Can Pete Hegseth keep his job? Insider reveals Pentagon is in ‘total chaos’ amid backstabbing and leaks

The Department of Defense is experiencing a “full-blown meltdown” under Secretary Pete Hegseth’s leadership, according to a recently resigned top Pentagon aide.

Following a month of “total chaos” at the Defense Department, from mass firings to leaked Signal chats featuring top officials within Donald Trump’s administration discussing bombing campaigns in Yemen, “there are very likely more shoes to drop in short order,” according to John Ullyot, who resigned last week as a top Pentagon spokesperson.

Last month, it was revealed that national security adviser Mike Waltz accidentally added a journalist to a Signal chat group with other top officials, including Hegseth, who shared details about military strikes in Yemen.

Hegseth also reportedly shared details about an imminent attack targeting Houthis in Yemen in March to a second group chat that including his wife, brother and personal lawyer.

According to Ullyot, Hegseth last week fired three top advisers and chiefs of staff, including a top aide who requested an investigation into Pentagon leaks, following February’s purge of top military officers, including the now-former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the chief of naval operations.

In a statement, Hegseth’s now-former chief of staff Darin Selnick, senior adviser Dan Caldwell as well as the chief of staff to the deputy secretary of defense, Colin Carroll, said they “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 wrote last week.

Hegseth’s team has “developed a habit of spreading flat-out, easily debunked falsehoods anonymously about their colleagues on their way out the door,” Ullyot wrote in Politico.

More firings are expected, according to Ullyot.

Chaos inside the Defense Department — which commands roughly 3 million service members and personnel with a $850 billion budget while the United States is embroiled in global conflicts in a period of escalating tensions — “is now a major distraction for the president,” Ullyot wrote.

“President Donald Trump has a strong record of holding his officials to account. Given that, it’s hard to see Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth remaining in his position for much longer,” he added.

This is a developing story