(Bloomberg) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, facing criticism of his stewardship at the Pentagon and beset by staff turnover, added a member of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to his circle of close advisers.
Hegseth has selected Justin Fulcher, co-founder of telemedicine startup RingMD who also represented the DOGE team at the Department of Veterans Affairs, to serve as a senior adviser, according to a Pentagon statement. The secretary frequently touts the group’s findings, saying it has identified billions in wasteful spending at the Pentagon.
Hegseth in recent weeks has lost his chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, a spokesperson and a senior adviser, and accused former aides of leaking unfavorable stories to the press. He has remained defiant in the face of successive revelations that he disclosed sensitive and possibly classified information in Signal group chats.
At the same time, the embattled Pentagon chief has sought to focus on several of President Donald Trump’s top priorities, from eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion policies to using the armed forces for immigration enforcement. He spent Friday at the US southern border.
Trump has expressed support for Hegseth amid mounting criticism over his use of Signal, a commercially available messaging application, to communicate sensitive information about imminent military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
“When President Trump was elected, he followed through on his promise and said we will get 100% operational control of the southern border because border security is national security,” Hegseth said in a video posted to the DOD Rapid Response account on X.
Hegseth made several other appointments Friday as well. Sean Parnell, a close ally who had been the Pentagon press secretary, adds senior adviser to his existing title of assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs. Parnell’s deputy Kingsley Wilson will serve as acting press secretary.
Marine Corps Colonel Ricky Buria, who has been identified in some reports as helping to circumvent Pentagon security protocols to allow Hegseth to use Signal, was named as a new senior adviser.
In a statement Friday, Wilson announced that Patrick Weaver as a senior adviser to Hegseth, saying: “Regular workforce adjustments are a feature of any highly efficient organization.”
Wilson said the secretary would “continue to be proactive with personnel decisions” in support of Trump’s agenda.
“I don’t know any of them, but it’s actually not a feature of any highly efficient organization to appoint a bunch of senior advisers instead of filling the line responsibilities,” such as chief of staff and deputy chief of staff, said Kori Schake, director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
“It’s likely to continue the front office confusion to have lots of senior advisers whose portfolios are unclear,” she said.
–With assistance from Tony Capaccio.
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