The White House is blocking the permanent appointment of Ricky Buria as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s chief of staff because of his criticisms of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

Buria is a Biden administration holdover who retired as a colonel in the Marine Corps to become a senior adviser to Hegseth. He became Hegseth’s de facto chief of staff after Joe Kasper stepped down last month and was reassigned to another position in the Pentagon.

Kasper’s departure came after a tumultuous week for Hegseth as multiple high-level personnel were fired amid ongoing leak investigations. Senior adviser to Secretary of Defense Dan Caldwell, the Pentagon’s deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll, the chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg were dismissed — with Buria’s encouragement, the New York Post reported Friday — even though they denied any role in the leaks.

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