22-04-2025
Donald Trump Jr. rips into ex-Pete Hegseth staffer 'exiled' from MAGA movement for trying to secretly tear it down
Donald Trump Jr. torched former Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot who warned that the department of defense is in 'chaos' in a Politico op-ed released Sunday and suggested it was time for Secretary Pete Hegseth to resign.
'This guy is not America First,' Trump's son wrote on social media. 'I've been hearing for years that he works his ass off to subvert my father's agenda. That ends today. He's officially exiled from our movement.'
Ullyot resigned from the Pentagon complaining of a 'month from hell' in the agency which resulted int a 'near collapse' that led the secretary to fire three of his 'most loyal senior staffers' senior adviser Dan Caldwell, deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll, chief of staff to the deputy secretary of Defense.
'The last month has been a full-blown meltdown at the Pentagon — and it's becoming a real problem for the administration,' he wrote, noting that he was a 'strong backer' of Hegseth in the beginning.
But MAGA allies pushed back against Ullyot, recalling his service in Trump's first administration in the department of veterans affairs and on the national security council in the White House.
'Ullyot is universally regarded in Trumpworld as an incompetent buffoon who sucks at his job. I told Pete to fire him as soon as I heard that he got a job at the Pentagon,' wrote MAGA-connected political consultant Arthur Schwartz in reaction to the news.
Sources familiar with Ullyot tell that he was 'pushed out' of his job at the Pentagon and had a record of being 'incompetent' and 'untrustworthy.'
Hegseth told Fox News on Tuesday that he was disappointed by the revelations involved in the investigation of media leaks but laid out his reasoning for firing three of his top advisors.
'We took it seriously. It led to some unfortunate places, people I have known for quite some time,' he said. 'But it's not my job to protect them. It's my job to protect national security, the president of the United States.'
Hegseth also cryptically reacted to Ullyot's service, accusing him of spinning his work to the media to fit a different narrative.
'Anyone who knows John knows why we let him go, we did a lot of favors for John, he did some good work upfront and he was moved along and asked to move along, now he has misrepresented a lot of things in the press, it's unfortunate,' he said, attributing the op-ed as 'politics.'
