Fired Pentagon Official Says He’s ‘Not Sure’ if Pete Hegseth Is OK

Colin Carroll, a former top Pentagon official, said in an interview over the weekend that he’s “not sure” if Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is OK.

Newsweek reached out to the Pentagon for comment via email.

Why It Matters

Carroll served as the chief of staff to the deputy secretary of defense but was fired this month amid an internal investigation into Pentagon leaks. Two others—senior adviser Dan Caldwell and deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick—were also fired as part of the probe.

In a joint statement earlier this month, the three said “unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door.”

Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, left the Pentagon earlier this month.

Carroll’s interview with podcast host Megyn Kelly, which aired on Saturday, comes as Hegseth faces increased scrutiny over his use of the encrypted messaging app Signal to share highly sensitive details about U.S. military operations with government officials, his wife and his brother. Hegseth, however, has denied sharing classified information on the app.

What To Know

In his interview on The Megyn Kelly Show, Carroll described Hegseth’s leadership as “a tale of two Petes.” He praised the defense secretary’s ability to convince the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus to increase defense spending but criticized Hegseth’s fixation with “weird details” and tendency to get “very agitated” during meetings.

“He was very focused on the leaks and I think it kind of consumed the team a little bit,” Carroll told Kelly. “If you look at a pie chart of the secretary’s day, at this point, 50 percent of it is probably a leak investigation.”

Carroll was also asked about Hegseth’s contention in a recent interview when he said “disgruntled former employees are peddling things to try to save their a**.” Carroll told Kelly he thought Hegseth was unprepared for the questions but added that it doesn’t matter because the defense secretary has “an audience of one,” likely referring to President Donald Trump.

Kelly—who, like Hegseth, is a former Fox News host—asked Carroll point blank, “Do you think he’s OK? Do you think Pete is OK?”

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Carroll replied. “I’m not sure. I have observed a Pete that is one Pete and crushes it in meetings. For example, this is out in the press. They did, like, a little blog post on it, but the House Freedom Caucus came to talk to us about budget.”

He added: “These are people that want to spend less. They want a strong national security, they want a strong defense, but they don’t want us to have a big budget. They’re afraid if we go up, domestic spending goes up and everything falls apart…The secretary crushed that meeting. I’ve never seen a meeting like that. There is not a secretary in living memory that could have done as good a job with those guys.”

“At the same time, I’ve seen the secretary in more internal meetings where he is super focused on very, in my opinion, weird details and very agitated and kind of, like, yelling and just nothing’s good,” Carroll said. “So, it’s like a tale of two Petes. And I’ll be honest; I’m not the person to ask about what he was like before and all that. I don’t know. I’m just telling you what I observed in the 90 days that I was there.”

What People Are Saying

Sean Parnell, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, said in a recent statement: “Secretary Hegseth has delivered more change to the DOD in 100 days than most secretaries have in four years.”

He added that while the media “focuses on gossip, we’re focused on results.”

Colin Carroll, Darin Selnick and Dan Caldwell said in a joint statement on X, formerly Twitter, announcing their departure earlier this month: “We are incredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended. Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door. All three of us served our country honorably in uniform—for two of us, this included deployments to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, based on our collective service, we understand the importance of information security and worked every day to protect it.”

They added: “At this time, we still have not been told what exactly we were investigated for, if there is still an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation of ‘leaks’ to begin with. While this experience has been unconscionable, we remain supportive of the Trump-Vance Administration’s mission to make the Pentagon great again and achieve peace through strength. We hope in the future to support those efforts in different capacities.”

What Happens Next?

Politico reported that Selnick and Carroll plan to sue for wrongful termination.