{"id":135108,"date":"2025-04-26T03:10:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T03:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/pete-hegseths-controversial-chief-of-staff-leaves-post-unexpectedly-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-04-26T03:10:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T03:10:18","slug":"pete-hegseths-controversial-chief-of-staff-leaves-post-unexpectedly-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/pete-hegseths-controversial-chief-of-staff-leaves-post-unexpectedly-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Hegseth\u2019s controversial chief of staff leaves post unexpectedly – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exit comes after Joe Kasper was implicated as orchestrator of power grab that led to dismissal of three Pentagon officials
Joe Kasper, the controversial chief of staff to the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth<\/a>, who was central to a dramatic power struggle at the Pentagon, has left his post, in an unexpected departure.
Despite Hegseth\u2019s assurances just days ago<\/a> in a TV appearance on the Fox & Friends show that Kasper would merely transition to \u201ca slightly different role\u201d within the department, Kasper confirmed to Politico<\/a> in a Thursday interview he will instead return to government relations and consulting, maintaining only limited Pentagon ties as a special government employee.
A senior defense official at the Pentagon confirmed the dramatic title change to the Guardian on Friday, saying Kasper would be \u201chandling special projects at the Department of Defense\u201d
\u201cSecretary Hegseth is thankful for [Kasper\u2019s] continued leadership and work to advance the America First agenda,\u201d the official said in a statement, referring to Donald Trump\u2019s protectionist policy push.
The quick exit comes after Kasper was implicated as the orchestrator of a power grab that led to the dismissal of three senior Pentagon officials<\/a> \u2013 Dan Caldwell, Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll \u2013 allegedly as part of a leak<\/a> investigation.
The administration\u2019s first hundred days created a troubled tenure for Kasper, with anonymous sources claiming he was frequently late to meetings, failed to follow through on critical tasks, and displayed inappropriate behavior, including berating officials and making crude comments allegedly about his bowel movements<\/a> during high-level meetings.
\u201cHe lacked the focus and organizational skills needed to get things done,\u201d one anonymous insider told Politico.
The leadership shake-up coincides with separate allegations that Hegseth had an unsecured internet connection installed in his Pentagon office<\/a>, which would bypass government security protocols, to use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer. This \u201cdirty line\u201d arrangement potentially exposes sensitive defense information to surveillance or hacking risks, according to reports from the Associated Press<\/a> and ABC News<\/a>.
Kasper previously worked at the Department of Homeland Security, the US navy and the air force during the first Trump administration<\/a> before becoming a lobbyist.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exit comes after Joe Kasper was implicated as orchestrator of power grab that led to dismissal of three Pentagon officialsJoe Kasper, the controversial chief of staff to the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who was central to a dramatic power struggle at the Pentagon, has left his post, in an unexpected departure.Despite Hegseth\u2019s assurances just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":135109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}