 "Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington. AP")
Another senior aide of US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth is quitting the Pentagon, making him the sixth top official to exit in Hegseth’s first six months in the Department of Defence. The aide resigning this time is Justin Fulcher, who was appointed to the post in late April.
In a text message to The Washington Post, Fulcher made it clear that his departure from the department is “perfectly amicable” and that he planned all along to complete just six months of government service. In the message to the American news outlet, he said that he is “grateful” to Hegseth and US President Donald Trump and “to the extraordinary civilians and service members who turn vision into action every day.”
“Working alongside the dedicated men and women of the Department of Defence has been incredibly inspiring,” Fulcher said in his message to The Washington Post. Meanwhile, Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, acknowledged Fulcher’s departure in a text message after CBS News first reported that Fulcher had been fired.
Fulcher’s tensions with the Hegseth team
The Pentagon spokesperson made it clear that Fulcher was not fired, calling him a “great guy”. The Pentagon also issued a short statement that said the Defence Department is grateful to Fulcher “for his work on behalf of President Trump and Secretary Hegseth. We wish him well in his future endeavours.”
However, the staff churn in the department has drawn scrutiny from Congress. The latest shake-up in the department came after reports emerged that ahead of his appointment in April, Fulcher — then a member of billionaire Elon Musk’s US DOGE Service — stormed out of a meeting with the Pentagon’s DOGE team lead, Yinon Weiss, and sought help from Hegseth’s front office.
As per the report, Fulcher told Hegseth and other senior officials in the secretary’s office that he thought the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, an internal police and security organisation, was looking for him. This angered Hegseth, who then summoned Weiss to his office and confronted him, The Washington Post reported.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsHegseth eventually brought Fulcher onto his team days later, after he fired three other senior advisers and accused them of leaking information to the media. It is pertinent to note that all three senior Pentagon officials have denied the accusation.
Fast forward from this, The Guardian reported that Fulcher, Hegseth’s attorney, Tim Parlatore, and Hegseth’s chief of staff at the time, Joe Kasper, knew of surveillance measures that could be used to find leakers within the Pentagon.
According to The Washington Post, officials said that there was speculation for days that Fulcher’s departure was imminent. However, Fulcher initially maintained that he was still on the team without disclosing that he would be leaving soon.
Other members of Hegseth’s team who have departed in his first six months include: Dan Caldwell, Colin Carroll and Darin Selnick; the three officials fired in April; Kasper, who left his role voluntarily for a job in the private sector; and John Ullyot, who served for a few months as the Pentagon’s top spokesman.