Senior Pentagon Official Placed On Leave After Saying He Would ‘Undo’ Trump Policies

A senior official in the Office of the Secretary of the Navy has been placed on administrative leave after James O’Keefe released a video showing him criticizing President Donald Trump and stating his intention to reverse administration policies once the opportunity arose.

The footage, recorded with a hidden camera, captures Brandon Newsom speaking during what O’Keefe described as a “gay” date. In the video, Newsom said he wanted to “stay and stick it out” at the Pentagon “so that way, when the time comes, I can undo whatever’s been done.” He referenced “a lot of times” when working at the Pentagon “challenges my morals,” specifically mentioning that he would not have “one specific prayer service” and would undo an employee “schedule policy.”

Newsom also called Trump “a textbook narcissist” and described the Iran war as “completely stupid” and “driven by one man’s ego.” O’Keefe’s accompanying post included additional lines from the conversation: “I’ve seen some things. In true D.C. nature, you don’t always reveal everything in D.C.” and “I have the influence … I can undo whatever’s been done.” Newsom further remarked, “I mean, you could be a news reporter.”

Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao responded the same day. “The Department of the Navy takes the conduct shown in this video extremely seriously,” Cao wrote. “Such statements and apparent intent to leverage a position to undermine the policies and direction set by our elected leaders are inappropriate and incompatible with the standards expected of Department personnel. Effective immediately, this individual has been placed on administrative leave while we determine next steps to ensure accountability and protect the integrity of our mission.”

The Daily Wire asked O’Keefe for comment on the implications of the footage and whether or not resistance inside the Pentagon would create real risk to the coherence of U.S. strategy and any potential deals with Iran and its proxies.

O’Keefe’s reply was simple: “Any official who spills internal government secrets or shows dissent toward the current administration they work for can possibly cause problems for the government entity they work for. It’s not a good idea to spill information to a stranger 15 minutes into the first date who so happens to be James O’Keefe.”

O’Keefe said Newsom did not directly connect his plans to reverse Pentagon policies with the Iran campaign. Instead, he said, Newsom “just gave his opinion on the war and called the war ‘stupid’ and blamed Trump for being a ‘narcissist.’”

As to the deeper question — what it reveals when a senior official says on camera that he intends to undo the administration’s work and whether officials like this pose a bigger threat to national security — O’Keefe answered: “Yes, officials like Brandon Newsom can pose a threat to national security. Based on one date with myself, James O’Keefe, Newsom spilled a lot of information. Newsom was lucky it wasn’t an Iranian spy he was watching the World Cup with. Can you imagine if Newsom went on three dates with a gay Iranian spy?”

O’Keefe also argued that the footage reflects a broader pattern he has seen in previous national security investigations.

“The deep state is real, per one of our other subjects, Byron Cohen, who worked in the early days of the Trump White House,” O’Keefe said. “America is at war with Iran, and the officials inside the Pentagon need to be very careful because our Newsom piece shows a glimpse of how careless these officials can be. Again, Newsom was lucky he wasn’t talking to an Iranian spy or a Chinese spy.”

Newsom’s suspension comes against a backdrop of personnel changes at the Pentagon since Trump’s return to the White House and the start of the Iran war in late February. Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was fired in August 2025 after his agency produced an initial assessment finding that U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities were less effective than Trump had claimed. In April, three Pentagon officials — Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; Darin Selnick, the Pentagon’s deputy chief of staff; and Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg — were put on administrative leave pursuant to leak investigations.

In a joint statement, they wrote they were “incredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended” and that “unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door.” They said they were never told what the leak investigations were about.

Before those cases, the Department of Defense fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top admiral in the Navy, the head of U.S. Cyber Command, and the top U.S. military lawyers. These moves have been framed as part of a wider reshuffle under Hegseth, who has sought to refocus the department on warfighting.

Hegseth has also introduced monthly voluntary Christian worship services at the Pentagon, all of them presided over by evangelicals. Newsom referred to these in the video as the “prayer service” he would eliminate.

Newsom remains on administrative leave while the Department of the Navy determines its next steps.