Trump’s Team in Utter Chaos: Pentagon Purging, Musk Quitting, DOGE May Fall Apart

Trump’s tariff war strategy is becoming increasingly erratic. According to his past negotiation playbook (as outlined in his book Never Give Up), he would sometimes feign indifference to test if the other side was anxious. Yet, this time, it’s the Chinese side adopting this approach, while Trump himself appears impatient and eager for results—an obvious sign that he feels on the back foot and the situation is unfavorable. As the saying goes, “Before repelling external threats, one must first pacify internal disorder.” His external missteps and instability are directly tied to the chaos within his administration.

The latest “disaster zone” for the Trump administration is the Pentagon, the heart of military operations. The “incompetent” Secretary of Defense, Hegseth, launched a sweeping purge as soon as he took office. His heavy-handed actions triggered internal resistance, with subordinates repeatedly exposing his underhanded tactics and leaking scandals. The latest development is a major shake-up at the top, with four core officials dismissed—including Pentagon spokesperson Ullyot, who declared, “It’s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon.” More internal strife is expected. Meanwhile, Trump’s favored confidant, Musk, abruptly announced he would be stepping back in May, and the massive layoffs initiated by DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) could collapse at any moment.

Calling Secretary Hegseth “incompetent” is no exaggeration. He lacks combat leadership experience, isn’t a career military officer, and even falls short in business management skills—he’s merely a TV host who makes a living with what he says in front of a camera. Before his parachuting into the Pentagon, widespread resistance had already taken root, with the building rigged with metaphorical landmines waiting for him to step on.

Fully aware he was stepping into the lion’s den, Hegseth nonetheless failed to exercise caution. Not long after taking office, it was revealed he had set up a private Signal group to share information about strikes on the Houthi, leaking key military secrets and sparking a huge uproar. Instead of taking responsibility, he blamed disgruntled Pentagon staff for leaking stories to the media to “sabotage” him. The scandals didn’t stop there—recent reports exposed that he even added his wife, brother, and private lawyer into the Signal group, allowing them access to sensitive military operations.

After the first scandal broke, Hegseth immediately launched an internal “witch hunt.” Recently, a major personnel earthquake hit the upper ranks: four close aides including Dan Caldwell, Senior Advisor, Darin Selnick, Deputy Chief of Staff, Colin Carroll, Chief of Staff to Deputy Defense Secretary, and Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot, were all fired. This is just the latest wave of purges. Insiders told Reuters that Hegseth’s opponents aren’t limited to the Pentagon’s “core circle” but are spread throughout the Department of Defense.

Trump, the “big boss,” is well aware that the Pentagon is still crawling with “monsters and demons” waiting to oppose him and Hegseth, so the purges will continue relentlessly. He recently told reporters, “He (Hegseth) was put there to get rid of a lot of bad people, and that’s what he’s doing.” Clearly, the Pentagon’s personnel turmoil is just beginning.

This “internal strife” at the Pentagon in fact has always been orchestrated by Trump, with Hegseth merely acting as his enforcer. The target: a group of generals lacking loyalty to Trump and promoting “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) within the military. Soon after taking office, Hegseth replaced Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Brown (the first Black person in the role) with Air Force Lieutenant General Kane, a former CIA operative. He then axed Navy Operations Chief Franchetti and Air Force Deputy Chief Slife, and plans to purge other DEI-supporting officers one by one. A previously leaked “termination list” included several brigadier and major generals.

Under this white terror of mass purges, Pentagon staff are on edge. Dissidents dare not openly defy Hegseth, but constantly look for opportunities to expose his errors or set traps for him, while he dispatches his own “secret police” to root out opposition, throwing the Department of Defense into even greater chaos.

With fires breaking out everywhere inside the government, Trump is busy fighting crises, leading to total disarray, sharply contrasting with China’s calm and methodical approach. It’s obvious which side has the upper hand in the US-China trade war.

Beyond the Pentagon’s turmoil, Musk,Trump’s favored appointee tasked with slashing government spending, suddenly announced yesterday that starting in May, he would drastically reduce his involvement with DOGE, possibly working just one or two days a week. His abrupt decision to step back is not only due to Tesla’s latest quarterly net income plunging 70% year-on-year, putting the company in crisis and requiring his full attention as CEO; it’s also because helping Trump with “dirty work” has made Tesla a target for public anger. If Musk doesn’t pull out, his business could collapse sooner or later.

Musk’s departure is now inevitable. Analysts suggest that after he steps back, the cabinet will take over decisions on layoffs, ending Musk’s sole authority. Cabinet members have long been dissatisfied with Musk’s arbitrary cuts, and tensions have grown. For example, Secretary of State Rubio opposes abolishing the USAID (United States Agency for International Development), and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is against massive layoffs of air traffic controllers. Once Musk leaves, these cabinet members may halt or even reverse some of the layoffs.

