During Pete Hegseth’s contentious confirmation hearing to become Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary, Democrats argued that the Fox News morning host lacked the management experience to lead a department with an $850 billion budget. Now past his 100-day mark, Trump is coming to share that view. According to three sources close to the White House, Trump has told people he is frustrated with the chaos swirling around Hegseth and the Pentagon.
In recent weeks, Hegseth dismissed three of his closest advisers, whom he later accused of leaking to the media—all three have denied it—and his chief of staff stepped down. “He fired all the people he trusted,” a prominent Republican who recently spoke with Hegseth told me. Hegseth was also at the center of Signalgate, having shared military attack plans in chats with White House officials and another group that included his wife, brother, and personal lawyer. (While Hegseth’s brother and lawyer have roles in government, they are outside of the circle that would typically be informed on such issues.) A senior White House official told me Trump recently ordered Hegseth to get his act together. Trump hinted at his displeasure in an interview with The Atlantic this week, telling the magazine: “I had a talk with him, a positive talk, but I had a talk with him.”
Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, responded on Tuesday: “The media constantly relies on bad sources who desperately want to drive a wedge between President Trump and his Cabinet officials. Unfortunately for them, the President continues to stand with Secretary Hegseth, who is doing an incredible job leading the DOD and is joining the President in Michigan today.”
Sources close to Hegseth told me the stress of the job seems to be fueling his chaotic decision-making. “He’s very paranoid,” said the prominent Republican. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Hegseth challenged the then acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to take a lie detector test as part of a leak investigation. “I’ll hook you up to a f—ing polygraph!” Hegseth reportedly shouted at Admiral Christopher Grady. Sources told me that Hegseth is relying on a shrinking circle of advisers that includes his lawyer, Tim Parlatore, and his wife, Jennifer, a former Fox & Friends producer.
The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.
Most remarkably, Hegseth’s former advisers are speaking out on the record. In mid-April, former Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot wrote a Politico op-ed that described a “full-blown meltdown” at the Pentagon under Hegseth. On Saturday, former Pentagon adviser Colin Carroll appeared on Megyn Kelly’s podcast and portrayed Hegseth as image-conscious and obsessed with leaks. When asked by Kelly if he thought Hegseth was emotionally okay, Carroll replied: “I honestly—I don’t know. I’m not sure.”
People close to Hegseth told me that the debate over Hegseth’s leadership is also becoming a proxy battle between warring foreign policy camps. “This is about Neo Cons vs America First,” a Republican close to Trump told me. Hegseth’s allies who want the administration to pursue a realist foreign policy suspect that the hawkish wing of the GOP is pushing negative stories to force Hegseth out. “It’s very treacherous,” a Hegseth ally told me. In recent days, Hegseth’s allies have heard that Florida governor Ron DeSantis could be in the running to take over at the Pentagon if Hegseth steps down. “That is a total fabrication,” said DeSantis’s communications director, Bryan Griffin. “The governor has said nothing on the matter, one way or another, to anyone. The media and political gossip crowd needs to stop making stuff up for clicks.”
Despite it all, Hegseth’s job appears safe—for now. Trump has told people he doesn’t want to fire cabinet members who are the subject of negative media reports. It’s part of the unofficial “no scalps” policy Trump has enforced during his second term. “The feeling inside the White House is “let’s not be reactionary,’” said a former campaign official who remains close to the West Wing. “What we’ve learned over four years of Trump is that the news cycle moves so fast that nothing matters anymore.”
Still, Hegseth remains under enormous pressure to bring stability to the Pentagon at a moment when global tensions are on the rise. On Monday, CNN reported that a Navy F-18 Super Hornet fighter jet rolled off the deck of the USS Harry S. Truman while the aircraft carrier made an evasive maneuver to avoid a Houthi attack in the Red Sea. It was a reminder for Hegseth, not that one was needed, that running the Pentagon is a matter of life and death.
More Great Stories From Vanity Fair
-
How Trump Is Perverting the Presidential Photo Stream
-
How Miriam Adelson Went From Big MAGA Winner to Casino Loser in Trump’s First 100 Days
-
Inside the Case of Kim Kardashian’s Paris Robbery
-
How Sebastian Stan Became Hollywood’s Most Daring Shape-Shifter
-
Juilliard Is Going Tuition-Free
-
Gene Hackman’s Autopsy Sheds Light on His Bleak Final Days
-
What Ivanka Trump and Anti-Trumpers Have In Common
-
Elon Musk’s Breeding Spree Is So Much Wilder Than You Thought
-
Every Quentin Tarantino Movie, Ranked
-
Meet Elon Musk’s 14 Children and Their Mothers (Whom We Know of)
-
From the Archive: Sinatra and the Mob
The post The Truth Underlying Pete Hegseth’s Job Security appeared first on Vanity Fair.
