. The group included top Trump officials as well as journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, who wrote about the episode after being included inadvertently.
The New York Times reported Sunday on a second Signal chat, in which the newspaper said Hegseth shared sensitive information about the military strikes in Yemen with a group that included his wife and brother.
Hegseth said Monday that the story “doesn’t matter” because it is based on “anonymous smears from disgruntled former employees on old news.” He also expressed confidence in his job security.
“I have spoken to the president and we are going to continue fighting,” he told reporters at the White House. “On the same page all the way.”
“President Donald Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account,” Ullyot wrote Sunday in a column for Politico. “Given that, it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer.”
Trump declined to remove Hegseth or National Security Advisor Mike Waltz over the initial Signal chat, which was set up by Waltz. The Pentagon’s inspector general is probing that incident at the request of two top senators.
Read More: Pentagon Watchdog to Probe Signal Chat About Houthi Attack
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, in a statement posted to X, said the Times and others “are enthusiastically taking the grievances of disgruntled former employees as the sole sources for their article. They relied only on the words of people who were fired this week and appear to have a motive to sabotage the Secretary and the President’s agenda.”
“There was no classified information in any Signal chat, no matter how many ways they try to write the story,” Parnell said.
