Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is responding defiantly to post-midterm election calls for his job.
“A disgruntled, defeated congressman — along with all his Democrat allies — has also dropped sham articles of impeachment against ‘yours truly,’ just like they tried against President (Donald) Trump, twice,” said Hegseth Thursday in a recorded message on his X account.
“You see, their policies don’t work, so their obsession with political theater disguised as power drives them to try to destroy their opponents. It’s all about the politics of personal destruction.
“Didn’t work against President Trump, and it won’t work with me. You can rest assured of that.”
Rep. Thomas Massie, who lost in Kentucky’s Republican primaries last May to Trump-backed candidate Ed Gallrein, said this week that he will reintroduce articles of impeachment against Hegseth when Congress resumes next week.
Some members of Congress expect that enough Republicans will join Democrats to vote in favor of impeaching the polemical Hegseth, USA Today reported. “I think there are enough Republicans who want him gone,” said Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee.
President Donald Trump looks to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as he speaks at a roundtable event in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Washington. | Alex Brandon, Associated Press Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Friday that President Trump must decide Hegseth’s future in the Pentagon.
“But I can tell you with a high level of confidence that … there’s a lot of questions about Hegseth,” said Comer in a report in The Hill.
“We have no idea what the strategy is moving forward in Iran. No one’s happy about Iran, and I think the Republican voters are more upset about what’s going on in Iran than the Democrat voters.”
Trump said this week he has “every intention” of keeping Hegseth at the Pentagon.
Meanwhile, pushing for Hegseth’s firing is just one of Smith’s Pentagon-related objectives when next year’s Congress convenes with a Democratic majority.
Hegseth: ‘We have only just begun to fight’
The Defense secretary is choosing obstinance amid active impeachment threats. Trump’s War Department, he said at the beginning of Thursday’s five-minute video, does not fear leading the way.
“Just like the president, we don’t back down, and that especially applies now,” said Hegseth. “The next few months and years are critical for our department and our republic.
“This is about the president’s ‘America First’ agenda. This is about our department’s ‘Peace Through Strength’ agenda. And, in just two short years under the leadership of President Trump, we have restored the Department of War to its core function: warfighting.”
Gone are “failed leaders” and DEI. But Democrats and “deep state radicals,” he added, hate what’s happening in the Defense Department because it’s scrapping “sacred cows.”
“Patriots are now in control,” he said. “Being trans is a mental illness incompatible with military service. Combating climate change is not a military objective. Military bases should not be renamed in the name of understanding white rage. The faith of our founding fathers, well, that faith belongs inside our formations.”
Hegseth also called for military funding that includes a “generational investment” of at least $350 billion.
“To keep this department, our country, way ahead in a dangerous world, we need every vote from every patriotic member of Congress,” he said. “You see, they attack me, they attack us because we are effective. It’s not going to work. We will not back down. We put America and the warfighter first, always and without apology.”
The Defense secretary concluded Thursday’s message saying Trump “leads the way.”
“In the service of our nation, he has endured more than anyone can fathom,” said Hegseth. “He literally took a bullet for this nation. He shook his fist and said, ‘Fight, Fight, Fight.’ And so will we.
“And I’ll assure you, we have only just begun to fight.”
Democrat lawmaker vows ‘vigorous’ Pentagon oversight
Hegseth’s adversaries in Congress are also eager for a scrap.
In a statement released following Tuesday’s decisive midterms, Smith called on his fellow Democrats in the HASC to conduct “vigorous oversight” of the Pentagon and the Trump administration, including increased public testimony from senior DOD officials.
“The list of potential oversight topics is long, but the illegal war against Iran is top of mind for me and the American people,” wrote Smith. “So too are sweetheart deals and favoritism to certain entities and individuals.”
Also on Smith’s proposed oversight list: “unauthorized” military strikes in the Caribbean and Latin America, deploying military to U.S. cities, and the “blatant and corrosive politicization” of our Armed Forces and purging of the ranks “based on loyalty and ideology.”
Smith called for an updated national security approach that does not require a defense budget in excess of $1 trillion. “Investment in new weapon systems must take lessons learned from recent conflicts and provide relevant capabilities in a more cost-effective manner.”
The Washington lawmaker added that Congress must examine what he labeled the Trump administration’s “assault” on federal workforce and “his promotion of loyalty to political ideology over competence for key senior military and civilian positions.”