‘This is just disarray’: alarm inside Pentagon after Hegseth staff purges

Insiders portray defense secretary as increasingly isolated after officers with impeccable reputations forced out

Since Donald Trump's first term, they have been viewed comfortingly as the adults in the room," a last line of defense against the impulsive whims of a president with access to the nuclear codes.

Now - after an unprecedented wave of firings that has been compared by some to Stalin's purges - the Pentagon top brass no longer seem like such a reliable bulwark.