Insiders say the defense secretary’s deep distrust has created a culture of paralysis at the Pentagon.
Pete Hegseth has bred such deep paranoia inside the Pentagon that staff calculate every decision around whether it would get the defense secretary fired, insiders have revealed.host, 45, has axed more than two dozen senior officers, forced out a Navy secretary, and personally meddled in military promotions across all four branches since taking the top job.
The most senior scalp was Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, 61, who was ousted in April during the war with Iran. , telling CNN that troops were forced to sign nondisclosure agreements and submit to polygraph tests just to learn about operations. One Pentagon official described the daily mood as one of pure self-preservation.
“Everything we did on a daily basis, we were calculating, ‘Is this going to keep the boss employed, or is this going to get him fired? ’” the official told the network.
“Every single day, every decision that we made, that was a planning factor. ” George’s firing was a brutal example of the secrecy. The general had requested an in-person meeting with Hegseth on April 1 to ease tensions and discuss the secretary’s priorities, according to CNN. He never got it.
The next day, he was informed of his fate in a curt phone call. The call was so abrupt that CBS News reporter Jennifer Jacobs broke the news publicly just moments later. By the time George walked back into a meeting with his staff, they had already seen it.
“People had seen the tweet,” an official said. “It was awkward because everybody’s looking at him, like what is he going to say? ”What followed was a quietly devastating scene. George delivered the news with no emotion, almost lightheartedly, before his staff lined up one by one to shake his hand or hug him, according to CNN.
“It was solemn—as if someone had died,” the official recalled. By the next morning, his office had been emptied. Driscoll, the Army secretary, subsequently paid tribute to George at a House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing, hailing his 42 years of service, his Purple Heart, his wife Patty, their grandkids, and their kids. The defense secretary’s paranoia has had real-world consequences.
Sources said Hegseth froze key military planners out of the loop heading into the war with Iran, leaving the joint staff with barely any insight into the planning as they scrambled to move U.S. assets—including the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group—into the region. The result, one official told CNN, was paralysis.
“A year-plus later, there is a lack of clear internal processes within the Pentagon” that is “caused by mass paranoia,” the official said. “Everything is a case-by-case basis because there’s no delegation, there’s no trust. And if there’s no delegation or trust, policy decisions can’t be made. ” Hegseth has also leaned on the playbook used by Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security, prioritizing slickly produced “war videos” for the White House to project an image of overwhelming success.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell hit back hard at the CNN report when asked for comment by the Daily Beast. He branded the sources “outsiders with a clear political agenda to smear the Department and undermine Secretary Hegseth’s leadership through partisan hit pieces. ” Parnell added that “every successful organization goes through leadership changes. ” Trump, meanwhile, has stood firmly by his defense secretary.
“Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, central casting,” the president said at a Cabinet meeting as Hegseth sat beside him. “He loves war. ”
Please follow us on Google to support us Pentagon Defense-Department Military
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Republican Turns on Pentagon Pete Over Vile D-Day SpeechThe defense secretary failed to read the room during a visit to an American military cemetery in Normandy.
Read more »
Star City Emerges as Apple TV's New Paranoid Thriller Hit Amid Sci-Fi SlumpApple TV's sci-fi offerings have faced a downturn following the end of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, with For All Mankind failing to capture top streaming spots. Now, a new paranoid thriller set in the Space Race era, Star City, is showing strong promise. The series, a spin-off exploring lesser-known moments from For All Mankind, has garnered critical acclaim with a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score and currently ranks third globally on FlixPatrol. With only a few episodes released, the show has the potential to climb to number one, potentially setting a new direction for Apple's franchise strategy.
Read more »
Pentagon Slashes Religious Affiliation List, Reclassifies LDS Faith Outside Christian CategoryThe Department of Defense reduces recognized religious affiliations from 200 to 31, moving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from under Christian designation, sparking bipartisan backlash.
Read more »
Republicans Rage at Pentagon Pete Over ‘Repugnant’ Religion MoveThe self-declared “Secretary of War” has angered Mormons by declaring that the Defense Department no longer considers LDS a religion.
Read more »