In the past week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been the subject of scrutiny from former staffers and anonymous sources within the federal government, leading to an unconfirmed report that President Donald Trump was considering replacing him. On Saturday, April 19, three senior Department of Defense (DoD) officials who had been fired for allegedly leaking sensitive information criticized their dismissals in a public statement on X. Then on Sunday, The New York Times reported that Hegseth shared sensitive information about U.S. strikes in Yemen in a second Signal chat that included his wife, brother, and personal lawyer. Also on Sunday, former chief Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot wrote an op-ed in Politico describing the DoD as in “total chaos” under Hegseth and calling for his firing. Finally, NPR reported that the White House had begun to search for Hegseth’s replacement on Monday, though the White House denied the report.

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