Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and his “patriotic cowboys” at the Pentagon used to warn America’s adversaries fuck around and find out. After Tuesday’s election, it looks like Hegseth is the one who is going to find out.
Sources on Capitol Hill and
in military circles think Hegseth’s time at the Pentagon is coming to an end with Rep. Thomas Massie, a lame duck Kentucky Republican, planning to introduce articles of impeachment this week. But defense officials are cautioning that the embattled defense secretary has survived numerous missteps.
In response to calls for his impeachment and firing, Hegseth launched a coordinated PR campaign with a short video and photos across Pentagon social media channels of Hegseth with “STAND. FIGHT. DEFEND THE REPUBLIC.” tagline. Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell says Hegseth won’t be deterred from executing President Trump’s agenda in the face of “sham witch hunts” and “phony investigations.” Parnell says Hegseth is committed to leading the Defense Department until the end of Trump’s term.
So far, Trump is supporting Hegseth, telling reporters the secretary is doing a good job, but reports before the election said the president asked advisers whether Hegseth should stay.
“It looks like his days are very seriously numbered,” James R. Webb, a Marine Iraq combat veteran who worked as a military legislative assistant for Sen. Rand Paul, tells me. “If they keep him, he’s probably going to be the first guy impeached by the new Congress.”
The threat of impeachment had been building before the election and could grow now that Democrats hold strong majorities in both chambers. In September, Massie introduced articles of impeachment that accuse Hegseth of violating the War Powers Resolution, ignoring laws meant to minimize civilian casualties, and carrying out extrajudicial killings in the boat-strike campaign against suspected drug traffickers, which left at least 221 dead. Massie told CNN last week the only thing that would prevent him from introducing articles of impeachment when Congress reconvenes is Hegseth’s resignation.
One rumored soft landing for Hegseth was Marsha Blackburn’s Senate seat, now vacant after her victory in the Tennessee governor race. But that was shot down when Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News reported Hegseth wasn’t being considered, which didn’t surprise Webb.
“He has basically burned every bridge possible with people on the Hill,” Webb says. “They don’t like him.”
With no apparent chance at Tennessee’s vacant Senate seat, Hegseth appears ready to fight, comparing himself to Trump in the almost-six-minute video Thursday.
“It’s all about the politics of personal destruction,” Hegseth says about Massie’s articles of impeachment. “Didn’t work against President Trump, and it won’t work with me.”
A former senior defense official who worked with Hegseth calls the video — which featured tough talk, culture war tropes, and a defense of the war in Iran — “bonkers” after Tuesday’s resounding defeat of MAGA, but said it likely resonated with only Trump, which is all that matters.
“He is sending the signal that he’s a tough guy and going to keep fighting,” the former senior defense official says, joking that it sounds like Hegseth used AI to write the speech. “Hey ChatGPT, what are the things that I can say that are most related to the history of MAGA,” the former senior defense official jokes.
But the move is straight from the Roy Cohn playbook. The lawyer who sat at Joe McCarthy’s elbow during the Red Scare and later taught a young Trump how to fight. Admit nothing. Deny everything. Never apologize. And no matter what, claim victory.
It isn’t surprising that the video is tone deaf. Hegseth’s echo chamber of online trolls and yes-men insulates him from the professional officer class that nicknamed him “No Tab Pete” after he failed to earn his Ranger qualification as an infantry officer. One former senior officer tells me Hegseth would never rate high enough to serve in the military’s most elite formations, despite his fascination with special operations.
As the swirl around Hegseth increases, sources say there’s a sense of anticipation. “Folks across the force are listening and waiting,” a senior officer tells me.
While there is optimism that Hegseth might finally be gone, some of my sources — current and former officers and defense officials — didn’t want to get their hopes up after two years of hearing about his pending removal.
“He has an audience or one, and the president stands behind him,” the former senior defense official says. “If you were asking me to put $100 bucks on it, I’d say he’s staying.”
But if Hegseth leaves, some will celebrate because being forced to follow a Fox News weekend host into war strained even the most professional soldiers. Hegseth’s two years at the Pentagon divided the ranks. At first, savvy generals and leaders — particularly in the Army — used the political cover to enact real reforms around procurement and preparing the force for a modern battlefield. But when Hegseth set his sights on them, the very embodiment of the warrior ethos Hegseth worships — generals like Christopher Donahue, who served with America’s most elite units and led the transformation of the Army based on lessons learned in Ukraine — were chopped, seemingly for political reasons. The senior officer says well-qualified officers — both male and female — are taking their names off promotion lists because they don’t want to work closely with the current leadership.
“Those removed were warfighters,” the senior officer says. “More officers than I can count said that it is so much harder to be good at our jobs [under Hegseth].”
The senior officer hopes the next defense secretary will bring more professionalism to the Pentagon, with less emphasis on clicks and likes on social media. Most of the people I talked with laughed when Ron DeSantis’ name was floated as a replacement last week. Many expect the former Florida governor to run for the White House in 2028, and tying his reputation to a lame-duck Trump administration would be political suicide.
Most senior leaders tied to this administration watched their political futures disintegrate on Tuesday. Leaving Hegseth to rant from the Pentagon steps as the reckoning comes. Or as Retired Maj. Richard Ojeda, the newly elected democratic congressman from North Carolina representing Fort Bragg, put it on X: “Tick tock, No Tab Pete.”
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