Tag Archives: Pete Hegseth

Politico: The vicious rivalries tearing apart Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon

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A feud between the secretary’s advisers and his chief of staff created backbiting and distrust that has erupted into the open.

When President Donald Trump chose Pete Hegseth for Defense secretary, incoming officials knew they’d need to surround the inexperienced Fox News host with accomplished staff who could handle the nation’s largest bureaucracy. Hegseth would be the show horse, they figured, and others at the top would keep the Pentagon on track.

What happened was the opposite. Hegseth surrounded himself with advisers who quickly turned into vicious rivals for power — whose bitter brawl has now unraveled into revenge power plays, surprise firings, accusations of leaking and embarrassing headlines that are blowing up the Pentagon, distracting from Trump’s agenda and possibly jeopardizing Hegseth’s job.

It’s a dog-eat-dog world. Just consider that they’re not starting with the finest of people.

The vicious rivalries tearing apart Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon
A feud between the secretary’s advisers and his chief of staff created backbiting and distrust that has erupted into the open.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/22/pentagon-infighting-hegseth-fired-officials-00302709

NBC News: Info Hegseth shared with wife and brother came from top general’s secure messages

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Hegseth has denied the information he shared was classified, but it was given to him on a system for sensitive and classified information, sources told NBC News.

Minutes before U.S. fighter jets took off to begin strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen last month, Army Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, who leads U.S. Central Command, used a secure U.S. government system to send detailed information about the operation to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The material Kurilla sent included details about when U.S. fighters would take off and when they would hit their targets — details that could, if they fell into the wrong hands, put the pilots of those fighters in grave danger. But he was doing exactly what he was supposed to: providing Hegseth, his superior, with information he needed to know and using a system specifically designed to safely transmit sensitive and classified information.

But then Hegseth used his personal phone to send some of the same information Kurilla had given him to at least two group text chats on the Signal messaging app, three U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the exchanges told NBC News.

Info Hegseth shared with wife and brother came from top general’s secure messages
Hegseth has denied the information he shared was classified, but it was given to him on a system for sensitive and classified information, sources told NBC News.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/rcna198838

Axios World: Hegseth hunkers down as White House accuses “entire” Pentagon of sabotage

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From the “I’m not paranoid, they really are out to get me” department:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is locked in open warfare with his own Pentagon, a hotbed of distrust and dysfunction that commands the most powerful military on the face of the Earth.

No Trump Cabinet official has endured more turmoil in less time than Hegseth, who survived a nasty confirmation battle only to be burned — again and again — by leaks, blunders and now backlash from his own handpicked aides.

Hegseth hunkers down as White House accuses “entire” Pentagon of sabotage
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is locked in open warfare with his own Pentagon, a hotbed of distrust and dysfunction that commands the most powerful military on the face of the Earth. Why it matters: No Trump Cabinet official has endured more turmoil in less time than Hegseth, who survived a nasty confirmation battle only to be burned — again and again — by leaks, blunders and now backlash from his own handpicked aides. President Trump so far is…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ar-AA1DndAo

Mediaite: Pete Hegseth Defiantly Blames ‘Deep State’ for Pentagon Dysfunction and Leaks: ‘They’ve Come for Me Since Day 1!’

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Somebody please call a whambulance for this crybaby dufus:

A defiant Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth appeared on Fox & Friends, the morning show he used to co-host, and seemingly blamed everyone else for the current dysfunction unfolding at the Pentagon since he took over.

Hegseth is coming off a string of tough news cycles that started with the apparent firing of some top aides he brought in to help run the Defense Department on Friday: a damning Politico column written by one of the outgoing and now-former staff members, which called Hegseth’s tenure “total chaos” and a stunning New York Times report that he had shared classified information with his wife, brother, and lawyer on the commercial app, Signal.

Pete Hegseth Defiantly Blames ‘Deep State’ for Pentagon Dysfunction and Leaks: ‘They’ve Come for Me Since Day 1!’
Pete Hegseth appeared on the Fox News morning show and seemingly blamed everyone else for the current dysfunction unfolding at the Pentagon since he took over.
Pete Hegseth Defiantly Blames ‘Deep State’ for Pentagon Dysfunction and Leaks: ‘They’ve Come for Me Since Day 1!’

Washington Post: Pete Hegseth, isolated and defiant, has Trump’s backing for now

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A dirtbag that only King Donald would keep around:

President Donald Trump on Monday dismissed a deepening controversy surrounding Pete Hegseth, declaring the embattled defense secretary is “doing a great job” despite seismic dysfunction within the Pentagon amid political infighting, numerous firings, and reports he divulged to his wife, brother and lawyer the highly sensitive details of an imminent military operation.

