Pentagon Business Chief on Leave After Confessing He Is Undermining Trump, Hegseth

The head of business operations at the Pentagon was suspended Wednesday after undercover video showed him saying he “can undo” whatever Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has done at the Pentagon.

Yet Brandon Newsom also told James O’Keefe of O’Keefe Media Group that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was charged with curtailing waste, fraud and abuse, and canceling wasteful government contracts, was mostly attacking data contracts, then handing them over to Palantir, the artificial-intelligence software company.

Despite his moral misgivings about working for the administration, Newsom said he would stay at his job. Then, after the Trump administration ends, he will set about undoing what Trump has done.

The Video

While O’Keefe’s undercover stings typically involve a woman reporter who sets a honey trap for a lonely but powerful government employee or contractor, this time O’Keefe himself was the bait during a “gay date.”

Disguised only in a “gay Freddie Mercury moustache,” O’Keefe easily enticed Newsom into digging his own grave.

Newsom said Pentagon bureaucrats are purposely undermining Trump initiatives.

“I mean, there’s a lot of things that they tried to do at the very beginning they’ve still not rolled out,” he said:

Because you have certain folks in certain positions who can slow-roll things.

Newsom wants Christian prayer services canceled.

But he also said he would continue working in the Pentagon despite moral qualms about doing so. The reason: To undo what Trump does or has done.

“The way I look at it is if I’m not there, they’ll just put in someone who does believe their way,” he said:

And so when the election changes, who do I want to be there? Do I want a person who’s going to continue to promote their beliefs? Or do I want to stay and stick it out so that way when the time comes, I can undo whatever’s been done. Because … I’d rather be in a position so that I can do what’s right.

Newsom also confessed that he has no legal authority to do what he described right now.

“I don’t have a legal leg to stand on at the moment,” he said:

So, if I don’t do what’s being told, I’ll get fired. I’ll just get replaced.

“I have the influence” to undermine the administration, he told O’Keefe.

Palantir Getting Rich

Describing DOGE’s termination of contracts, Newsom said “most” of them “were data-related and then they awarded Palantir a major data contract.”

O’Keefe confirmed what Newsom claimed: “Palantir did recently acquire the largest overhaul of data-related contracts in the history of U.S. Army on July 31st, 2025, with 75 contracts worth $10 billion.… And just four months prior, Pete Hegseth and DOGE did cut $580 million worth of contracts from the Pentagon, claiming they were not aligned with the Trump administration’s priorities.”

As for the war in Iran, Newsom said “it’s completely stupid. It’s driven off of one man’s ego.”

He called Trump “a textbook narcissist,” which he concluded after a deep drive into the subject because of one of his “exes.”

It wasn’t long after O’Keefe posted the video that Navy Secretary Hung Cao reacted. Newsom is now on administrative leave.

“The Department of the Navy takes the conduct shown in this video extremely seriously,” Cao wrote on X:

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.

Consultant Fired

Newsom isn’t the first hate-Trump torpedo at the Pentagon who landed in hot water for conspiring against the president. Another is Jason Mannina.

A Booz Allen Hamilton consultant, he too talked his way out of a job on a date, that one with a young woman.

Mannina told the reporter that he was “embedded in the Pentagon” and worked “in the joint staff.”

Trump is a “sociopathic narcissist who is only interested in advancing his name, his wealth, and his fame,” he said.

When the reporter asked whether Mannina could do anything to protect Americans from Trump, Mannina was ready with an answer:

I’m in conversation with a couple of retired generals to try to explore what we can do.

Asked to name the generals and admirals, Mannina said they were “one-, two-, and three-star generals and admirals, you probably know [them], maybe four stars.”

Whether these flag officers exist isn’t clear. If they do, the question is what their cooperation with Mannina would mean legally.

Mannina told the reporter he and the nation’s top military brass would meet the next day in “The Tank,” a secure room in the Pentagon. 

After Mannina lost his Pentagon gig, he fumed that O’Keefe is “known liar” and a “known fraudster.”