Pete Hegseth has fired more than two dozen senior officers, subjected staff to polygraph tests and nondisclosure agreements and left the Pentagon's military planners sidelined during a live war, all in the name of loyalty.
A CNN investigation published on 9 June 2026, based on interviews with 15 current and former Pentagon officials, details how Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has cultivated a culture of suspicion that has fractured the department's leadership and disrupted its operational decision-making. Officials describe a secretary deeply distrustful of those around him, civilian and military alike, and quick to interpret proximity to power as a threat rather than an asset.
