Trump advisers abandon effort to find new chief of staff to serve Pete Hegseth

The Guardian

3 days ago

Donald Trump's advisers have for now abandoned an effort to find a new chief of staff to serve the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, allowing senior adviser Ricky Buria, whom they once considered a liability, to continue performing the duties in an acting capacity, according to people familiar with the matter.
Buria is not expected to formally receive the White House's approval to become the permanent chief of staff to Hegseth, a position that became vacant after the first chief of staff, Joe Kasper, left in the wake of major upheaval in the secretary's front office earlier this year.
But the attempt by the Trump advisers to block Buria from getting the job has fizzled in recent months as the news cycle moved away from the controversies that dogged Hegseth at the start of Trump's term and officials lost interest in managing personnel at the Pentagon, the people said.
As a result, Buria has become a regular presence in the West Wing for briefings in the situation room and with senior White House and administration officials, and secured his standing at the Pentagon, where he is widely referred to as 'Chief Ricky'.
The developments are sure to also be a relief for Hegseth, who for months has been staring down the prospect of having his closest aide shunted aside because of concerns at the White House about a growing portrait of dysfunction in his front office.
White House officials may yet revisit installing a replacement for the chief of staff position, which plays a key role in managing Hegseth's front office and setting the direction of the $1tn defense department that oversees more than 2 million troops around the world.
And it is uncertain if the extent to which senior White House and administration officials are now interacting with Buria is more because he is the only Hegseth aide empowered by the secretary to serve as his top staffer, rather than a vote of confidence by Trump's advisers.
A spokesperson for the Pentagon referred reporting for this story to the White House. A spokesperson for the White House did not respond to a request for comment.
At least part of the reason for Buria's ascendancy at the defense department in recent months is because of a power vacuum in Hegseth's front office and his role in bringing about the departures of some of his biggest detractors and rivals, according to current and former Pentagon officials.
A former MV-22 Osprey pilot who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, Buria started as the junior military assistant to Joe Biden's defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, before Hegseth fired the senior military aide Lt Gen Jennifer Short and Buria swiftly stepped into the job.
Buria then sought to become a political appointee and expanded his influence around the time that Hegseth's office became rocked by a contentious leak investigation that resulted in the ouster of three top aides and the early exit of Kasper.
Their exits amounted to four of the biggest obstacles to Buria assuming the job of chief of staff vanishing overnight, the officials said, and Buria presenting them to Hegseth as the end of his troubles with leaks to the media endeared him to the secretary.
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Hegseth has since defended Buria at every turn, even as the White House told the defense secretary he could keep Buria but that he would never become chief of staff, the Guardian previously reported.
The White House was spooked by Buria's elevation for several reasons, including that he had been identified as having sent some of the messages in the Signal group chat, which contained information that was almost certainly classified, because he had gotten himself access to Hegseth's phone.
Hegseth accepted the compromise offered by the White House at the time but, in keeping Buria around, managed to effectively hand him the job anyway, two Trump advisers suggested.
While Buria did not travel to the Nato summit last month after he failed to secure a seat on Air Force One with Hegseth or on a separate support plane, the Trump advisers said that was because of capacity limitations on a trip that needed to carry other national security council staff.
Still, the White House has maintained other reservations about Buria and his role in recurring office drama. Buria has also come under scrutiny in the Pentagon inspector general investigation into the Signalgate episode and whether he played a role in pushing out aides in the leak investigation.