US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth

The Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee admitted at Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing he was an “unconventional” nominee, but he could still lead the Defence Department with the help of “exceptional subordinates” handling the Pentagon’s day-to-day affairs.

“In short, I am confident that Mr. Hegseth, supported by a team of experienced top officials, will get the job done,” Senator Roger Wicker (Republican, Mississippi) said in January.

Three months later, Hegseth has lost his handpicked chief of staff and fired three other aides in a bizarre front-office meltdown over suspected leaks. That’s on top of the mega-scandal over Hegseth’s use of Signal group chats to share sensitive details about imminent attacks by the US military on Houthi targets in Yemen.

In short, things are not going well.

Hegseth, however, insists it’s all part of his plan to shake up a complacent bureaucracy and bring back the “warrior ethos” like he promised to do.

“Now, as you may have noticed, the media likes to call it chaos. We call it overdue,” Hegseth said in a speech at the US Army War College in Pennsylvania, referencing a Tuesday headline in The New York Times.

Hegseth’s former chief of staff, Joe Kasper, left that position last week but is still with the Defence Department as a special government employee, a department official told HuffPost. “Secretary Hegseth is thankful for his continued leadership and work to advance the America First agenda,” the official said.

Kasper has been unusually vocal for a government employee. In an interview with Drop........

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