A war has erupted between the Pentagon and the White House over the actions of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s acting chief of staff, according to The Washington Post.
Ricky Buria, a recently retired Marine Corps colonel, reportedly tried and failed to oust Matthew A. McNitt, who coordinates personnel policy as White House liaison at the Pentagon. White House officials “intervened” to prevent Buria from achieving his goal, the report said.
The Post called it an “unusual dispute that marks the latest instance of infighting among a staff plagued by disagreement and distrust” that “appears to have shaken a fragile agreement between Hegseth and the White House.”
That agreement allowed Buria to serve as temporary chief of staff after several other people refused the role.
Hegseth’s first chief of staff, Joe Kasper, left earlier this year, paving the way for Buria to become “the Defense secretary’s most trusted advisor,” according to The Guardian. That report added that Buria — who was “widely disliked” at the Pentagon — was “not expected to formally receive the White House’s approval to become the permanent chief of staff to Hegseth.”
Washington Post reporter Dan Lamothe wrote that Buria’s actions appeared rooted in his “frustration with pushback from the White House as he has attempted to fill positions in the defense secretary’s office. It coincides, too, with the White House’s refusal to let Buria take over the powerful chief of staff job on a permanent basis.”
In a department plagued by turmoil, “Buria has been at the center” of much of it, the report said, “seeking to isolate Hegseth from other senior advisers on his staff and assert control over the Pentagon’s inner workings,” Lamothe wrote.
The report said it wasn’t clear whether Hegseth approved of Buria’s “power play” or even knew about it.
In a statement, a White House spokeswoman said that President Donald Trump is “fully supportive of Secretary Hegseth and his efforts to restore a focus on warfighters at the Pentagon,” the report said.