One of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's most prominent aides announced his resignation on Monday, citing no reason other than to retire quietly in the Great Plains with his family.
"Today I submitted my formal resignation as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Strategic Readiness," wrote Ron Moeller on X. "When I took on this task for @POTUS, @SecWar, & @USW_PR_HONTata, I promised a year; another year away from my wife whom I miss dearly. The resignation takes effect in 2 weeks."
Moeller continued, "I intend to go back to the Black Hills, recharge, chop lots of firewood for the winter, and ignore any and all journalists trying to get me to talk about my time in this historic and consequential administration."
He added that anyone expecting him to go out in a blaze of glory in protest of the Trump administration, like controversial former counterterrorism director Joe Kent, will be "disappointed."
Many initial members of Trump's administration have already begun to trickle out for various reasons — and while many don't give a contentious reason, in some cases it was a firing in all but name.
One of the most prominent cases was former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was pushed out into a lesser role unceremoniously after Trump was reportedly enraged by her passing the buck on a huge taxpayer-funded ad campaign displaying her prominently.