Pete Hegseth’s top aide, Ricky Buria, told people last year that he and the Defense Secretary had slipped past Hegseth’s security detail to go drinking at a local bar while disguised. The story is widely believed to be made up, likely a tactic to catch leakers inside the administration. It has since caused serious frustration among Pentagon officials over Buria’s outsized role in shaping US military policy.
Two separate sources confirmed that Buria, 44, told them in early 2025 that he and Hegseth, 45, sneaked out of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Pentagon City to visit a local bar. There is no evidence any of this actually happened. Many people close to the Trump administration believe Buria was trying a clumsy tactic to identify leakers, but ended up putting the Secretary at risk of a damaging scandal instead.
According to the New York Post, the situation is made worse by Hegseth’s public pledge, made ahead of his Senate confirmation in January, not to drink “a drop of alcohol,” promising a “fully dialed-in Pete” during times of crisis. That pledge came after past reports of alleged drunken behavior. Buria’s story directly contradicts it, which is why it caused such alarm.
Buria’s drinking story alarmed colleagues and raised serious questions about his judgment and motives
The first source who heard the story from Buria directly said he was shocked when Buria told it to him in a Pentagon office in late March or early April. He initially thought Buria was testing him to see if he would spread it, and only found out months later that Buria had been telling many others. He called the whole thing “f—ing crazy” and firmly believes it never happened, pointing to the impossibility of Hegseth evading his security detail.
A second source heard a similar account from Buria during an April flight. Buria mentioned that nearly three bottles of Macallan whisky had been consumed on the trip and then insinuated Hegseth was involved, saying, “I protect him, don’t worry.”
He claimed that “a hat and sunglasses,” or something similar, was enough to avoid being recognized, calling it “amazing” that nobody spotted them. He reportedly said he was “just there to make sure he’s protected and he doesn’t get in any sort of trouble and people don’t recognize him. But yeah, we have to sneak out.”
The second source and another official on the flight were outraged and confronted Buria directly about why he would claim to have helped Hegseth break his no-alcohol pledge. Buria’s response was that he was “just f—ing around”, but only after the conversation started to get heated. Several other sources suspect the whole thing was a leaker trap, especially since no media outlet published the claims, suggesting others also saw through it.
Buria rose quickly from a junior military aide, originally a holdover from the Biden administration, to Hegseth’s de facto chief of staff, partly through his growing friendship with both Hegseth and his wife Jennifer. One source said Buria is responsible for running the secretary’s front office and coordinating activities across the department, and that this kind of behavior “only creates distractions for the department as it tries to execute multiple no-fail military operations.”
The source added that Buria has consistently raised “the level of drama, paranoia, and infighting in the secretary’s office from day one.” Buria’s time in the role has been marked by other controversies too. He reportedly expressed interest in running as a Democrat in Florida, criticized Trump’s use of the military at the southern border, and called Vice President JD Vance a “crazy” isolationist.
He also had a heated dispute with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll over the promotion of Maj. Gen. Antoinette R. Gant, allegedly telling Driscoll that Trump “would not want to stand next to a Black woman at events.” Driscoll pushed back firmly, stating “the president is not a racist or sexist,” and escalated the matter to the White House.
Gant ultimately received the promotion. Hegseth has also been at the center of other internal shake-ups, including firing the US Army Chief of Staff in a move widely described as nearly unprecedented during wartime.
The White House had blocked Buria from formally becoming chief of staff for much of last year due to concerns about his ideological fit. But Trump eventually gave in to Hegseth, who insisted Buria was essential, and Buria was formally appointed chief of staff in December. Hegseth’s conduct at the Pentagon has drawn attention beyond personnel disputes as well.
So many alleged misdeeds have piled up under President Donald Trump’s defense secretary that employees have begun jokingly, or not so jokingly, calling the department by a terrifying new nickname: “The Secretary of War Crimes.”
“I know active-duty Marines who now refer to Pete Hegseth’s department as the Department of War Crimes,” The Daily Beast quotes Rep. Seth Moulton, who is a Marine combat veteran himself. “That’s because they do things like this, destroy civilian infrastructure, which, just to be clear, is a war crime.”
His controversial Pentagon prayer sessions have also raised eyebrows across the department. Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson dismissed the drinking story entirely, saying: “This is false, and the Department is not going to entertain Washington gossip while we are focused on major military operations abroad.”
Published: Apr 4, 2026 08:30 am