A 'meltdown' at Hegseth's Pentagon

What happened

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was fighting to hold on to his Cabinet position this week after reports that he used a second Signal chat—which included his wife, brother, and personal lawyer— last month to discuss detailed plans for a U.S. military strike on rebel camps in Yemen. The New York Times reported that Hegseth, a former Fox News host, had created chaos "unmatched in the recent history" of the Pentagon, and that after he fired three top aides last week and accused them of leaking to the press, his circle of advisers "is in shambles." A fourth recently departed aide, former Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot, said in a Politico column that the Defense Department is "in a full-blown meltdown" under Hegseth's leadership and that "it's hard to see" him retaining his post. NPR reported that the Trump administration has begun a search for Hegseth's replacement.

President Trump said Hegseth "is doing a great job" and denied seeking to replace him. Hegseth maintains the information he shared about the Yemen strikes on two Signal chats—the first with a journalist mistakenly included—was "informal" and not classified. But NBC News reported that the plans Hegseth detailed came directly from a general using a secure government system. The inclusion of Hegseth's wife—a former Fox producer with no military background—in the chat has raised questions about her frequent presence in Hegseth's official meetings. While some Republicans are standing by Hegseth, GOP Rep. Don Bacon called him "an amateur" and said he was acting "like he's above the law."

What the columnists said

Hegseth is blaming the media and "former disgruntled employees" for his troubles, said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial, but the press "didn't make up the staff turmoil, or the embarrassing Signal chat." The "infighting, dismissals, and leaks" look like "the self-inflicted mistakes of a management neophyte." Hegseth vowed to be a disruptor of the status quo at the Pentagon, but, as Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell warned when he voted against Hegseth's confirmation, that's not a "sufficient credential" to be put in charge of America's defense and 3.4 million military and civilian employees. If he wants to keep his job, he needs to bring in competent, experienced staff.

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Actually, "it's time for Hegseth to go," said Max Boot in The Washington Post. He's "in way over his head," and is "undermining the military's effectiveness." A lower-level employee would have been fired, if not criminally charged, for "such flagrant misbehavior" as boasting about an imminent U.S. attack via a commercial app on his personal phone. Time to hand the job "to someone who has the right experience and qualifications to lead one of the world's largest and most complex organizations."

Trump doesn't want to sack Hegseth because he thinks it "will only encourage and empower the press," said David A. Graham in The Atlantic. But that's a "dangerous game to play with national security." If Trump won't take a "political loss now, what kind of geopolitical loss does he risk later?"