President Donald Trump has begun asking advisers whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should remain in his position following Republicans’ catastrophic losses in Tuesday’s midterm elections, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.
Hegseth — a former Fox News host turned defense chief — spent the last year pushing aggressive reforms across the military, from launching military strikes in Iran without congressional approval to purging dozens of top officers and championing controversial readiness initiatives aimed at boosting testosterone and fitness standards. But as the midterm results rolled in, his high-profile overhaul failed to shield Republicans at the ballot box. Voters rejected the administration’s military agenda, punished the GOP and handed control of Congress back to Democrats.
The fallout from the election has placed Hegseth’s political survival in immediate jeopardy as Congress prepares to return for a high-stakes lame-duck session.
While White House aides have predicted that much of the post-election blame will land on top commanders like CENTCOM chief Adm. Brad Cooper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, political pressure is mounting directly on the Pentagon chief, as reported by CBS News.
Democrats, buoyed by incoming majorities in both chambers, are renewing pushes for an impeachment vote, and key Senate Republicans are openly questioning whether Trump will keep Hegseth to unblock stalled defense spending bills.
Exit polling showed the Iran War was a massive drag on Republican support for the midterms. One exit poll found that 74 percent of voters described the war as a crucial or major issue. The Associated Press found that six in 10 voters believed the U.S. made the wrong decision in taking military action against Iran. A day after the results, even Vice President JD Vance was quick to blame the administration's attacks for the lackluster GOP showing.
“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance wrote on social media. “The president himself said so last night.”
Hegseth has led those efforts in Iran and has constantly parroted Trump lines that the U.S. had decisively won the war. However, reports have emerged that some advisers believe Hegseth has painted the war in “rosy terms” for the president.
The drag the war was for voters could lead Republicans to turn on Hegseth, but the immediate question might be coming from Congress. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, warned that Hegseth faces “a reckoning” and questioned whether the administration could pass critical defense spending while he remained atop the Department of Defense, as reported by CBS News.
Tillis told the outlet that Hegseth was directly responsible for stalled funding, saying, “Hegseth has a reckoning. He is one of the reasons why we don’t have the funding or guarantee for defense that we need.”
The funding gridlock stems from Democratic threats to block a $70 billion emergency defense funding request made by the administration in June, as well as the annual defense appropriations bill for fiscal year 2027, amid ongoing U.S. military operations in Iran.
Tillis, who provided a key vote to confirm Hegseth in January 2025, recently called that vote the biggest regret of his career. Last month, he publicly urged Trump to dismiss the defense secretary, writing on X: “I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country. He is intimidated by competence and retreats to ginning up culture wars instead of soberly attending to the vital work of our national defense and the health and well-being of our fighting force.”
Tillis also told CBS News, “I think after the election, we need to determine whether or not he’s the best person to bring those needs to Congress.”
He noted that lawmakers had only 60 days to act before the current session ended.
Other lawmakers have similarly indicated that Hegseth’s departure could clear the path for legislative compromises. Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told The Hill in September that a change in leadership at the Pentagon would help Republicans and Democrats reach bipartisan agreements on national defense spending.
Hegseth also faces an imminent vote on articles of impeachment introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who lost his primary, turned against Trump and is now serving out his final weeks in office. Massie introduced eight impeachment accusations on September 15 and plans to force a House floor vote as early as next week.
Massie’s resolution accuses Hegseth of conducting military actions against Iran without congressional authorization, seizing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro without constitutional authority and ordering the killings of suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean without judicial process.
“Secretary Hegseth’s constitutional violations extend beyond the illegal war in Iran,” Massie said. “He is abusing the power of his office to ignore congressional war powers resolutions, to kidnap foreign leaders and to intimidate critics of the Trump administration by retaliating against them for exercising free speech.”
Though the House Republican majority could move to table the resolution, Massie told The Washington Post in an interview: “There’s a decent chance that it could pass the House, and I think that would be a stain on his record. If he’s contemplating leaving, this would be a good time to do it.”
Hegseth is not alone. Impeachment resolutions have been introduced by House Democrats against Trump, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Education Secretary Linda McMahon. While such measures gained no traction under a Republican-led House, they show the oversight direction Democrats intend to take when they assume control of both chambers in January.
Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told The Washington Post that under his leadership, the panel would probe military operations, the politicization of the armed forces and potential corruption in defense contracts.
Pentagon officials say that Hegseth has no plans to step down. Spokesman Sean Parnell told The Washington Post in a statement that, “despite threats of sham witch hunts,” the secretary is “100% committed” to serving “until the end” of Trump’s term and advancing his agenda, adding that the department under Hegseth “has followed the law” and that he “will not back down or be deterred by politicians seeking to score partisan points or launch phony investigations where no wrongdoing exists.”
Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson similarly defended the secretary in a statement to USA Today, calling Hegseth a “transformative leader” who has restored military standards.
“The entire Department is unified behind the Secretary’s vision and will continue working to put our warfighters and America first,” Wilson said, having previously dismissed Democratic impeachment proposals as “another charade in an attempt to distract the American people from the major successes we have had here at the Department of War.”
Trump has publicly defended his defense chief and dismissed critics.
