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The Knives Are Out for Hegseth [1]
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Date: 2025-04-20
About the only person left on the planet who doesn’t know, or won’t admit, that Pete Hegseth is unqualified to be Secretary of Defense is Donald Trump. And that’s because the only qualification Trump wanted was someone who would help him use the military to further his autocratic ambitions. But it’s starting to look like Hegseth may not even be capable of doing that.
John Ullyot was, until last week, the Pentagon’s top spokesman. He is a long-time Trump supporter; he worked on Trump’s first campaign and handled communications for the National Security Council and Veterans Affairs in Trump’s first term. When he resigned from the Pentagon last week, he said he remains a strong supporter of Hegseth. Even when Newsweek reported three days ago that Ullyot had been asked to resign,
Ullyot told Newsweek that he still backs Hegseth despite his departure from the top communications role, saying: "It's been an honor to serve alongside him as part of President Trump's team, and I remain one of the secretary's strongest supporters going forward."
Something changed in the past three days. In a signed opinion he wrote for Politico today, Ullyot whipped out the knife.
Opinion | Former Top Pentagon Spokesperson Details ‘Month from Hell’ Inside the Agency
It’s 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 — who deserves better from his senior leadership. President Donald Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account. Given that, it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer.
That first sentence in the second paragraph is way beyond ludicrous, of course; if it were even close to true, both Hegseth and NSA Waltz would have been booted out the door for discussing highly sensitive and detailed plans for an air strike on Yemen while a reporter from the Atlantic — invited by Waltz — was listening, and on an unauthorized communications setup. But Ullyot is a loyal bootlicker and so he had to say that.
But he’s not (or not any longer) Hegseth loyal bootlicker.
I salute [Hegseth’s] leadership in helping the president make America strong again. Yet even strong backers of the secretary like me must admit: The last month has been a full-blown meltdown at the Pentagon — and it’s becoming a real problem for the administration.
Ullyot then piles it on:
[Signalgate] was just the beginning of the Month from Hell. The Wall Street Journal and other outlets reported that Hegseth “brought his wife, a former Fox News producer, to two meetings with foreign military counterparts where sensitive information was discussed.”
Although Ullyot didn’t mention it, this second chat group was one that Hegseth himself had set up, and he knew who was on it:
Unlike the chat in which The Atlantic was mistakenly included, the newly revealed one was created by Mr. Hegseth. It included his wife and about a dozen other people from his personal and professional inner circle in January, before his confirmation as defense secretary, and was named “Defense | Team Huddle,” the people familiar with the chat said. He used his private phone, rather than his government one, to access the Signal chat. Hegseth Said to Have Shared Attack Details in Second Signal Chat:
But Ullyot does drop an interesting hint:
There are very likely more shoes to drop in short order, with even bigger bombshell stories coming this week, key Pentagon reporters have been telling sources privately.
Much of the rest of the article is covered in the shoe polish from Ullyot’s tongue, so I’ll skip over that. (If you do read it, be sure to have anti-nausea pills handy.) The point is that the knives are now out for Hegseth. That chat group where Hegseth revealed military intel to his wife and brother and lawyer (and to any foreign agencies that might be listening) was on March 15, over a month ago. It is just being revealed today — and revealed after 2 Top Pentagon Staffers Put on Leave in Leak Probe on Tuesday and then fired on Friday. As the New York Intelligencer describes it today:
unnamed Pentagon officials are clearly throwing Hegseth under the bus
It’s enough to drive a man to drink.
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