A senior aide resigned from the Pentagon at the weekend, plunging Pete Hegseth’s Defense Department further into dysfunction. Justin Fulcher had only been in the role since April, and in that time had been involved in a fiery argument with a DOGE official and was embroiled in another controversy surrounding a hunt for leakers inside the Pentagon.

While Fulcher insisted that his tenure was always intended to last only six months, that claim seems questionable. A six-month stint in the Pentagon raises more questions than credibility to one’s resume, and the intensive security background check is hardly worth the hassle for half a year’s work. Regardless, with five other top officials leaving the Pentagon for various reasons since January, it’s clear the department lacks sufficient leadership stability at the top.

Part of the problem is that Hegseth is viewed as out of his depth by some senior military officers and civilian Defense Department officials. Several of the departed or fired officials have lamented that the former Fox News host failed to defend them against what they allege were unfair claims of their leaking. These sentiments bleed into a perception that he is focused more on ensuring President Donald Trump’s happiness and less on the coherent running of his critically important department. Hegseth’s reputation inside the Pentagon was also shaken by his sharing of patently classified information in a Signal group chat which included Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg.

To be sure, Hegseth is popular with the military’s junior enlisted ranks, who support his “anti-woke” agenda. Many officers and senior enlisted personnel also appreciate his reorientation of the Defense Department towards maximising battlefield “lethality”. Still, some very senior uniformed military leaders are disheartened by what they perceive as his willingness to engage in overly partisan posturing.

During a briefing last month on the US air strikes against Iran, for example, Hegseth publicly railed against his former Fox News colleague, the well-respected Pentagon correspondent Jennifer Griffin. After accusing Griffin of engaging in deceptive and biased coverage, his position has been weakened by analysis indicating that the US air strikes did not totally destroy three Iranian nuclear facilities. The departure of so many top-ranking officials and his antagonistic engagement with some career officials will only increase the chances of leaks.

There is a growing sense that where Hegseth serves as the Pentagon’s MAGA face and the Defense Department’s command link to the President, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby is more important in shaping Trump’s defence agenda. Sharing Trump’s scepticism of foreign military entanglements and his frustration with the overreliance of allies on American military resources, Colby has engaged in forthright discussions with foreign partners on the need for them to increase their own capabilities so that the US military can surge resources towards deterring China. I understand, however, that Colby and Hegseth have a good working relationship.

The problem is that things are slipping through the cracks and, as Harry Truman aptly noted eight decades ago, the buck stops with the top official. Most recently, the Defense Secretary spent months trying to suspend munition supplies for Ukraine. Once this was achieved, it was undermined by Trump then announcing air defence systems for Kyiv.

In turn, the next time a crisis or key decision comes calling, Hegseth will be judged very closely on his ability to deliver an effective flow of military options and political credibility to Trump. That, at the very least, requires no more leaks. If he fails to do so, the notoriously public-perception-focused President may make a change.

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Tom Rogan is a national security writer at the Washington Examiner

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