When a senior Cabinet official releases a video message vowing to fight for his job, you know he’s about to lose his job. For Pete Hegseth, it may be a matter of days.
House Republican leaders are bracing for enough GOP defections to impeach Hegseth when the measure comes to a vote this week. Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie says he’ll force a vote to impeach Hegseth unless Hegseth resigns first. Massie plans to introduce an impeachment resolution as early as today. Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Sunday he’d support the resolution.
In his video — which Hegseth recorded last Thursday, two days after America repudiated Trump (for which even JD Vance blamed on the war in Iran) — Hegseth insists that “We are more determined than ever — more resolute than ever — to finish what we have started.”
Maybe not. Trump’s new Acting President (a.k.a. Chief of Staff) Stephen Miller knows Hegseth would be a convenient fall guy for the war. Fire Hegseth, and Trump can claim a clean slate on which to draw up a plan for exiting the Iran quagmire — perhaps with one last intense bombing campaign followed by a faux-triumphant “our job is done” message.
Multiple senior military leaders — those still left, that is — have warned that the United States can’t extend military operations in Iran. The war has strained service members and their families and created a maintenance backlog that could take years to unwind, according to The Wall Street Journal. Even the chief of naval operations, Admiral Daryl Caudle said the Navy cannot “sustain its current level of support for the Iran conflict.”
Hegseth’s response? He castigated the media for revealing classified information.
Hegseth’s tenure has been disastrous from the moment he first walked into the Pentagon. Even if Trump were capable of hearing sound advice, Hegseth hasn’t come close to giving it to him. Instead, he’s been pursuing grievances about DEI and denigrating or firing women and Black officers. A defense official told CNN that Hegseth is focused on “muscles, dudes in dresses, testosterone.”
John Ullyot, who resigned as Pentagon spokesman, said Hegseth has brought “total chaos” to the Pentagon.
I’ve known many other defense secretaries, starting with Cap Weinberger, who served under Reagan. I can say without fear of contradiction that Pete Hegseth is the stupidest and least qualified of them all. His incompetence and determination to suck up to Trump helped launch the war against Iran in the first place. Since then, Hegseth has lied his way through more than eight months of Pentagon and Iran war mayhem.
Hegseth evidently believes that his job is to cheerlead and defend Trump with bragadocious lies like “We didn’t start this war, but under President Trump we’re finishing it” and “America is winning decisively, devastatingly, and without mercy” and “We will show no quarter for our enemies.” (“No quarter” means kill everyone and take no prisoners, which is a war crime.)
If Acting President Stephen Miller won’t fire him, Hegseth’s undoing may happen as soon as this week anyway. If by some miracle Hegseth keeps his job until January, Democrats should promptly impeach him when they take over the House and Senate.
Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.