Ousted Pentagon Adviser Says Hegseth ‘Consumed’ by Leaks as Trump Predicts He’ll ‘Get It Together’
A top Pentagon official who was ousted in a dramatic purge earlier this month has criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for being preoccupied with disclosures to the press — while President Trump stood by the former Fox News personality and predicted that “he’s gonna get it together” in an interview published Monday.
“He was very focused on the leaks, and I think it’s kind of consumed the team a little bit,” Colin Carroll, former chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, told podcaster Megyn Kelly of Hegseth in a lengthy interview released Friday. “If you look at a pie chart of the secretary’s day, at this point, 50% of it is probably [the] leak investigation.”
“That’s a bad thing for America, it’s a bad thing for the president’s objectives,” added Carroll, 40, who was placed on leave April 16 and later dismissed along with senior adviser Dan Caldwell and deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick.
Around the same time, former top spokesman John Ullyot parted ways with DOD and penned a scathing Politico op-ed predicting Hegseth would soon be out of a job.
The White House has publicly stood by the defense secretary, with Trump telling The Atlantic magazine: “I think he’s gonna get it together. I had a talk with him, a positive talk, but I had a talk with him.” (Read more from “Ousted Pentagon Adviser Says Hegseth ‘Consumed’ by Leaks as Trump Predicts He’ll ‘Get It Together’” HERE)
