PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: Joe Biden holdover Ricky Buria has been blocked from becoming Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s permanent chief of staff by the White House, after The National Pulse exposed his past attacks on President Donald J. Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance.
👥 Who’s Involved: Ricky Buria, Pete Hegseth, Vice President J.D. Vance, President Trump, and Jennifer Hegseth.
💬 Key Quote: “There is an ideological component to this,” said a Buria critic.
⚠️ Impact: Buria’s rise has caused internal strife and raised concerns about security protocols and political alignment within the Pentagon.
IN FULL:
Pentagon aide Ricky Buria, known to some as “Rasputin Ricky,” has been blocked by the White House from becoming Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s chief of staff. The news comes after an exclusive exposé published by The National Pulse, which shed light on previously unknown background information about Buria.
On April 22, The National Pulse described how Buria, a former aide to Biden-era Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, was amassing power at the Pentagon. A donation in 2023 to Democratic candidate Mike O’Brien via the notorious ActBlue platform was noted, particularly as O’Brien also received an endorsement from VoteVets—a partisan group that alleges President Trump “hates veterans” and called for Hegseth to be fired over “Signalgate.”
Buria has disparaged President Trump and Vice President Vance on many occasions, describing the latter’s foreign policy stance as “wackamamie crazy” and “isolationist.” He also blasted President Trump’s moves to use the military to assist with immigration enforcement as “dumb.”
Buria’s recent rise had been marked by internal clashes, including his role in dismissing three top aides, including the anti-war Dan Caldwell.
“Hegseth [was] elevating a Democrat who does not share the Vice President or the President’s worldview and who weaponized his position to push out internal rivals, including people who had very strong histories of being supporters of the MAGA agenda,” one source told the New York Post.
Security concerns have also been raised, with reports of Buria flouting protocols by bringing personal devices into secure areas. His close relationship with Hegseth has drawn comparisons to the Russian mystic Rasputin, with Buria reportedly wielding significant influence over departmental decisions.
“This is without question the worst in a string of bad judgment calls recently by Secretary Hegseth,” said one source of Buria’s elevation.
Following The National Pulse’s report, the White House personnel office is understood to have assessed Buria’s credentials, ultimately refusing him the chief of staff position. It is currently unclear whether Buria will remain in the department at all.