Chris Cillizza: Is This The End For Pete Hegseth?

"Pete Hegseth, who [checks Truth Social] is still the Secretary of Defense, woke up to some brutal headlines today.

In the wake of the revelation that he had gone around Pentagon protocols and had Signal installed on an office computer and the news that his chief of staff was resigning to become a part-time government employee, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal dropped stories that suggest the end may be near for Hegseth.

Here’s the Journal headline: “Polygraph Threats, Leaks and Infighting: The Chaos Inside Hegseth’s Pentagon.”

The piece details how Hegseth, enraged by the leak that he was planning to give Elon Musk a briefing on war plans related to China, threatened several top Pentagon officials with a polygraph test to prove they had not done the leaking.

“I’ll hook you up to a f**king polygraph,” Hegseth allegedly told then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Chris Grady.

Not a great look!

The Post story paints a similar — and unflattering — portrait of Hegseth. This paragraph, in particular, is rough:

Defense officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to be candid about the situation, have described Hegseth, 44, as paranoid and increasingly isolated. He is surrounded by only a small team of people whom he trusts and has become keenly focused on daily news coverage dissecting his missteps and decision-making.

Having been reporting on and observing politics for the last two-plus decades, I can tell you that this is how it looks near the end. An embattled political figure, driven to the point of distraction by all of the negative media coverage about him, bunkers in with only the people who tell him what he wants to hear.

That story very rarely ends well — for the person in Hegseth’s shoes that is.

Now, this is a whole new political world. Hegseth has been utterly defiant — publicly — in the face of the spate of negative stories. And Donald Trump likes fighters — people who don’t just wilt when the media horde comes for them.

So, maybe Hegseth survives! But man does it look bad for him at the moment... 

Source:Chris Cillizza with a look at the Pete Hegseth story.

From Chris Cillizza

"Pete Hegseth is under increasing scrutiny as reports of dysfunction and controversy within the Pentagon mount. He reportedly bypassed security protocols to install the Signal messaging app on a government desktop and has become increasingly isolated, relying on a small circle of trusted allies. Two major reports—from The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal—describe him as paranoid, obsessed with media coverage, and quick to accuse staff of leaks, even threatening polygraph tests. Several top aides have resigned, including his chief of staff. Critics argue that Hegseth is focused more on his image than on his responsibilities, and while Donald Trump appreciates loyalty, his patience may be tested. The video suggests this could be the beginning of the end for Hegseth’s tenure." 

From Chris Cillizza

From The New Democrat earlier about Pete Hegseth: 

"If you privately polled the Senate Republican Conference, or slipped some truth serum in their favorite coffee or favorite alcohol beverage, (according to Senator Mullin) or they were under oath, they would privately tell you that Pete Hegseth has no business serving as a Defense Department intern, let alone as Secretary of Defense. That he's better qualified attending Alcoholic Anonymous meetings, and attending anger management meetings, then being responsible for America's national security. But President Trump wants Hegseth, so that's who he gets, according to a sold majority of the Senate Republican Conference. That's my guess... 

From The New Democrat

And from The New Democrat on Tuesday about Pete Hegseth: 

"And to respond to a point that Jane Harman made on CNN: Donald Trump only fires his loyal staffers and cabinet members, when they become a problem for him personally. The President firing people has nothing to what with what's in the best interest of the country, because he doesn't care about that. (To be real) 

And as former Representative Harman said, Pete Hegseth is now embarrassing The White House and the President because he was Donald Trump's original choice for Secretary of Defense. But it's now quite obvious that the Secretary of Defense can't even be trusted with classified information. And it's becoming harder for Congressional Republicans (House & Senate) to defend him against anything that comes up against him, especially if they're in for tough reelection battles in 2026." 

From The New Democrat

I would respond this way: 

If Pete Hegseth cared about Donald J. Trump... I mean, actually cared about him, at least wanted him to do well politically and is not just at The Pentagon right now because he thinks it's great for his career in the MAGA movement, I think he resigns a month ago. I mean sharing classified information on a chat app... why not just Tweet that information instead? If that's not a fireable offense for a national security official, what is? And now it's happened again, a month later. And he could've easily saved face on that and said something like: 

"The Un-Americans in the media are out to try to destroy our great leader and I've become too much of a distraction in our great cause to save America from the Un-Americans and therefor I'll resign as Secretary of Defense." That could've been his resignation letter to President Trump and the President probably accepts that.

I think that's what Secretary Hegseth's resignation letter to President Trump would look like, if he actually cared about the President and simply wasn't trying to hang on, because he thinks stepping down would be bad for his career or something. 

Yes, I'm sure MAGA voters, just everyday Americans who don't make they're living in and out of politics, probably do love Donald J. Trump. But his associates, his career allies, his MAGA soldiers... Donald Trump is just a launching pad for their business and political careers. The more they're loyal to him and the more they claim to love him, (even though to them in private, he's a big loser, who actually knows very little, if anything about government policy) the better these Trump associates do for themselves. 

If Pete Hegseth leaves The Pentagon, it won't be voluntarily. The White House Chief of Staff or Vice President Vance will tell him that he can either resign or be fired, because he's become too big of a distraction and the Defense Department can't work with him anymore because of how much of a security risk and leak that he really is. But I don't see Secretary Hegseth resigning for the reasons I just gave. That's my theory. 

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