‘Complete meltdown’: Wrecking ball Pete Hegseth derails everything in sight while Pentagon staffers run for the exits

In just under 100 days into his tenure as Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth has managed to plunge the Pentagon into one of its most chaotic periods in recent memory.

This week, Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, announced his departure, though he will remain with the agency in another capacity. Kasper’s exit comes amid a storm of controversy, including the termination of three senior Pentagon aides—Dan Caldwell, Darin Selnick, and Colin Carroll—who were placed on leave earlier in the week. The firings are reportedly tied to an ongoing investigation into security leaks, which have exposed sensitive information ranging from military plans for the Panama Canal to intelligence operations in Ukraine. 

Adding fuel to the fire, insiders suggest that Kasper’s departure was partly due to internal tensions. Sources familiar with the matter describe a toxic environment in which Kasper clashed with the now-fired aides, with one official labeling the situation a “personality conflict.” But the stakes go far beyond office politics. Two of the dismissed aides, Selnick and Carroll, are reportedly planning to sue the Department of Defense for wrongful termination, escalating what is already a public relations disaster for Hegseth.

The Pentagon under Hegseth has been anything but stable. The leak investigation that led to the recent firings has highlighted significant security vulnerabilities within the department. Among the most alarming disclosures are hypothetical military plans for the Panama Canal, U.S. carrier movements in the Middle East, and reports of halted intelligence operations benefiting Ukraine. These leaks are not only embarrassing but also potentially damaging to U.S. national security and foreign policy. Perhaps the most bizarre revelation involves a classified Pentagon briefing with Elon Musk, the controversial billionaire known for his erratic behavior. 

The exact nature of Musk’s involvement remains unclear, but the optics of involving a private citizen in sensitive military discussions have raised eyebrows across Washington. Adding to the chaos is Hegseth’s own role in a recent scandal involving an encrypted group chat on Signal. In the chat, Hegseth shared forthcoming plans for airstrikes on Houthi rebel targets in Yemen with over a dozen officials. The situation escalated when National Security Advisor Michael Waltz accidentally added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to the group—an astonishing lapse in judgment that has drawn sharp criticism from defense and intelligence experts.

Pentagon’s dysfunction under Hegseth stems from his inability to manage both his staff and the sprawling institution he oversees. One senior defense official described the atmosphere as a “meltdown,” with morale plummeting and confidence in Hegseth’s leadership evaporating. Another source went so far as to suggest that Hegseth has surrounded himself with advisers who are more focused on their own agendas than on supporting his vision for the department.

Hegseth’s management style has also come under scrutiny. His decision to fire senior military officers, including Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. CQ Brown and Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, has been widely criticized as a politically motivated purge that undermines the Pentagon’s institutional stability. Meanwhile, the rest of us can only watch in horror as the world’s most powerful military becomes a punchline. If it weren’t so terrifying, it’d almost be funny. Almost.