Reference News Network reported on April 24 that according to a report from the New York Times website on April 22, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegeith took office at the Pentagon in January this year. He had almost no government work experience but harbored grand ambitions to reshape the way military management was conducted.

However, this former Fox News Channel anchor has caused a series of unprecedented chaos within just three months of taking office in the Department of Defense's recent history.

The core advisory circle around Hegeith is in disarray. These advisors are veterans like him, with little experience in managing large complex institutions. Last week, three members of the team he brought into the Pentagon were accused of unauthorized information leaks and were expelled from the Pentagon.

John Yuleot, the fourth member of Hegeith's team who recently resigned and was his former chief spokesperson, criticized Hegeith for disloyalty and incompetence in an opinion article published by Politico on the 20th. He wrote: "Under Hegeith's leadership, the Pentagon is in chaos."

Current and former defense officials said that this chaotic situation includes: assistants loudly arguing in his office; growing distrust among thousands of military and civilian staff working at the Pentagon; the Department of Defense mired in bureaucratic deadlock, slowing down key priorities of the Trump administration such as developing the next generation of missile defense systems.

Three current and former defense officials said that worse still, Elon Musk-led Office of Government Efficiency set an ambitious goal to cut up to 200,000 positions from the Pentagon's 750,000 civilian personnel. Hegeith once warned that such cuts would paralyze some critical functions of the Department of Defense.

Meanwhile, recent reports have indicated that Hegeith disclosed sensitive military information about an impending attack in Yemen in two private group chats on the "Signal" application, prompting calls from some in Congress for him to resign.

Pentagon Press Secretary Shawn Parell attributed the reports of management chaos in Hegeith's office to "disgruntled former Department of Defense employees with ulterior motives."

So far, these mistakes seem to have failed to shake President Trump's support for Hegeith. Despite concerns about Hegeith's lack of experience and his alcoholism problem, the Senate narrowly approved his appointment.

On the 21st, President Trump praised Hegeith's work.

Hegeith also defended his short tenure. On the 21st, at the White House "Easter Egg Roll" event, he told reporters that the media used "disgruntled former employees" to smear him. He vowed to continue efforts to return the Pentagon "to the hands of combat personnel."

However, current and former defense officials said that internal disputes in Hegeith's office focused more on trivial bureaucratic disputes than policy issues. Staff complained that meetings hosted by Joe Casper, the Director of the Office of the Secretary of Defense personally selected by Hegeith, were either aimless or involved meaningless vulgar topics.

Other officials said that Hegeith and Casper failed to establish a process to ensure that some basic but important matters could be quickly handled in Hegeith's office.

The problems within Hegeith's office have become even more complicated due to deepening distrust of Pentagon civilian personnel and senior military officials.

Some Pentagon officials said that Hegeith's team has been combing through previous social media posts and articles of these personnel to find signs of disloyalty to President Trump and his team.

This distrust has spread to senior military leaders with decades of careers who have worked under both Democratic and Republican administrations.

Another major challenge facing Hegeith will be learning how to manage the Department of Defense, the largest bureaucratic agency in the federal government, while protecting its civilian workforce from massive layoffs that could paralyze agency functions. (Translated by Zhu Jie)

Original Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7496850962716426761/

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