John Ullyot, the former senior Pentagon spokesperson who was sidelined last month amid growing controversies at the Defense Department, announced Wednesday he would leave this week.
“I made clear to Secretary Hegseth before the inauguration that I was not interested in being number two to anyone in public affairs,” Ullyot said in a statement to Politico. “Last month, as that time approached, the Secretary and I talked and could not come to an agreement on another good fit for me at DOD. So I informed him today that I will be leaving at the end of this week.”
He added that he remains “a strong supporter of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,” according to the report.
Ullyot’s resignation four months into the President Donald Trump’s new administration comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suspended three top DOD appointees this week while an inquiry into an apparent leak of sensitive information plays out, the report noted.
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His exit also follows the Pentagon’s struggling response to the fallout from last month’s Signal group chat scandal that embroiled Hegseth and other top national security officials.
“Sean Parnell, a combat veteran and former Republican congressional candidate in Pennsylvania, took on the chief Pentagon spokesperson role in February, and Ullyot found himself sidelined,” according to Politico.
But Ullyot still found himself defending the agency after the Pentagon removed a story about Major League Baseball player Jackie Robinson from its site, declaring in a statement just last month that “DEI is dead at the Defense Department.”