Pete Hegseth, isolated and defiant, has Trump’s backing for now
Officials say the unraveling of Hegseth’s inner circle is cause for alarm, leaving some to wonder how the Pentagon would function in a national security crisis.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ar-AA1DlEUv

Robert Reich: Ineptitude, incompetence, stupidity, and chaos

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Trump is fundamentally incapable of governing. That’s the theme that unites everything.

Some Democrats fear they’re playing into Trump’s hands by fighting his mass deportations rather than focusing on his failures on bread-and-butter issues like the cost of living.

But it’s not either-or. The theme that unites Trump’s inept handling of deportations, his trampling on human and civil rights, his rejection of the rule of law, his dictatorial centralization of power, and his utterly inept handling of the economy is the ineptness itself.

In his first term, not only did his advisers and Cabinet officials put guardrails around his crazier tendencies, but they also provided his first administration a degree of stability and focus. Now, it’s mayhem.

Ineptitude, incompetence, stupidity, and chaos
Trump is fundamentally incapable of governing. That’s the theme that unites everything.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/ineptitude-incompetence-stupidity

Reuters: Pentagon says leak probe may lead to U.S. prosecutions

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U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned on Tuesday of possible prosecutions of former senior advisors who were fired during a probe into leaks of Pentagon information to the media, saying evidence would be handed over to the Department of Justice once the investigation is completed.

F*ck*ng hypocrite! Look in the mirror and prosecute yourself!

Pentagon says leak probe may lead to U.S. prosecutions
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned on Tuesday of possible prosecutions of former senior advisors who were fired during a probe into leaks of Pentagon information to the media, saying evidence would be handed over to the Department of Justice once the investigation is completed.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pentagon-says-leak-probe-may-lead-us-prosecutions-2025-04-22

Mediaite: House Republican Comes Out Swinging Against ‘Amateur Person’ Pete Hegseth and Calls for His Ouster

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Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) became the first House Republican to suggest that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is no longer fit to keep his job, in scathing comments made to Politico’s Rachel Bade on Monday.

“I had concerns from the get-go because Pete Hegseth didn’t have a lot of experience,” Bacon told Bade, following the bombshell revelations over the weekend that Hegseth had shared national security details in a second Signal group chat – this time one that included his wife.

Bacon, a retired Air Force general, added, “ … I find it unacceptable, and I wouldn’t tolerate it if I was in charge,” …,

House Republican Comes Out Swinging Against ‘Amateur Person’ Pete Hegseth and Calls for His Ouster
“I’m not in the White House, and I’m not going to tell the White House how to manage this … but I find it unacceptable, and I wouldn’t tolerate it” The post House Republican Comes Out Swinging Against ‘Amateur Person’ Pete Hegseth and Calls for His Ouster first appeared on Mediaite.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/house-republican-comes-out-swinging-against-amateur-person-pete-hegseth-and-calls-for-his-ouster/ar-AA1Dl5oC

Mediaite: ‘So-Called Secretary of Defense’: Dem Leader Hakeem Jeffries Rips Pete Hegseth as ‘Dumb Effing Individual’

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New York Democrat House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries posted a video on his official House account on X attacking Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as an “extremist” over book removals at the U.S. Naval Academy and promising to “keep the pressure” on until Hegseth is fired from his post.

…

The New York Times on Friday reported that, while Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” remains on the shelves, but “Memorializing the Holocaust” by Janet Jacobs on female victims of the Holocaust has been removed.

“’The Bell Curve,’ which argues that Black men and women are genetically less intelligent than white people, is still there,” the paper reports. “But a critique of the book was pulled.”

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“The outrageous Naval Academy book ban targets Maya Angelou and the Holocaust, but excludes Adolf Hitler,” the Democratic leader said in his post of the video. “This must be reversed immediately.”

‘So-Called Secretary of Defense’: Dem Leader Hakeem Jeffries Rips Pete Hegseth as ‘Dumb Effing Individual’
A purge of books at the U.S. Naval Academy for being “DEI” content prompted a furious video from the Democratic leader calling for Hegseth’s ouster.
‘So-Called Secretary of Defense’: Dem Leader Hakeem Jeffries Rips Pete Hegseth as ‘Dumb Effing Individual’

NBC News: Pete Hegseth senior adviser is pushing for Pentagon to cut ties with Scouting America

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Critics like the adviser, a former Fox News producer, say the group formerly known as the Boy Scouts is too “woke.” No decision has been made.

What an ignorant ass! Boy Scouts are a public corporation established by an act of Congress — 36 USC Ch. 309: BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA. If you don’t like it, you can either suck it up or go stick your head in the sand somewhere.

Pete Hegseth senior adviser is pushing for Pentagon to cut ties with Scouting America
Critics like the adviser, a former Fox News producer, say the group formerly known as the Boy Scouts is too “woke.” No decision has been made.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/pete-hegseth-senior-adviser-pushing-pentagon-cut-ties-scouting-america-rcna200141