Dan Caldwell, a close adviser to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has been placed on administrative leave. This action comes on the heels of a bipartisan investigation into prohibited disclosures concerning the Department of Defense. After being named during the investigation, Caldwell was put on paid leave. This ruling was made following a review of leaked communications between the industries.
When Caldwell was escorted from the Pentagon on Tuesday, that was a major new development in the ongoing personnel investigation saga. Seth Moulton His new role in the investigative work is seen as timely given that tensions over military transparency and accountability have increasingly escalated within government. About the Author Caldwell is a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq. He has been infamous for his extreme stances on U.S. military operations and interventions.
America, Caldwell convincingly argues, would have been better off if its troops had remained at home. On the third, he has repeatedly questioned the value of current U.S. military assistance to Ukraine and is openly lobbying on behalf of a European pull-out. Critics have been quick to slam his views as isolationist. In supporters’ defense, they say that he is trying to push America’s defense priorities towards a focus on domestic problems.
Caldwell was brilliant in this advisory role. Hegseth even praised him as the premier staff POC for the National Security Council. He was central in advising the Secretary of Defense on these matters. His leadership was crucial as they sought to respond to military coups with airstrikes on Houthis in Yemen. His views have sparked the debate we sorely needed on where we should be headed with U.S. defense policy.
The investigation into Caldwell’s actions gained momentum following a leaked text chain on Signal, disclosed by The Atlantic, which raised questions about sensitive communications within the Department of Defense. Things got much worse when a memo leaked. It was signed by Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, and demanded an investigation into potential leaks related to Caldwell.
In December 2024, Caldwell made headlines when he described the Iraq war as a “monstrous crime” in an interview with the Financial Times. His remarks, however, open up much larger discussions about what American military interventions do. Their use does need to raise crucial ethical questions to the center of foreign policy decisions.
As the investigation continues, Caldwell’s future in the Defense Department is uncertain. His leave comes as part of a larger movement within the Pentagon to build transparency and trust between military leadership and those they lead.