Pete Hegseth's purge of powerful official heightens Pentagon's 'culture of fear': report

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s firing of a high-ranking and once-powerful Pentagon official has reignited another paroxysm of fear that another purge may be in the offing.

Coming on the heels of Hegseth’s controversial rah-rah speech in Quanticolast week, where he delivered a warning to the attending generals and admirals, the firing of Jon Harrison, the Navy chief of staff, without Hegseth notifying Navy Secretary John Phelan beforehand, has created a “culture of fear,” reports Politico’s Paul McLeary and Daniel Lippman.

According to the report, Harrison’s dismissal was the result of pressure from new Navy Undersecretary Hung Cao, a MAGA loyalist, who had been sharpening his knife and aiming to oust Harrison.

Politico is reporting Harrison had been ”seeking to curb the role of the service’s No. 2 civilian leader even before he arrived at the Pentagon,” with one Pentagon insider confiding, “Cao was keeping track of all this while waiting for his confirmation vote. And he moved fast” after his confirmation.

The firing sent shock waves through the Pentagon.

“The sudden dismissal last week of Jon Harrison, the Navy chief of staff, has only added to concerns about Hegseth’s objectives, according to five current and former defense officials. Most of his moves have come without public explanation, and led to a deepening sense of uncertainty throughout the department — one that risks silencing pushback on critical decisions that affect how the U.S. military interacts with the world,” Politico is reporting.

One Pentagon official remarked there is a “culture of fear; there’s a culture of intimidation and retaliation. It’s better just to keep your head down and not necessarily try to do anything to the advantage of the organization, because it’s very much run from the top down.”

More alarming to insiders is that there seemed to be no rationale for Hegseth move other than at Cao’s urging.

“It adds to the climate of fear when randomly, people are just suddenly done,” one former defense official told Politico.