Cnn
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A provocative defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, reserved himself on the television network where he worked as a host Tuesday morning in order to address the benefits that he discussed military plans in a second signal group cat, this time with his wife and brother.
But after Hegseth faced several direct questions in the interview with Fox News on the disarray of his inner circle, the appearance was considered by some officials as only focusing more attention to history rather than passing the coverage, according to two families familiar with the way in which the maintenance was perceived within the administration.
However, President Donald Trump would not reject Hegseth and spoke to him twice from the New York Times and CNN reported on the second signal group on Sunday evening. During their first call, Trump said he had Hegseth’s back and expressed his frustration in the face of the “leaks” who, according to him, tried to harm his administration, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
Trump has since requested the comments of people around him on Hegseth’s performance during conversations, according to two people familiar with comments. So far, most, if not all, has been positive about the Pentagon chief. Trump is extremely hesitant to dismiss any manager of the firm at this stage of his mandate, even less Hegseth, given how his team fought to confirm it in the first place.
However, the situation in his inner circle has disturbed certain senior officials who want to see changes to the way in which the secretary’s team at the Pentagon front office operates. The dominant chaos in the Pentagon was not lost in the White House, where the officials looked at concern while Hegseth has trouble containing the malfunction and as its inner circle implodes.
Hegseth’s most reliable advisers are now his wife, lawyer and junior military assistant, who could soon be appointed his new chief of staff, several people familiar with the issue said.
Others close to Hegseth, including his advisor, the retired army sergeant. Major Eric Geressy – who served with Hegseth in Iraq and received the distinction of service last month – became so frustrated by the turmoil they indicated to colleagues that they would resign, two of the sources said. CNN contacted Geressy.
Some of the former advisers closest to Hegseth have issued warnings this week on disorders inside the Pentagon. They include his former spokesperson John Ulyot and three former Hauts HegSeth officials last week: the superior advisor Dan Caldwell; Deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick; and Colin Carroll, who was chief of staff to the deputy secretary of defense.
Cnn a thing
Why Trump sticks to Hegseth (for now)
The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is under fire following the revelations that he shared detailed military plans on a second signal group cat. He arrives in the middle of the intestine struggles with his closest advisers. We examine the drama that takes place at the Pentagon and how it could have an impact on military operations. Guest: Haley Britzky, CNN National Security Reporter to advice or a question about the new Trump administration? Call us at 202-240-2895.
April 23, 2025 • 21 min
“It was a month of total chaos at the Pentagon. Leaves of operational plans sensitive to mass layoffs, the dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president – which deserves better from his senior direction,” said Ulyot in a statement obtained by CNN.
A republican of the congress, the representative Don Bacon of Nebraska, intensified his public calls on Tuesday for Hegseth to be held responsible.
Questioned Tuesday by Jake Tapper of CNN on “The EADR” what he would do if he was president and that his defense secretary had acted as Hegseth, Bacon said: “I would hold them responsible and I would dismiss them.” Putting sensitive information on an application as a signal, said Bacon, was “very stupid”, but HegSeth’s response – describing the cat earlier on Fox on Tuesday as “informal and not classified coordinations for media coordination and other things” – exacerbated the offense.
“He could recover from that with the franchise. But when you deny that it is a problem, I think it even aggravates things,” said Bacon.
Carroll’s dismissal also set HegSeth’s relationship with the deputy defense secretary Steve Feinberg, who brought Carroll as chief of staff and was not consulted before being put on leave, the sources said.
“He is in the middle of paranoia, in back-to-date,” said one of the familiar sources with HegSeth’s state of mind in the last month.
Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, had faced several times in recent months with the three men Hegseth rejected last week, sources told CNN.
Several staff members of West Wing had become frustrated by what they described to others as the lack of responsiveness of Kasper, often complaining about the difficulty of obtaining the HegSeth chief of staff on the phone or to answer their requests. At one point to the start of HegSeth’s mandate, the White House was trying to reach Kasper so that Hegseth would sign a note of the launch note of the Golden Dome missile shield development process of Trump, but the memo was not signed for three weeks, according to a person familiar with the question.
In another example of the disorderly nature of the Front Office, at a given time in March, HegSeth directly asked the DOD special access programs director – who are among the most classified DOD programs – to read Elon Musk in more than two dozen programs related to China, according to several people familiar with the episode. But Hegseth did not lead the idea for the first time through a political process that included lawyers, said people, and ultimately, the DOD ethics lawyers in the standards of conduct said it would not be appropriate. The idea is dead. People familiar with the case said it could have succeeded if a more standard political process had been followed.
Caldwell and Selnick, who have known Hegseth for years and have worked with him the organization of the preservatives concerned Veterans for America, came to believe that Kasper isolated Hegseth and returned to them, the sources said. Kasper, in turn, told people that he did not know where these accusations come from – it was Hegseth who launched the flight investigation which led to their layoffs, according to Kasper.
Kasper said he had “nothing to do” with one of the decisions taken with regard to the flight investigation. “I am not even read, and I was not involved in decisions,” he said.
Kasper is no longer the HegSeth chief of staff and is settling in a new position as a special government employee, according to the familiar person.
“Joe is a great guy. He’s a great American,” Hegseth said on Tuesday during the Fox News interview, adding: “He stays with us, will play a slightly different role, but he’s going nowhere, certainly not licensed.”
Most of the senior officials inside the White House believe that Hegseth was the victim of what he called “former dissatisfied employees” who were dismissed last week for what HegSeth said they were unauthorized leaks to the media.
The former employees in question had been handpicked by Hegseth to sit in his management team, but he suggested in the Fox interview that his loyalty to them had exhausted.
“It is not my job to protect them. It is my job to protect national security, the President of the United States, and to let the investigation go where it is,” he said.
“The former dissatisfied employees peddled things to try to save them **,” HegSeth told Fox.
Caldwell denied information this week that has disclosed and said that he had not been interviewed or polygraphic as part of an investigation.
“I have been a friend and supporter of Pete Hegseth for a long time, and I am personally devastated by this. It’s just horrible,” he told Tucker Carlson on his podcast. “The entire Ministry of Defense cannot continue to be consumed by chaos.”
In his own interview on Fox, HegSeth listed a number of recent stories that he suggested because of the leaks of his staff, including plans for an American takeover of the Panama Canal and a briefing planned for Musk on War Plans against China.
Hegseth suggested that he wanted to keep these problems out of the media. But one of them – the Musk brief report – was a surprise for Trump himself, who ordered that the briefing for Musk was canceled. It is not clear if the president would have learned the planned briefing if it had not appeared in the news.
Although Trump’s collaborators believe that the signal issue has been sufficiently resolved, some said they always thought there could be more to emerge about HegSeth management on the Ministry of Defense which would prove embarrassing or worse.