Pentagon turmoil deepens as Hegseth consolidates control

The Pentagon has entered a period of profound institutional turmoil, as a crisis of leadership at home converges with a crisis of capacity abroad.

Why it matters: Six months into the Iran war, Pete Hegseth presides over a Pentagon with fewer senior leaders, fewer critical weapons and less public accountability than at any point in President Trump's two terms.

Zoom in: The most striking departure yet came Monday from Army Secretary Dan Driscoll — Vice President Vance's close friend and Yale Law classmate, once viewed as a potential successor to Hegseth himself.

• Driscoll, a rising star whom Trump had tapped for sensitive diplomacy in Ukraine, resigned after months of clashes with Hegseth over the Army's leadership and modernization.
• His exit, following Hegseth's firing of Army chief Gen. Randy George, leaves the service without Senate-confirmed civilian or uniformed leadership in the midst of the Iran war.

Zoom out: Hegseth has fired or forced out senior officers across nearly every service, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Navy's top admiral and the Army chief of staff.

• The Washington Post counts more than two dozen top officers dismissed under Hegseth, who has remade nearly the entire Joint Chiefs. Only the Marine Corps and Space Force chiefs he inherited are still serving.
• The New York Times reports that Hegseth has also personally removed at least 45 officers from promotion lists this year — an extraordinary intervention in a system traditionally insulated from political leadership.
• NBC News reported Tuesday that Hegseth has blocked more promotions in recent weeks, including more than a dozen Black, Hispanic or female officers across the services.

State of play: The cumulative effect is a thinner senior command at the precise moment the Iran war is testing the limits of what the U.S. military can sustain.

• The Post reports that the commanders overseeing Europe, the Pacific and Latin America — along with the Navy's top officer — formally objected to extending forces for the Iran war. They warned that prolonged deployments are degrading their ability to confront threats elsewhere.
• The Navy's top admiral told Hegseth that barely one-quarter of its destroyers are ready to deploy, according to the Post. Its only dedicated Pacific carrier has also been diverted to the Middle East.
• AP reports the war has consumed 65% of the U.S. Patriot interceptor inventory, squeezing supplies for NATO and forcing the Pentagon to preserve weapons that would also be critical in a war with China.

What they're saying: "The premise that the Department is in disarray is completely baseless and an insult to every dedicated professional and warfighter in this building who comes to work every day to defend this nation," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told Axios in a statement.

• Parnell said "non-concurs" from U.S. generals are "standard" and called the Post's publication of classified assessments from Hegseth's orders book "a crime" and "a betrayal of the force."
• Responding separately to AP's munitions reporting, Parnell said claims of shortages are "false" and insisted the U.S. maintains a "deep, ready arsenal."

Between the lines: As the turmoil deepens, the Pentagon has become dramatically less accessible to the public.

• It hasn't held a formal press briefing since May 5 — nearly four months of silence during an active war — despite Parnell's early pledge to make briefings routine as part of the "most transparent Department of Defense in history."
• The Post reported last weekend that the Pentagon quietly installed several MAGA-aligned military influencers in civilian roles while they continued publicly promoting Hegseth's agenda and attacking his critics.
• Three top employees at the military newspaper Stars and Stripes are suing the Pentagon, alleging they were fired in retaliation for unflattering coverage of conditions aboard a carrier deployed to the Iran war.

The bottom line: The turmoil has only strengthened Hegseth's hand.

• He has survived Signalgate and a succession of scandals, outlasted potential rivals and consolidated control over an institution the MAGA movement has long cast as a citadel of the "Deep State."
• Trump has answered the upheaval by reaffirming his support for Hegseth — and asking Congress to entrust his Pentagon with a record $1.5 trillion defense budget.