{"id":184508,"date":"2026-04-03T14:45:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/184508\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T14:45:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:45:31","slug":"pete-hegseths-top-aide-is-spreading-rumors-for-1-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/184508\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Hegseth’s top aide is spreading rumors for 1 reason"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Secretary of War Pete Hegseth\u2019s top aide Ricky Buria<\/a> told colleagues last year that he and his boss donned disguises and went out drinking together \u2014 a juicy bit of gossip that\u2019s widely believed to be a lie and recklessly planted to sniff out leakers, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n

Two sources said that Buria, 44, told them separately in early 2025 that he and Hegseth, 45, slipped past the secretary\u2019s security detail while he was staying at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Pentagon City.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no proof that the great escape actually happened, but the tale has reverberated within the administration and stoked continued frustration with Buria\u2019s powerful role leading US military policy.<\/p>\n

Many people close to or inside the Trump administration say they believe Buria, a Biden administration holdover who formed a fast friendship with Hegseth, was ham-handedly attempting to catch leakers<\/a> \u2014 but put the secretary at risk of scandal in the meantime.<\/p>\n

Ricky Buria and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth attend a White House Rose Garden event in April 2024. The Washington Post via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Both sources who heard the story directly from Buria question the Pentagon chief of staff\u2019s judgment and motives for spreading such a potentially destructive story, which they said was told often enough that busting a media source would be difficult.<\/p>\n

Hegseth had publicly vowed ahead of his January Senate confirmation not to drink \u201ca drop of alcohol\u201d to guarantee the nation would have \u201cfully dialed-in Pete\u201d in times of crisis, following reports alleging drunken misbehavior<\/a> in the recent past.<\/p>\n

The Post\u2019s first source said he was shocked when Buria told him the tale inside a Pentagon office in late March or April.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first impression of it was he was trying to figure out if I was going to tell other people. But then I come to find out a couple months later that he was running around telling people,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

Buria, left, told colleagues last year that he and Hegseth donned disguises to go out drinking. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a weird way of him bragging. It was clearly part of this whole bizarre effort to make it seem like he was Pete\u2019s best friend and confidant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to [a different Pentagon official] and I said, \u2018This is f\u2013king crazy. Ricky is telling people he put on disguises and went out drinking with the secretary,\u2019\u201d the first source recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The other official] said, \u2018Yeah he was telling a lot of people this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The source did not recall Buria, who rose swiftly from his initial role as a junior military aide to Hegseth\u2019s right-hand man, specifying the disguise worn or the bar the men purportedly visited. The other official with whom the source recalled conversing would not make himself available for an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis did not happen. But nonetheless, he told people it happened,\u201d the first source said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t happen because the secretary has a security detail. He told this story as a way to try and make it seem like he was really close to Hegseth and possibly had leverage over him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several additional sources familiar with Buria, including one aware of the tale, suspect that he was attempting to trap leakers after persistently stirring drama within the department \u2014 though, notably, no outlet has been naive enough to publish the wild claims.<\/p>\n

Buria is a Biden administration holdover who has stoked intense infighting among Trump administration officials. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sergeant Samuel Ruiz<\/p>\n

The second Trump administration, in particular the White House, has been more disciplined about discouraging leaks<\/a> and punishing those responsible, though allegations of gabbing without authorization are often incredibly difficult to prove due to the widespread use of encrypted apps.<\/p>\n

Buria\u2019s rise coincided with his deepening friendship with both Hegseth and his wife, Jennifer, as many of the defense secretary\u2019s longtime associates were forced out of their roles for alleged leaks<\/a>, for which many were later exonerated.<\/p>\n

\u201cRicky occupies one of the most important positions in the Department of War. He is responsible not just for helping run the secretary\u2019s front office but for driving coordination of critical activities across the department and the rest of the administration,\u201d the first source said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBehavior like this only creates distractions for the department as it tries to execute multiple no-fail military operations. From day one, both as a military aide and then as a chief of staff, Ricky has consistently heightened the level of drama, paranoia and infighting in the secretary\u2019s office.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the first source believes Buria lied in a manipulative ploy to inflate his standing, a second source said he initially took the drinking story at face value.<\/p>\n

The topic emerged during an April flight when Buria revealed nearly three bottles of Macallan whisky had been consumed on the trip, without saying by whom.<\/p>\n

Hegseth and Buria purportedly slipped out of the Ritz-Carlton in Pentagon City, two sources said. 5.20.97<\/p>\n

\u201cRicky then proceeds to say, \u2018I protect him, don\u2019t worry\u2019,\u201d insinuating Hegseth partook, before launching into his account of the purported Ritz-Carlton caper.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe made a mention that when [Hegseth] was staying at the Ritz before [his DC] house was ready but then also once in Tennessee that \u2018a hat and sunglasses,\u2019 or something to that effect, basically is all you need to be able to sneak out and that it was kind of amazing that nobody recognized them,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Buria] said, \u2018Yeah, hey look, I\u2019m just there to make sure he\u2019s protected and he doesn\u2019t get in any sort of trouble and people don\u2019t recognize him. But yeah, we have to sneak out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The second source said that he and another official who heard the story aboard the plane were outraged and lashed out at Buria, questioning why he would claim to abet a violation of Hegseth\u2019s no-alcohol pledge.<\/p>\n

Buria\u2019s promotion from junior military aide to chief of staff was blocked by the White House for much of last year. Madelyn Keech\/Handout via REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cRicky\u2019s immediate response there was he was just f\u2013king around. It was only because the temperature was turning up,\u201d this source said.<\/p>\n

The other man said to be party to that conversation denied remembering the episode through an intermediary contacted by The Post and did not directly respond to requests for an interview.<\/p>\n

Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson told The Post: \u201cThis is false, and the Department is not going to entertain Washington gossip while we are focused on major military operations abroad.\u201d <\/p>\n

Buria is a rare Biden administration holdover who openly dreamed of a political future as a Democrat in Florida before making a rare and rapid leap from his uniformed role to acting as Hegseth\u2019s de facto chief of staff last year.<\/p>\n

Fellow Pentagon aides heard Buria disparage President Trump\u2019s use of the military along the southern border and said he called Vice President JD Vance a \u201ccrazy\u201d isolationist, The Post reported last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The New York Times reported last week <\/a>that Buria last summer had a \u201cheated exchange\u201d with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, a friend and former law school classmate of Vance\u2019s, over Driscoll\u2019s selection of Maj. Gen. Antoinette R. Gant for a promotion to command of the Military District of Washington.<\/p>\n

Buria told Driscoll that Trump would not want to stand next to a black woman at events, the Times reported, drawing an outraged response from the Army chief, who told Buria \u201cthe president is not a racist or sexist.\u201d Driscoll elevated the dispute to the White House, and Gant got the promotion.<\/p>\n

The White House last year blocked Buria from officially becoming Hegseth\u2019s chief of staff due to concerns about his ideological alignment with the administration. Trump ultimately relented to Hegseth, who insisted Buria was essential, and allowed his formal elevation as chief of staff in December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Secretary of War Pete Hegseth\u2019s top aide Ricky Buria told colleagues last year that he and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[29101,9,11,10,1351,87,30305,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-184508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-department-of-defense","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-pete-hegseth","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-the-pentagon","15":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}