Joe Kasper, chief of staff to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, is departing and will be gone within a few days. This departure is one more sign of the dramatic upheaval inside the Pentagon during a week already marked with tumult. Kasper’s impending departure raises concerns about leadership continuity at the Department of Defense. His simultaneous leap to a new role within the agency further deepens these fears.
Kasper has been involved in most of today’s highest-profile cases. He soon asked for an investigation into several leaks that endangered U.S. military operational plans, including those related to security of the Panama Canal and deployment of a second aircraft carrier to the Red Sea. His probe further looked into Elon Musk’s recent visit to the Pentagon. He zeroed in on the hardest decisions to pause US intelligence collection for Ukraine. His departure represents a deepening shake-up at the top levels of the Pentagon. Recently, the military has suffered through a tsunami of firing of its senior-most leaders.
Kasper’s exit leaves Hegseth without a chief of staff as the department’s issues continue to grow in number and severity. Now, Carroll and Selnick, two former political appointees, are looking to sue for wrongful termination. This turn of events further underscores the tumultuous state of the Pentagon’s highest levels.
As these changes have played out, worries about Hegseth’s leadership style have come to light. The situation is really dire, a senior defense official said on background. We hear that there is a total blow-up in the building, and this is just really showing the collapse of the secretary’s leadership. One other senior official explained that Hegseth has managed to isolate himself from those who don’t have his self-serving agenda at heart. Together, all this could be inflaming the continuing unrest.
The internal dynamics have been godawful, almost at times defined by personality clashes between the top political officials. Their formats could not be more mismatched. Unfortunately, they probably just weren’t a good match, owing to a clash of personalities, said one defense official with knowledge of the events. Given the discord within the Pentagon, it’s reasonable to wonder whether chaos lies in store. With leadership challenges ongoing, the department is unable to keep a lid on it.
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