{"id":834,"date":"2025-04-21T03:11:25","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T03:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/?p=834"},"modified":"2025-04-21T11:21:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T11:21:33","slug":"former-top-dod-spokesperson-pentagon-in-disarray-under-hegseth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/21\/former-top-dod-spokesperson-pentagon-in-disarray-under-hegseth\/","title":{"rendered":"Former top DOD spokesperson: Pentagon in ‘disarray’ under Hegseth"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former top Pentagon spokesperson said in an opinion piece published Sunday that the Department of Defense is in \u201cdisarray\u201d under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon. From leaks of sensitive operational plans to mass firings, the dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president \u2014 who deserves better from his senior leadership,\u201d John Ullyot, who served as the acting assistant to Hegseth for public affairs before resigning<\/a> last week, wrote<\/a> in the Politico Magazine piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Donald Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account. Given that, it\u2019s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer,\u201d Ullyot continued.<\/p>\n

The Defense Department has faced scrutiny in recent weeks over officials’ sharing of sensitive information and several high-profile firings.<\/p>\n

In the last week<\/a>, three top Pentagon officials were suspended and later fired<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Their dismissals came during an investigation into leaks in the department. The three fired Pentagon officials \u2014 Dan Caldwell, Colin Carroll and Darin Selnick \u2014 said in a joint statement posted on the social platform X on Saturday<\/a> that they were \u201cincredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended.\u201d The group also wrote that they \u201cunderstand the importance of information security and worked every day to protect it\u201d and claimed that \u201cunnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ullyot similarly alleged in his Sunday opinion piece that “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\u00a0investigation ordered earlier this month.”<\/p>\n

\u201cHegseth is now presiding over a strange and baffling purge that will leave him without his two closest advisers of over a decade \u2014 Caldwell and Selnick \u2014 and without chiefs of staff for him and his deputy,\u201d Ullyot wrote, mentioning two of the fired Pentagon officials. \u201cMore firings may be coming, according to rumors in the building.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn short, the building is in disarray under Hegseth\u2019s leadership,\u201d the former top Pentagon spokesperson said. \u201cFortunately, I was not a victim of this purge of his senior leadership. Like Caldwell and Selnick, I am a longtime backer of the secretary. In December, when his Senate confirmation was in jeopardy, I wrote an opinion piece arguing strongly that he was the best man to shake things up at a Pentagon in need of serious reform.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hill has reached out to the Pentagon for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former top Pentagon spokesperson said in an opinion piece published Sunday that the Department of Defense is in \u201cdisarray\u201d under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. \u201cIt\u2019s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon. From leaks of sensitive operational plans to mass firings, the dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president \u2014 who deserves better from his senior leadership,\u201d John Ullyot, who served as the acting assistant…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":835,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834\/revisions\/835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}