The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Their War Plans
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John Ullyot, a diehard Trump supporter who argued before his confirmation that Pete Hegseth was “the best man to shake things up at a Pentagon,” now says that after “months of total chaos,” his missteps and misjudgments have left the “building in disarray” and that Hegseth should be replaced, after what Ullyot called a “month from hell.”
Beginning with the Signalgate snafu, in which Hegseth shared obviously classified attack plans over an unsecured messaging app and then issued a ham-handed nondenial denial, and ending with the haphazard firing of three top staffers last week, Ullyot, who resigned last week, said enough is enough.
“It’s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon,” Ullyot wrote in an opinion essay in Politico published last night. “Even strong backers of the secretary like me must admit: The last month has been a full-blown meltdown at the Pentagon — and it’s becoming a real problem for the administration.”
“President Donald Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account,” Ullyot said. “Given that, it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer.”
Under fire for his handling of Signalgate, and now facing new allegations that he also improperly shared Yeman strike plans on another private Signal group chat that included his wife, brother, and personal lawyer, Ullyot describes an atmosphere of paranoia about leaks that had led to a “near collapse inside the Pentagon’s top ranks.”
Here is his opinion writing
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/20/pentagon-chaos-ullyot-hegseth-00205594 -
@jon-nyc said in The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Their War Plans:
I read that piece earlier today. Seems like it was written for an audience of one.
To be fair, Ullyot was shit-canned, sorry he resigned a little while ago after something or other, so he might be a tad disgruntled. It's also possible he's disgruntled because of the morons who didn't get shitcanned, sorry resigned.
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Hegseth had Signal messaging app installed on an office computer
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/04/23/hegseth-signal-pentagon-computer/
The move was intended to circumvent a lack of cellphone service in much of the Pentagon and enable easier communication with other Trump officials, said people familiar with the matter.
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I mean, thanks for the reporting but of course they used Signal to make it easier to chat with others (officials or not). I is a widely used app in DC (reporters, government officials, intel folks) the difference is folks would never use it for classified conversations, it was always "Let's meet in XYZ SCIF to discuss this". Pure lazy/amateur hour.
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https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/24/hegseth-chief-of-staff-pentagon-leaving-00308721
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s controversial chief of staff, who played a central role in a power struggle that gripped the Pentagon, will exit the agency today.
Joe Kasper was originally expected to transition to another role within the Defense Department, but is now planning to go back to government relations and consulting, he said in an interview.
He will continue to support and advise the Pentagon, he said, but as a special government employee. This will limit him to performing temporary jobs for just 130 days a year.
A former longtime chief of staff to indicted Rep. Duncan Hunter, Kasper was a leading figure in the firings of senior adviser Dan Caldwell, Hegseth deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll, the chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg. The trio were ousted last week in a leak investigation.
Some officials saw the wave of firings as a bid by Kasper to consolidate power.
“Kasper did not like that those guys had the secretary’s ear,” a person familiar with the dynamic said. “He did not like that they had walk-in and hanging-out privileges in the office. He wanted them out. It was a knife fight.”
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Kasper the unfriendly Ghost?
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@jon-nyc said in The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Their War Plans:
Yeah, maybe he lost his position, but that doesn't mean he can't be in the group. LOL. After all, Sec Hegseth had is wife and agent in.
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I thought Rubio would be the first through the door. I was wrong.
I can only hope Witkoff soon follows Waltz through the door.
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Now they’re talking about giving him the UN ambassador role.
That would mean a senate hearing where they’d get to wash their dirty signalgate laundry publicly again, but this time with a modicum of respect for the questioners.
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Now they’re talking about giving him the UN ambassador role.
That would mean a senate hearing where they’d get to wash their dirty signalgate laundry publicly again, but this time with a modicum of respect for the questioners.
@jon-nyc said in The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Their War Plans:
Now they’re talking about giving him the UN ambassador role.
Would that be a promotion technically? Clearly less influential under normal circumstances.
Only non-witches get due process.
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