DoD meltdown
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Joe Kasper, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s chief of staff will leave his role in the coming days for a new position at the agency, according to a senior administration official, amid a week of turmoil for the Pentagon.
Senior adviser Dan Caldwell, Hegseth deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll, the chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, were placed on leave this week in an ongoing leak probe. All three were terminated on Friday, according to three people familiar with the matter, who, like others, were granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.
The changes will leave Hegseth without a chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, or senior adviser in his front office.
“There is a complete meltdown in the building, and this is really reflecting on the secretary’s leadership,” said a senior defense official. “Pete Hegseth has surrounded himself with some people who don’t have his interests at heart.”
This week’s terminations follow a purge of top military officers in February, including former Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti.
“There probably will be more chaos,” said a third defense official. “It certainly reinforces the fear factor, awareness that no one’s job is safe.”
Other officials wondered what this would mean for Hegseth, a still inexperienced Pentagon leader who has just lost many of his top advisers.
“The front office has some really first-rate uniformed military staff, but there’s only so much they can pick up in an organization that big,” said a former Trump administration official. “That kind of dysfunction compounds.”
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Before the US launched military strikes on Yemen in March, Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, sent detailed information about the planned attacks to a private Signal group chat that he created himself, which included his wife, his brother and about a dozen other people, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
The Guardian has independently confirmed the existence of Hegseth’s own private group chat.
According to unnamed sources familiar with the chat who spoke to the Times, Hegseth sent the private group of his personal associates some of the same information, including the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets that would strike Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, that he also shared with another Signal group of top officials that was created by Mike Waltz, the national security adviser..
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/20/pete-hegseth-signal-chat-yemen-attack
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Exclusive: The White House is looking to replace Pete Hegseth as defense secretary
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/21/nx-s1-5371312/trump-white-house-pete-hegseth-defense-department
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Hegseth had Signal messaging app installed on an office computer
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/04/23/hegseth-signal-pentagon-computer/
The move was intended to circumvent a lack of cellphone service in much of the Pentagon and enable easier communication with other Trump officials, said people familiar with the matter.
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s controversial chief of staff, who played a central role in a power struggle that gripped the Pentagon, will exit the agency today.
Joe Kasper was originally expected to transition to another role within the Defense Department, but is now planning to go back to government relations and consulting, he said in an interview.
He will continue to support and advise the Pentagon, he said, but as a special government employee. This will limit him to performing temporary jobs for just 130 days a year.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/24/hegseth-chief-of-staff-pentagon-leaving-00308721
