John Ullyot, a long-time Trump loyalist who had been brought into the Pentagon in January to set up the new administration’s press operation, only to move into Secretary Hegseth’s office in March amidst the controversy arising from the Pentagon’s purge of DEI materials from its websites is the fifth Pentagon official in a week to leave the building amidst the turmoil surrounding Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Ullyot announced his resignation last week, saying in a statement that he and Hegseth could not agree on a “good fit” for him somewhere else in the building.
Last night, Politico published an op-ed by Ullyot, in which he warned that the chaos now enveloping Hegseth could lead Trump to fire him. “It’s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon,” Ullyot wrote. “From leaks of sensitive operational plans to mass firings, the dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president—who deserves better from his senior leadership. President Donald Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account. Given that, it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer.
“The latest flashpoint is a near collapse inside the Pentagon’s top ranks,” Ullyot continued, citing the firings of his two top aides, Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick, along with Collin Carroll, chief of staff to the deputy secretary of defense. “In the aftermath, Defense Department officials working for Hegseth tried to smear the aides anonymously to reporters, claiming they were fired for leaking sensitive information as part of an investigation ordered earlier this month.
“Yet none of this is true,” Ullyot declares. “While the department said that it would conduct polygraph tests as part of the probe, not one of the three has been given a lie detector test. In fact, at least one of them has told former colleagues that investigators advised him he was about to be cleared officially of any wrongdoing. Unfortunately, Hegseth’s team has developed a habit of spreading flat-out, easily debunked falsehoods anonymously about their colleagues on their way out the door.”
“The last month has been a full-blown meltdown at the Pentagon—and it’s becoming a real problem for the administration,” Ullyot says, citing Signalgate reports that Hegseth had brought his wife to two meetings with foreign officials at which sensitive matters were discussed, and a new report from the New York Times on a second Signal chat, in which Hegseth shared details about the Yemen strike that included his wife and brother (of which more below). “There are very likely more shoes to drop in short order, with even bigger bombshell stories coming this week, key Pentagon reporters have been telling sources privately,” Ullyot says.
