Trump triumphs. The House of Representatives voted to impeach Hegseth

211 congressmen voted in favor of referring the proposal to the committee for further work, and 204 voted against. Among the Republicans, only the author of the articles of impeachment, outgoing congressman Thomas Massie, voted against.

If the request to refer the matter to the commission was rejected, a vote on formally charging the head of the Pentagon would take place on Wednesday. The result means that impeachment will most likely not take place before the start of the new term of Congress on January 3.

US President Donald Trump expressed his satisfaction with the result immediately after the vote.

“Democrats' attempt to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has failed miserably!” - he wrote. He assessed that the failure of the initiative was due to "victories in Venezuela and Iran, record recruitment results in military history (long waiting lists!)."

The US president also called to "stop" the Democrats, who will take control of both houses of Congress in January and announced a number of investigations, including those concerning the head of the Pentagon. Hakeem Jeffries, the likely future Speaker of the House, strongly supported Hegseth's impeachment. In the current term, a separate motion to impeach the minister was submitted by congresswoman Yassamin Ansari, but so far she has not used the procedure that would force a vote on this matter.

Although a simple majority in the House of Representatives is enough to impeach a minister, a 2/3, or 67, vote is required to convict and remove him from office in the subsequent trial in the Senate. In the next Congress, Democrats will probably have 56 seats.

The motion to impeach the Minister of Defense again, submitted on Monday by Thomas Massie, contained eight charges, four of which concerned the war with Iran (waging war against Congress and violating regulations protecting civilians).

Further allegations concern illegal - according to Massie - strikes in Yemen, a campaign of assassinations of drug smuggling suspects on the open sea, the capture of the Venezuelan leader and the intimidation of veterans who criticized him, including Democratic senator Mark Kelly.

The result of Tuesday's vote was a bit of a surprise, because some Republican politicians criticized Hegseth and suggested the possibility of supporting charges against him. However, some critics, such as outgoing congressman Don Bacon, explained that they disagreed with some of the allegations.