The recent shakeup at the Pentagon highlights "simmering tensions and factional infighting."

This is according to a report from Fox News.

"Days of highly publicized departures at the Pentagon appear to have come from weeks – if not months – of simmering tensions and factional infighting, Fox News Digital can reveal," the outlet writes.

In case you missed it, we'll begin by getting you up to speed.

Background

Business Insider correctly points out that it has been a "turbulent" week at the Pentagon.

Per the outlet:

It's been a turbulent week for personnel shake-ups at the Pentagon, and it's only Thursday. Three officials are on leave pending investigations into leaked information, and a fourth elected to resign because he didn't want to be anyone's number two. On top of that, almost an entire team of 14 staffers is resigning en masse after being sidelined by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

The outlet goes on to explain that "the leaks included information related to military plans for the Panama Canal, the Red Sea, and a trip by Elon Musk to the Pentagon to discuss China and US-provided intelligence for Ukraine."

At the time of this writing, some of the above individuals have been fired.

The Trump administration, for the most part, has stayed quiet about the situation. The Pentagon, of course, is currently led by Pete Hegseth.

"Simmering tensions and factional infighting"

According to Fox's report, this is all symptomatic of a bigger problem, namely, a significant disagreement among Pentagon personnel.

Apparently, Chief of Staff Joe Kasper and some of the individuals who were fired did not see eye-to-eye, to put it mildly.

Fox reports:

But the trio were united, according to one defense official with knowledge of the situation, in the fact that Kasper had a "deep vendetta" against them. Kasper issued a memo in late March directing the Pentagon to investigate unauthorized disclosures to reporters and to go so far as using lie detector tests if necessary. The three had raised concerns to Hegseth about Kasper’s leadership, and Kasper believed they were trying to get him fired, according to the official.

One of the big questions here is whether the three individuals were really involved in the leaking of confidential information. At the moment, it appears that there is at least some truth to this, but the full extent remains unclear.

We'll have to see how this situation plays out in the coming days.