Vice President JD Vance and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles are trying to help Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fill job openings in his inner circle after at least three people dropped out of consideration. The high-ranking positions available included chief of staff, as well as several senior adviser roles, NBC News reports. Candidates' reluctance could be connected with how the openings came about: Senior aides Hegseth had picked were accused of leaking classified information, a chief of staff decided to move to another job before quitting government altogether, and a senior press aide who resigned said Hegseth's office was in "total chaos."
Vance and Wiles started their effort as soon as the openings occurred in April. Since then, Hegseth and the White House have thrown out each other's candidates. Some have been insufficiently MAGA for Trump administration tastes, and others aren't interested in having Hegseth for a boss. White House doubts about Hegseth's firing decisions seemed to be building, first when the investigation of the accused aides was taken away from him, and then when no evidence that they had leaked was found, per NBC.
Officials said that the battles are still going at the Pentagon and that Hegseth deals mostly with a small group of aides. A Republican operative dismissed accounts of Defense Department infighting. "Not a single one of these ridiculous Pentagon palace intrigue stories points to a single thing that's not getting done at the Pentagon because of the alleged 'chaos,'" said Arthur Schwartz. (More Pete Hegseth stories.)
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