A month of “total chaos” has left the top echelons of the Pentagon “near collapse,” a former chief spokesman at the department and an adviser on Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign warned.
The most recent straw was the revelation that department head Pete Hegseth shared confidential attack plans on Signal with his wife and brother — just weeks after he did the same with a journalist.
But John Ullyot wrote in Politico that it was just the latest revelation in a month that has left the USA’s defense operation reeling.
“It’s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon,” he wrote. “From leaks of sensitive operational plans to mass firings, the dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president.”
Not only is Hegseth at great risk of losing his job, wrote Ullyot, but Trump has a lot of work to do to make sure the department doesn’t fall apart.
Ullyot’s main target in his column was Hegseth’s firing or top officials last week, people he said were loyal and competent and who had become fall guys for the department's director.
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“ In the aftermath, Defense Department officials working for Hegseth tried to smear the aides anonymously to reporters, claiming they were fired for leaking sensitive information as part of an investigation ordered earlier this month,” he wrote.
“Yet none of this is true. While the department said that it would conduct polygraph tests as part of the probe, not one of the three has been given a lie detector test. In fact, at least one of them has told former colleagues that investigators advised him he was about to be cleared officially of any wrongdoing.
“ Unfortunately, Hegseth’s team has developed a habit of spreading flat-out, easily debunked falsehoods anonymously about their colleagues on their way out the door.”
He added, “In short, the building is in disarray under Hegseth’s leadership.”
Ullyot voluntarily left the Pentagon last week after what he called a “month from hell.”