Pete Hegseth wants Donald Trump to see him as a fighter amid the negative stories swirling around the defense secretary, two U.S. officials told NBC News, and has been focusing more on public and television appearances — including on his old network, Fox News — in which he can speak directly to the president.
Trump had told Hegseth during a recent phone call that he did not approve of his texting information about airstrikes in Yemen to a Signal group that included Hegseth’s wife, his brother and his personal attorney, describing what the defense secretary had done as childish, one U.S. official and another person familiar with the conversation said. The call ended with Trump telling Hegseth to keep fighting, however.
As he battles to keep his job amid a flood of reports about his behavior and infighting in his Pentagon, Hegseth’s behavior has become “erratic,” and he seems increasingly “insecure” about his job and standing in the administration, leading him to frequently reinforce to staff that he can’t allow himself to be fired, according to two officials familiar with the situation.
Officials who operate in Hegseth’s vicinity describe him as difficult and prickly, and said that he berates and yells at the staff. The officials described a tense environment with fighting, even yelling, among Hegseth’s senior staff.
Last month, Hegseth was furious about leaks of his having approved a military briefing for Elon Musk on China, according to multiple defense officials. When officials found out The New York Times was preparing to report the meeting, Hegseth screamed at Adm. Chris Grady, the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, saying he would “f---ing polygraph” him to find out if he leaked the information about the meeting, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the meeting. Hegseth staffers also threatened to polygraph Adm. Sam Paparo, the commander of U.S. IndoPacific Command, and Lt. Gen D.A. Sims, the director of the Joint Staff, the officials said, and told the Joint Chiefs who had access to information about the Musk briefing and the agenda that they would be subject to polygraphs, the officials said.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report that Hegseth yelled at Grady and threatened him with a polygraph.
As he deals with questions about his job performance, his handling of sensitive information and how long he’ll be able to hold on, Hegseth has had a significantly diminished staff around him.
Last week, three officials — Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to Hegseth; Darin Selnick, Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff; and Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg — were all told they were implicated in a leak investigation, placed on administrative leave and escorted from the Pentagon. They were not given specifics about the allegations against them but all were terminated last Friday.
They released a joint statement the next day in which they said, “We are incredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended. Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door.” They went on to call the experience “unconscionable,” but said they continue to support the Trump-Vance administration, without referencing any support for Hegseth.
Days after being fired, Selnick and Caldwell were both exonerated. It’s not clear if Carroll was, as well.
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In another sudden staff shake-up, Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, also left his role last week. On Monday, a senior defense official provided this statement to NBC News: “Joe Kasper will continue to serve President Trump as a Special Government Employee (SGE) handling special projects at the Department of Defense. Secretary Hegseth is thankful for his continued leadership and work to advance the America First agenda.”
During a Fox News interview Tuesday, Hegseth was asked whether Kasper has a new role. “He’s staying with us, going to be in a slightly different role, but he’s not going anywhere, certainly not fired. You make changes over time, and we’re grateful for everything Joe’s done.”
On Friday, the Pentagon announced that Hegseth had tapped four officials who'd already been working in the building to support him in what’s known as the front office. That includes Justin Fulcher, Patrick Weaver and Ricky Buria as senior advisers. Sean Parnell, who has been serving as the assistant to the defense secretary for public affairs and chief Pentagon spokesman, is now also a senior adviser. No individual had been identified as Hegseth’s chief of staff.
“Regular workforce adjustments are a feature of any highly efficient organization,” the Pentagon’s acting press secretary, Kingsley Wilson, said in a statement. “Secretary Hegseth will continue to be proactive with personnel decisions and will work hard to ensure the Department of Defense has the right people in the right positions to execute President Trump’s agenda.”
In the meantime, revelations about Hegseth’s use of Signal and potential security risks he’s creating with it have not stopped coming. The latest is that Hegseth had a special internet line installed in his Pentagon office in defiance of the Defense Department’s normal security protocols so that he could use the Signal app on a personal computer there, according to two officials familiar with the matter.
The so-called “dirty” line, referred to that way because it’s not secured, increases the likelihood of the office being hacked or surveilled by a foreign adversary or another entity because it doesn’t have the same security filters as other, highly secure lines in and out of the office. Hegseth’s office is considered a SCIF, or sensitive, compartmentalized information facility, which is specially designed to protect communications. The existence of the line was first reported by The Associated Press on Thursday.
