‘There Is a Complete Meltdown in the Building’: Pentagon Reportedly in ‘Chaos’ as Hegseth Loses Four Staffers in One Day
Kiyoshi Ota/Pool Photo via AP
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is losing his chief of staff, Joe Kasper, in the coming days, according to a report published by Politico on Friday night.
Kasper will remain with the agency. However, three other Defense aides who were put on leave earlier this week were terminated on Friday, according to sources granted anonymity by Politico. Those three, who were reportedly on leave in connection with an ongoing leak investigation, were senior adviser Dan Caldwell, Hegseth deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick, and Colin Carroll, who was chief of staff to the deputy secretary of Defense. Two sources told Politico that Carroll and Selnick intend to sue for wrongful termination.
The Pentagon has been beset by a series of leaks in recent weeks, including the disclosure of (hypothetical?) military plans for the Panama Canal, U.S. carrier movement in the Middle East, the halting of intelligence gathering on behalf of Ukraine, and a briefing at the Pentagon with Elon Musk. The shakeup comes as Hegseth was at the center of a scandal involving a group chat with government officials on Signal, an encrypted messaging app. Last month, Hegseth shared forthcoming plans for airstrikes on Houthi rebel targets in Yemen with more than a dozen officials in the chat, to which National Security Advisor Michael Waltz accidentally added Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.
One senior Pentagon official told Politico that Kasper had clashed with the aides who had been fired.
“Joe didn’t like those guys,” the official said. “They all have different styles. They just didn’t get along. It was a personality clash.”
Another defense official said the agency is in turmoil.
“There is a complete meltdown in the building, and this is really reflecting on the secretary’s leadership,” the other senior defense official said. “Pete Hegseth has surrounded himself with some people who don’t have his interests at heart.”
Yet another official predicted, “There probably will be more chaos.”
“The front office has some really first-rate uniformed military staff, but there’s only so much they can pick up in an organization that big,” said one former Trump administration official. “That kind of dysfunction compounds.”
Hegseth was confirmed by the Senate 51-50 after senators grilled him over allegations of rape, smelling of alcohol while working as a Fox News host, and adultery. He denied drinking on the job and the alleged rape.
