Top Pentagon official announces resignation
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot at a March briefing in Arlington, Virginia. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Editor's note: Read latest on former top Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot's resignation here.
Former top Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot said on Wednesday night he'll resign at the end of the week, per a statement to Politico.
The latest: Ullyot "was asked to resign," a Defense Department official said Thursday.
Why it matters: Ullyot's announcement comes in a week when the Pentagon reportedly placed three politically appointed senior aides to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on administrative leave in an investigation into leaks.
- The Pentagon has also faced scrutiny in recent weeks over The Atlantic's editor-in-chief being inadvertently added to a Signal group chat planning U.S. strikes in Yemen and the removal of Defense Department webpages deemed linked to diversity, equity, and inclusion, which Ullyot defended.
- He held senior roles in the first Trump administration and was acting assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs until Sean Parnell was named the Pentagon's chief spokesperson in February and assumed the role.
What they're saying: "I made clear to Secretary Hegseth before the inauguration that I was not interested in being number two to anyone in public affairs," Ullyot told Politico.
- He said he'd offered to assist in an acting role for two months.
- "Last month, as that time approached, the Secretary and I talked and could not come to an agreement on another good fit for me at DOD," he added. "So I informed him today that I will be leaving at the end of this week."
- Representatives for the Pentagon did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment in the evening.
Background: Ullyot is a Marine veteran who served in a senior communications role during President Trump's 2016 campaign.
- During the first Trump administration, he worked as assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs and later as White House National Security Council spokesperson.
- He most recently served as Pentagon press secretary, responding to outrage at the Defense Department's removal of webpages related to baseball and civil rights legend Jackie Robinson and the Navajo Code Talkers. The content of both was restored.
- Ullyot defended the administration's removal of webpages on DEI grounds, saying: "As Secretary Hegseth has said, DEI is dead at the Defense Department. Discriminatory Equity Ideology is a form of Woke cultural Marxism that has no place in our military."
Go deeper... Read: Former top Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot's resignation letter
