Top Hegseth aide Ron Moeller resigns to 'recharge' and 'chop lots of firewood'
Key Takeaways
- •Ron Moeller resigned as deputy assistant secretary for strategic readiness, and his departure will take effect in two weeks.
- •Moeller said he is leaving to return to the Black Hills and spend more time with his family.
- •He said he does not intend to leave in protest of the Trump administration.
- •His exit adds to recent turnover in Pete Hegseth’s office, where two senior aides were placed on administrative leave in April amid leak investigations.
- •The resignation comes as the Pentagon faces broader scrutiny over Hegseth’s communication of military plans in a second Signal chat that included his wife and brother.
One of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's most prominent aides announced his resignation on Monday, citing no reason other than a desire to retire quietly in the Great Plains with his family.
"Today I submitted my formal resignation as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Strategic Readiness," Ron Moeller wrote on X. "When I took on this task for @POTUS, @SecWar, & @USW_PR_HONTata, I promised a year; another year away from my wife whom I miss dearly. The resignation takes effect in 2 weeks."
"I intend to go back to the Black Hills, recharge, chop lots of firewood for the winter, and ignore any and all journalists trying to get me to talk about my time in this historic and consequential administration," he continued.
He added that anyone expecting him to go out in a blaze of glory in protest of the Trump administration — as controversial former counterterrorism director Joe Kent did — will be "disappointed." Kent, a former Army Special Forces officer who served as Trump's White House counterterrorism chief, was escorted off White House grounds in May 2025 after a clash with far-right activist Laura Loomer and has since become one of the administration's most vocal internal critics.
Moeller's exit also fits a pattern of unusually public churn inside Hegseth's own shop. In April 2025, the Pentagon placed two of Hegseth's senior aides, Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick, on administrative leave amid leak investigations, and days later it emerged that the secretary had discussed military plans in a second Signal chat that included his wife and brother. With Moeller's resignation effective in two weeks, Hegseth will have another senior slot to fill at the Pentagon.
More broadly, Moeller's departure comes as many initial members of Trump's administration have begun to trickle out for various reasons. While many offer no contentious explanation for leaving, in some cases the exit amounted to a firing in all but name.
One of the most prominent such cases was former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was unceremoniously pushed out into a lesser role after Trump was reportedly enraged by her passing the buck on a huge taxpayer-funded ad campaign that displayed her prominently.
