Hegseth’s chief of staff exits amid Pentagon turmoil

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s chief of staff departed his post Thursday, he said, the latest twist in an extended period of turmoil at the Pentagon that has included infighting among Hegseth’s advisers, the firing of at least three political appointees and deepening scrutiny of the secretary’s stewardship of the government’s largest agency.

Joe Kasper, the departing chief of staff, leaves the role voluntarily and will become a part-time special government employee with a focus on science, technology and industry, he told The Washington Post, though his exact role and title were not yet clear. The designation means he may work up to 130 days as a government employee in any one 365-day period, in similar fashion to a role that billionaire Elon Musk has held in the Trump administration while overseeing dramatic cuts to the federal government.

Kasper had been discussing the move with colleagues for weeks, and Hegseth appeared to allude to the possibility in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday. Kasper, he said, is a “great American,” and was “certainly not fired.”

Sean Parnell, a spokesman for Hegseth, did not respond to a request for comment.

Kasper’s final departure had been forecast for days, and it was reported earlier by Politico. His exit follows weeks of friction between him and Hegseth’s other senior advisers, and questions about how the Pentagon is being managed under the former Fox News personality and the leadership he assembled upon taking office just three months ago.

The spate of departures and firings — which also have targeted nearly a dozen senior military officials, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Navy’s top admiral — is a mark of disruption and instability the likes of which the Pentagon has seldom experienced.

Defense officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to be candid about the situation, have described Hegseth, 44, as paranoid and increasingly isolated. He is surrounded by only a small team of people whom he trusts and has become keenly focused on daily news coverage dissecting his missteps and decision-making.

Last week, Hegseth fired three senior advisers: Dan Caldwell, Colin Carroll and Darin Selnick. All three were accused of leaking, a point they forcefully rejected in a joint statement on Saturday.

A fourth former staff member, John Ullyot, wrote in an opinion piece Sunday that “it’s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon” with a “near collapse inside the Pentagon’s top ranks.” He departed the Pentagon earlier this month after Hegseth’s team removed him from his role as a spokesman amid questions about Ullyot’s handling of the job.

Kasper, an Air Force veteran, served for years on Capitol Hill, climbing to serve as chief of staff to Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.), a Marine Corps veteran who was convicted in 2020 of stealing campaign finance funds. Trump later pardoned the disgraced ex-congressman. Kasper, who was accused of no wrongdoing in Hunter’s troubles, departed Capitol Hill in 2017 and held roles during the first Trump administration in the Navy, Air Force and Department of Homeland Security.

More recently, Kasper worked as a lobbyist for the Ervin Graves Strategy Group. He said Thursday that he expects he may ultimately return to lobbying.

Hegseth, meanwhile, is the subject of a Defense Department inspector general review for his handling of classified information through the use of Signal, a commercially available, encrypted messaging app that the U.S. government authorizes for limited use with unclassified information.

In March, the Atlantic reported that its top editor had accidentally been included in a Signal group organized by White House national security adviser Michael Waltz. Hegseth divulged to the group forthcoming attack plans for a bombing campaign in Yemen, details that former senior U.S. defense officials have said would always be classified in advance of a mission.

On Sunday, the New York Times reported that Hegseth had created a similar Signal group that included his wife, Jennifer; his brother, Phil; his personal attorney, Tim Parlatore; as well as Kasper, Selnick, Caldwell, Parnell and a handful of other officials. Hegseth shared similar plans in that group, too, defense officials familiar with the issue have said. Hegseth has insisted he did not disclose classified information, saying the group chat including his wife and brother was a means to coordinate work-related matters.

Additional revelations have continued to emerge, including that Hegseth had a desktop computer installed in his office specifically so he could use Signal in a part of the Pentagon where personal electronics are not allowed. The Signal computer, first reported by The Washington Post on Wednesday, would require a separate, so-called “dirty” network to bypass the building’s rigid data security, a point The Associated Press reported Thursday.