The Defense Department is downplaying a news report concerning “an enduring rift” among Secretary Pete Hegseth’s top advisers.
According to The Washington Post on Tuesday, Hegseth advisers Eric Geressy and Ricky Buria are involved in “the most combustible relationship” among Pentagon front-office officials.
The newspaper said differences between various advisers has again fueled internal speculation about Hegseth’s long-term viability in the Cabinet post.
Hegseth senior adviser and spokesperson Sean Parnell told the Post that “workforce adjustments are a natural and necessary feature of any highly effective organization.”
“[The secretary is] committed to ensuring the Department of Defense has the right people in the right positions to execute President [Donald] Trump’s agenda,” Parnell added.
Parnell also dismissed the significance of disagreements on Hegseth’s staff, saying that Americans outside Washington “don’t care about ‘palace intrigue’ or sensationalized, mainstream media gossip — they care about action.”
He added that the defense staff was “working in unison” to focus the department on “its core mission of warfighting and to deliver results.”
The Post report focused greatly on the relationship between Geressy, a retired soldier and Hegseth mentor when they served in Iraq, and Buria, who, until recently, was a military assistant to the defense secretary.
Buria, a Biden administration holdover, has criticized Vice President JD Vance’s “wackamamie crazy” and “isolationist” views and has slammed Trump’s use of the military for immigration enforcement as “dumb,” the New York Post reported earlier this month.
The White House recently turned down Hegseth’s request to formalize Buria as his top adviser.
Current and former defense officials who have witnessed the department’s inner workings told the Post it’s unclear how long Hegseth can survive in his role without imposing order on his own staff.
“There’s a cold war that exists in between flash points,” one source told the Post. “It’s unsettling at times.”
Late last month, Hegseth said “informal, unclassified coordinations” were shared in an online chat, and he added that an internal probe into leakers at the Pentagon continues.
The New York Times had reported two days earlier that Hegseth shared detailed information about forthcoming strikes in Yemen on March 15 in a private Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer.
That report followed news in March that The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief was accidentally included in a group chat with top Trump administration officials, including Hegseth and then-White House national security adviser Mike Waltz, who were discussing plans for military action in Yemen.
Trump on Monday said Hegseth has “devoted his life to service members and veterans” and “is doing really well,” while acknowledging that he “went through a lot,” the Post reported.
“He’s a tough cookie,” Trump said. “That’s what we want, is a tough cookie.”
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