It’s foreseeable that the once glamorous “DOGE” will likely fall apart with Musk’s exit, and the entire noisy spectacle may soon end in an unfinished mess.

Lai Ting Yiu

What Say You?

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Pope Francis passed away on Monday, and the cardinals with voting rights have already gathered at the Vatican, ready to elect the new pope behind closed doors. Thus, the “papal election” has officially begun. Cardinal Joseph Zen, now over 90 and known for his “yellow camp” stance, is ineligible to vote due to his age. Yet, true to his combative nature, he has openly complained, criticizing the timing of the conclave as too rushed for cardinals from distant regions, particularly Hong Kong’s Bishop Stephen Chow, to arrive in time. He did not spell out his real grievance, but it is reasonable to infer that he regrets being unable to lobby Bishop Chow on how to vote, losing his only chance to influence the outcome.

Cardinal Zen has long been a hardline anti-China hawk, with ambiguous ties to Jimmy Lai, and is at odds with the Vatican’s pro-Sino-Vatican rapprochement faction. As a result, he has been marginalized and left an outsider. Unwilling to accept this, he has seized the opportunity of the current “papal election” to vent his frustrations.

Zen is especially anxious about the outcome because his rival, the current Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, is a frontrunner. If Parolin becomes pope, it would accelerate the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and the Vatican—something Zen vehemently opposes. Despite his intentions, Zen is powerless to stop the tide, having long been sidelined by the Vatican. In recent years, he has repeatedly traveled to Rome seeking an audience with the pope, only to be rebuffed, a clear sign of his loss of influence. For this election, he can only watch bitterly as a bystander.

Zen has always been a hawk against Sino-Vatican reconciliation, a stance rooted in complex political networks. Most notably, he and Jimmy Lai are as close as brothers, with Zen receiving over HK$20 million (equivalent to USD2.56 million) in private donations from Lai over the years—an unresolved and unexplained financial relationship. Zen also maintains close ties with Western anti-China politicians, frequently engaging in covert dealings. Because of his outspoken anti-China position, he has been in a longstanding conflict with the Vatican’s pro-China faction, clashing with them on multiple occasions. One of his chief adversaries is, in fact, the current Secretary of State Parolin, now a leading papal candidate.

Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State and a frontrunner in this papal election, has been sharply criticized by Zen for “compromising with Beijing.” Yet Zen has no influence whatsoever on the election’s outcome.

One incident clearly highlights their rift: In 2018, the Vatican and China signed a provisional agreement on the appointment of mainland bishops, which was renewed for another two years in 2020. Zen vehemently opposed the deal, arguing that the Chinese government could use it as a tool to suppress the underground church. To voice his objections and urge the Vatican to speak out against the Hong Kong National Security Law, Zen traveled to Rome himself to seek an audience with Pope Francis. After waiting three days without being received, he left in frustration, having effectively been shown the door.

He later aired his grievances to anti-China media, revealing so-called “Vatican inside stories,” claiming that the real power in the Vatican was not the pope but Secretary of State Parolin, a member of the ruling faction who has long pushed for compromise with Beijing. Zen believes that because this faction strongly advocates for Sino-Vatican ties, the Vatican has refrained from forcefully condemning the National Security Law.

Zen was not wrong: By the time the provisional agreement on bishop appointments was signed in 2018, rapprochement with China had become the Vatican’s mainstream policy. Zen was completely shut out of the process—he saw none of the agreement’s details and was not consulted, treated as an outsider. In May 2022, after the arrest of Zen as a trustee of the “612 Humanitarian Relief Fund”, Parolin told the media that Zen’s arrest would not affect the renewal of the provisional agreement on bishop appointments between China and the Vatican. In other words, Zen’s troubles were irrelevant to the Vatican’s China policy—to put it bluntly, “he’s as good as invisible.”

It is only natural that the Vatican has sidelined Zen. This highly political cardinal has, from the Occupy Central movement to the 2019 riots, consistently aligned himself with Western and Hong Kong’s anti-China forces, especially maintaining an ambiguous relationship with Jimmy Lai. He is no longer merely a clergyman. Allowing him to participate in Vatican decision-making would only disrupt the normalization of Sino-Vatican relations, precisely the outcome sought by Western hawks and Taiwan’s pro-independence camp.

Given what Zen has done —including receiving tens of millions from Lai—it is already fortunate for him that he has avoided jail. He should just retire quietly and enjoy his remaining years.

Lai Ting Yiu