Issues had been going high-quality for Pete Hegseth, proper up till an opportunity encounter with the world’s richest man. His pursuit of Donald Trump’s agenda on the Pentagon had made him a star among the many president’s advisers. The previous Fox Information host had moved swiftly to roll again range initiatives within the army and to develop U.S. troops’ function in halting immigration on the southern border. His willingness to problem Republican orthodoxy on international coverage and punch again at critics was seen as an asset as Trump started his second time period.
However then, in mid-March, Hegseth ran into Elon Musk in a White Home hallway, and prolonged an ill-fated invitation to the tech titan for an unique army briefing.
“Up till then, DOD had been the golden little one,” one individual acquainted with Hegseth’s workplace informed us.
When Trump discovered concerning the proposed briefing the evening earlier than it was scheduled to happen, he was displeased. Though Hegseth denied a New York Times report that the March 21 assembly would concentrate on plans for potential warfare with Beijing, Trump informed others that any presentation on China could be inappropriate for Musk, who has in depth enterprise pursuits there, based on folks acquainted with the president’s response. The very concept that prime officers would temporary the businessman within the Tank—the safe Pentagon convention room the place the army brass assembles for visits by the commander in chief—added to an unwelcome notion that Musk wielded outsize authorities energy.
In a name hours after the Occasions story appeared, Trump made clear to Hegseth that the briefing was “a nasty look” for the administration, based on people with data of the decision. When Hegseth visited the White Home the following day to debut the Air Power’s latest fighter jet, Trump once more conveyed his displeasure. “That is loopy and silly,” Trump mentioned of the briefing, considered one of these folks informed us. “Why would we even do that?”
Jonathan Lemire: Why Trump is standing by Hegseth, for now
Trump reserved most of his ire for Musk and didn’t specific anger towards Hegseth personally, White Home officers informed us. But the Musk episode, and Trump’s response to Hegseth, particulars of which haven’t been beforehand reported, represented a turning level for the brand new Pentagon chief, based on folks acquainted with his tenure who spoke with us on the situation of anonymity. Since then, a sequence of embarrassing revelations, together with Hegseth’s disclosure of army assault plans on the messaging app Sign, have fueled turmoil and suspicion on the Pentagon’s highest ranges. They’ve additionally intensified public scrutiny of Hegseth’s judgment and deepened questions on his means to ship on the president’s army priorities, together with pushing again towards China and demonstrating American power, which the president believes was eroded by his predecessor. “Issues had been on target,” the individual acquainted with Hegseth’s workplace added. “However then the leaks and Signalgate simply actually fucked up Pete.”
Hegseth oversees a workforce of greater than 3 million, and a funds of near $1 trillion, and not using a chief of workers. His shrunken circle of shut aides lacks in depth Pentagon expertise. Key army commanders are making ready to retire with out replacements in sight. Sidelined aides have aired particulars of unseemly feuds on the division’s senior ranges, and a sequence of unflattering media studies have fueled what quite a few officers describe as Hegseth’s fixation on stopping leaks.
White Home officers say that Trump continues to help Hegseth—the protection chief’s job is “100% protected,” one informed us. This official additionally famous that along with having Trump’s affection, Hegseth is personally favored by each Vice President J. D. Vance and White Home Chief of Employees Susie Wiles. White Home Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly informed us that the whole administration stays “totally behind Secretary Hegseth’s mission to prioritize our warfighters, get rid of terrorists, and restore frequent sense on the DOD.” However scores of congressional Democrats have known as on Hegseth to resign. One Republican, Consultant Don Bacon of Nebraska, has instructed that he be fired.
Musk’s Pentagon go to originated from a dialog in Musk’s sparsely furnished workplace that adopted their impromptu assembly in a White Home hallway, when Hegseth instructed that Musk come over to the Pentagon to speak with senior army leaders. The protection chief later licensed the assembly to be held within the Tank. A number of folks informed us that Hegseth’s invitation got here at a second when the Protection Division, like different companies throughout the federal government, was dealing with the prospect of cuts by Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity. Whereas Hegseth has touted DOGE’s steps to scale back the variety of federal contractors and different personnel, DOD was not driving the method. The invitation represented an opportunity for Pentagon leaders to assist steer DOGE’s route in chopping one of many world’s largest bureaucracies. (A consultant for Musk didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.)
Tom Nichols: Pete Hegseth’s patriotic responsibility is to resign
Simply three days after Musk’s Pentagon go to, Hegseth’s judgment once more got here into query when Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlanticrevealed that he had been added to a high-level Sign chat about plans to bomb Houthi militants in Yemen. Though then–Nationwide Safety Adviser Michael Waltz had inadvertently invited Goldberg to the thread, it was Hegseth who escalated the trade by posting particulars of an imminent assault on Houthi targets, together with the exact instances when U.S. jets could be flying over their targets in Yemen. Present and former officers have mentioned that such advance assault info would usually be extremely categorized due to the hazard its disclosure may pose to pilots.
