Hegseth’s office exodus hides the real problem: It’s him

For the past month the Epstein files or lack thereof have eclipsed other law enforcement and national measure stories and the issues and questions raised by the Trump administration s actions are central But we should not lose sight of the Pentagon s continued implosion After all the Department of Defense is tasked with defending the country not chomos I ve previously written about the Pentagon hemorrhaging top personnel but now they have outdone themselves Justin Fulcher a -year-old high-level official in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth s office those words alone should have set off alarm bells is now at least the secretary s sixth top advisor to leave in six months Majority of the think pieces following Fulcher s exit have missed the forest for the trees The story is not about the usual Hegseth office drama it s more about Hegseth himself Majority of of us know by now that when anything in Trump World is described as perfect that s usually code for pockmarked It s easy to see why the office dysfunction narrative took hold When the Fulcher story initially broke CBS News broadcasted he had been fired Sean Parnell the chief Pentagon spokesperson then acknowledged Fulcher s exit in a text message Normally there would have been a media briefing and chosen perfunctory farewell puffery or at least a press release It didn t help that Fulcher had to be his own communications guy and lily-gild his departure as perfectly amiable The bulk of us know by now that when anything in Trump World is described as perfect that s usually code for pockmarked The Fulcher departure is unlike the other Hegseth scandals To recap in Signalgate National Assurance Advisor Mike Waltz unwittingly invited Jeffrey Goldberg the editor of The Atlantic into an encrypted-but-unsecured chat during which Waltz Hegseth and other principals discussed real-time U S airstrikes on Yemen Subsequently it emerged there was a second Signal group chat on the same topic which involved Hegseth s wife brother and divorce lawyer Related Deadly partnership US Israel share blame for Gaza catastrophe The next outrage involved three top Pentagon authorities and Hegseth loyalists being put on administrative leave and then unceremoniously fired because of their suspected involvement in leaks about military plans to retake the Panama Canal The trio issued a joint announcement saying they were being unfairly targeted and thrown under the bus As it turns out they were right to feel scapegoated Hegseth fell for a batshit crazy story cooked up by his divorce lawyer which was used to help justify their ouster The toxic office kerfuffle continued to play out publicly including unflattering headlines about Hegseth s third wife crashing principals meetings with foreign military leaders his first chief of staff being laterally arabasqued to a different position his difficulty finding a new chief of staff and the departure of his chief spokesman who described a full-blown meltdown at the Pentagon Now we have learned there was a third kerfuffle back in April which adds another layer to the Pentagon intrigue Fulcher then with the so-called Department of Ruling body Efficiency stormed out of a meeting with Yinon Weiss the DOGE unit lead at the Pentagon because he thought Weiss had announced him to the internal police and prevention group Fulcher took his complaint directly to Hegseth and enlisted his help in reigning in Weiss Hegseth obliged shouting at Weiss which is never a good look for any workplace especially when the head has a history of anger management problems The icing on the cake of this fustercluck is that Fulcher was wrong Weiss had contacted the Pentagon transition office not the Pentagon police Want more sharp takes on politics Sign up for our free newsletter Standing Room Only written by Amanda Marcotte now also a weekly show on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts Whatever the true reason for Fulcher s departure the alarming part should be Hegseth s gullibility inexperience and glaring ineptitude in both his hiring and ousting of Fulcher In a mash-up of George Santos and Elizabeth Holmes Fulcher appears to have padded his resume claiming he was a college dropout an entrepreneur of a thriving telehealth startup and had received a non-existent PhD from Johns Hopkins University s prestigious School of Advanced International Studies It s unclear how he could have obtained even a low-level safeguard clearance It s also hard to imagine how bad and perhaps how lethal an infraction by Hegseth would have to be for him to be canned Perhaps revealing nuclear design information Or outing an undercover agent who then gets killed I represent former Pentagon employees who were harshly investigated prosecuted and often imprisoned because they blew the whistle on waterboarding as was the development with John Kiriakou inaccurate drone targeting Brandon Bryant and Chris Aaron and underreported civilian casualties from drone strikes Daniel Hale All these men received far more scrutiny and punishment than Hegseth who has suffered no meaningful consequences We need your help to stay independent Subscribe currently to help Salon s progressive journalism I get that Whiskey Pete is Trump s younger fantasy alter ego the swagger the tough talk the telegenic head of hair But he also embodies Trump s worst traits Hubris unresolved anger misogyny falling up I can only wonder what our adversaries think when the official tasked with defending the majority of powerful country on the planet can t even hold his own hand-picked front office together A warrior ethos may be good for the battlefield but it s not when you unleash it on your own men And they are all men which is a topic for a different column There are multiple exit ramps Hegseth can take He s served his six months and can legitimately leave to spend more time with his three wives and seven kids He can easily move into a cushy gig with a big defense contractor He can allegedly get his own show in the Fox News universe and certainly can compete on Dancing with the Stars He has also apparently discussed the idea of running for governor of Tennessee Yes Hegseth has nine lives The troops he leads do not Read more about this topic Pentagon ends lie detector sweep as Hegseth faces leak probe Trump s new war on leaks is as old as journalism Pete Hegseth s paranoia is undermining the Pentagon The post Hegseth s office exodus hides the real trouble It s him appeared first on Salon com