U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White House for Florida, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 20, 2026. REUTERS Nathan Howard
President Donald Trump’s biographer Michael Wolff claims “there is nobody anywhere in Washington or across the defense industry who doesn’t believe Trump’s Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has to go.”
“[They all believe] that he’s a menace, an incalculable danger, an existential threat,” reports Wolff. “Daily leaks about his blunders, stupidity, malfeasance, and weird conduct — his wife has moved into the Pentagon as his effective second-in-command — have become part of a growing rear-guard rebellion to get him out.”
Over in the White House, Wolff said “the president’s closest circle of advisors believe Hegseth needs to be fired — yesterday is their timetable.”
“Everyone is alarmed — truly, freaked out.” Reports Wolff. “He has no supporters left anywhere. Except for Donald Trump.”
Wolff’s information come on the heels of several revelations as leakers approach the press with news of outlandish behavior, undue firings and a litany of policy missteps.
Wolff said until Trump entered the White House for his second term, everybody in the past who had overseen the planet’s biggest military budget “has had extensive military, corporate, or political experience,” regardless of whether or not voters judged them successful. Each had careers and resumes that “logically placed them in the post.”
“Because the job is so do-or-die, no president, in the modern age, has chosen to appoint anyone who might be considered an outlier,” said Wolff.
But, of course, that was before Trump, he added.
“Hegseth’s resume is not just sparse but lacks all relevant experience otherwise associated with running any complex organization — not to mention the largest organization on earth. It is, in fact, mostly marked by significant failures,” said Wolff, quoting research and source information. “His efforts at a political career and then in running veterans’ organizations — after a stint in the National Guard — were characterized most by his alcoholism and financial mismanagement.”
“His personal life, also characterized by his alcoholism, includes multiple sexual abuse allegations, three marriages, and his fathering of a child with one woman when he was married to another,” Wolff said. “His most substantial employment was as the co-host of a weekend television show on Fox News, where his boss, Roger Ailes, called him ‘Colonel Vodka’ because he talked so often about his National Guard service and then, reliably, passed out in a drunken stupor.”
But Wolff said Hegseth holds his current job not because of expertise, experience, and victories “but precisely because he is lacking them.” During Trump’s first administration, Wolff said the people running Trump’s military were clearly more intelligent than Trump, and they couldn’t hide their contempt for Trump’s stupidity.
“Almost every top-tier commander was struck by the determined ignorance of the commander-in-chief—and too frequently, they didn’t hide their feelings. Hence, Trump, in his second attempt at being president, hires ‘Colonel Vodka’ to run his Defense Department,” said Wolff, adding that Hegseth immediately set out to purge the Pentagon of people who were smarter than Trump.
“Hegseth understood that part of his job was to cleanse the Pentagon of layers of commanders who might believe that their expertise ought logically to provide a counterpoint to the president’s (and his Defense Secretary’s) lack of expertise,” said Wolff.
And now Wolff said the Pentagon is in trouble as munitions run low and a series of mistakes and bad decisions send Trump’s entirely voluntary war on Iran to creep into the November midterms.
“There isn’t anyone who believes Pete Hegseth is up to that job,” said Wolff, and insiders are pouring their opinions to the press.