A cascade of different revelations adopted, together with tales detailing the bizarre function that Hegseth’s spouse, Jennifer, has performed in his work on the Pentagon, the place she has attended conferences with international officers and issued orders associated to her husband’s media appearances. Information studies additionally revealed that Hegseth gave his youthful brother a senior Pentagon function and licensed the set up of a make-up studio at a value of hundreds of {dollars}. Present and former officers informed us that Hegseth has since threatened to polygraph quite a few senior officers, together with the appearing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees. He has additionally overturned many years of custom within the army’s relationship with the press, ousting media shops from their long-standing Pentagon workspaces in favor of Trump-friendly voices and ending reporters’ entry to a lot of the constructing.
When The Atlantic interviewed Trump within the Oval Workplace in late April, the president mentioned he’d had “a chat” with Hegseth concerning the varied embarrassing studies, predicting, “I believe he’s gonna get it collectively.”
But the Musk and Sign episodes reveal what some people acquainted with Hegseth’s tenure described to us as his tendency to make use of his place heading the world’s most superior army as a “flex.” He makes an attempt to impress others together with his entry to delicate info and his energy to direct American forces, even when it means a bit indiscretion alongside the way in which, they mentioned. “He’s acquired this $180,000 Ferrari. That’s the Pentagon for him,” one other individual acquainted with Hegseth’s workplace informed us. “And he likes to indicate it off.”
Hegseth created additional controversy after he elevated Ricky Buria, a Marine who’d been serving as a army aide when Hegseth took workplace, to a senior function and sought to call him as chief of workers. Buria usually made calls for of extra senior officers, and his sudden promotion to a senior political place rubbed many within the rank-conscious army the incorrect means.
Trump personally blocked Buria from the chief-of-staff job due to his ties to Lloyd Austin, Joe Biden’s Pentagon chief, White Home officers informed us. Individuals acquainted with Pentagon staffing informed us that the White Home had explored hiring a minimum of 4 replacements for Joe Kasper, who had abruptly left the chief-of-staff job in April to take a brand new function within the division, however that none had labored out.
The chief Pentagon spokesperson, Sean Parnell, mentioned in a press release that personnel modifications are a “pure and essential function of any extremely efficient group.”
“Individuals exterior the beltway don’t care about ‘palace intrigue’ or sensationalized mainstream media gossip,” Parnell mentioned. “They care about motion.”
In response to solutions from the White Home, the Pentagon has in current weeks begun to slowly develop its media engagement past MAGA-friendly shops, taking reporters from a number of mainstream print-news organizations on Hegseth’s travels to Latin America and Asia. Kingsley Wilson, Hegseth’s Pentagon press secretary, informed us that Hegseth’s travels have concerned bringing alongside journalists from “a variety of shops.” Hegseth, nevertheless, has caught to a rote playbook in responding to unfavorable information: try and discredit the media, then pivot to his efforts to rebuild the army and restore the “warrior ethos” he says was misplaced beneath Democratic leaders. “That is what the media does,” he informed reporters throughout a household Easter occasion on the White Home, youngsters in occasion apparel trying on from behind. He gestured on the journalists assembled earlier than him, calling them “hoaxsters.” “They attempt to slash and burn folks and break their reputations. It’s not going to work with me.”
Jason Dempsey: Hegseth has all of the incorrect enemies
Trump has stood by his Pentagon chief, suggesting that he admires the combative method Hegseth takes in attacking administration detractors. He’s a “robust cookie” who “went by means of quite a bit,” the president mentioned late final month. Trump additionally spent vital political capital pushing by means of Hegseth’s nomination—Vance needed to forged the tiebreaking vote after the Senate deadlocked on affirmation at 50–50—and is reluctant to desert him now, particularly as a result of it’d seem like giving the media a scalp.
That help will likely be examined subsequent week, when Hegseth begins a sequence of hearings on Capitol Hill convened to handle the administration’s funds requests. Hegseth is bound to face tough questions from Democrats, together with on his dealing with of delicate info, the upheaval within the Pentagon’s higher ranks, and his firing of senior army officers. These officers embrace the second-ever Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the primary feminine Navy chief, each of whom Hegseth beforehand instructed had been promoted due to their race and gender, respectively. High Republicans, in the meantime, are sad with an administration spending proposal that they are saying doesn’t embrace sufficient cash for protection.
Many on the Pentagon query how lengthy the president’s backing for his or her boss will final. Throughout his first time period, Trump cycled by means of 4 protection secretaries and 4 nationwide safety advisers. He additionally voiced help for Waltz till the previous nationwide safety adviser was pushed apart final month and requested to take a much less highly effective function, on the United Nations.
Though the president seems to understand Hegseth’s pugnacious public fashion, he could require extra from his protection secretary over time, because the administration faces stress to ship on a set of complicated and interlocking targets, together with fixing a byzantine military-procurement system, reviving a diminished protection trade, and strengthening America’s response to China’s army rise.
Fighters endear themselves to Trump, one individual informed us, “however you may’t have a one-dimensional recreation. At a sure level, it’s going to get outdated.”
