Republican Senators Losing Faith in Hegseth as Iran War Stretches On

Republicans are beginning to question the leadership of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as the Trump administration fails to achieve any of its stated goals in the growing war with Iran.

“I don’t have any confidence in him anymore. I think he’s all over the place—he’s accelerating the retirement or forcing out some of the most distinguished leaders in the DOD that we have,” frequent Trump administration critic and outgoing Senator Thom Tillis told The Hill. “I think he’s got a massive insecurity complex, he has a lack of experience in large organizations, he micromanages too much. He’s lost my confidence.”

Others spoke anonymously.

“I have heard out of the Pentagon that there’s a loss of confidence ... within the Pentagon. And of course then everyone here on the Hill hears those same concerns,” one Republican senator told The Hill.

“I think there’s a sense it’s taken longer than what we thought and that maybe our strategy didn’t factor in the Strait of Hormuz or [Iran’s] ability to be willing to hit their neighbors. I think there was some miscalculations maybe,” said another.

Others opined about the cost of the war, especially after Hegseth asked for $1.5 trillion for the DOD at a recent congressional hearing.

The entirety of Hegseth’s short tenure has been shrouded in internal strife and controversy. From his purging of top military leadership (which plenty of Republicans are still sour about), to his alcoholism, to his war on woke, the defense secretary has brought a frantic, aggressive approach to the Pentagon. This war will be a massive stain on any legacy that he has, and even Republicans seem to be realizing it.

President Donald Trump’s crusade to pass the SAVE Act just took a weird turn.

Trump took to Truth Social Monday to direct Senate Majority Leader John Thune to keep the chamber in session in order to pass a “full and deep throated SAVE AMERICA ACT.”

Sorry, a full and what now?

In his attempt to use an emphasized version of the term “full-throated,” Trump veered into an unintentional sexual innuendo (or possible Watergate reference).

What clearer indication is there that we live in a postliterate world than that the president of the United States doesn’t feel the need to be careful with his words?

Trump has repeatedly directed Republicans to pass the SAVE Act, but Thune has insisted that he doesn’t have the votes to pass the president’s signature voter suppression bill.

If passed, the SAVE Act would require people to present proof of citizenship to register to vote, as well as specific types of photo ID when voting, which could create barriers for married women, Native Americans, and anyone who has changed their name. It would also severely restrict mail-in voting and require states to submit their voter rolls to a federal database riddled with errors.

Thune is currently attempting to pass his third budget reconciliation bill that would contain $10 billion for election-related reforms, but Republicans remain divided.

The Trump administration is trying to get medical records from emergency room visits through the Consumer Product Safety Commission, or CPSC.

KFF Health News reports that the small federal agency responsible for protecting Americans from faulty household appliances is now demanding that hospitals turn over personally identifiable medical records. Earlier this year, the CPSC started pressuring hospital executives to share the data with a private contractor, ostensibly to overhaul its system for tracking consumer-product-related injuries at hospitals.

The CPSC is seeking records on everything from broken bones to vaccine reactions, and even suicide attempts. In emails to hospital executives, a CPSC official asked that the hospitals provide personally identifiable information from patients, including names, addresses, and diagnoses, to contractor Konza Health. In turn, Konza Health told health executives that providing this information was “mandatory” or “required.”

The CPSC wants at least 100 hospitals to provide this information by the end of 2026, according to an agency memo. But hospital attorneys and health industry experts are concerned about the agency’s legal authority to collect medical records, its ability to keep such records safe, and whether it is following the laws in making such sweeping changes.

“The whole thing is troubling,” Sharona Hoffman, a professor of health law at Case Western Reserve University, told KFF Health News, saying that patient privacy will be at risk. “If this company really is collecting identifiable information, that is worrisome for patients.”

The requests could also violate federal privacy law, as well as laws preventing federal authorities from mandating the reporting of private health data. The CPSC’s operating manual previously instructed hospitals not to include patients’ private information, such as “names, birthdates, or addresses” in case reports.

Last year, President Trump fired the CPSC’s three Democratic board members, and the Supreme Court let the firings stand after they were challenged in court. KFF Health News also found that 63 career staffers left the agency in 2025, the most for any year in a decade. The administration has sought private health information to help its mass deportation agenda, its anti-vaccination agenda, and its assault on federal workers. What dark plans does it have this time?

The Pentagon has once again changed the Iran war casualty number, adding 142 new wounded soldiers to its count over the weekend—bringing the total to 624 wounded service members and 18 deaths.

The way the Pentagon is reporting the numbers is tricky, splitting the casualty tolls into two separate pages. One page on “Operation Epic Fury” has a casualty count starting on February 28, and another page, titled “Overseas Operations,” begins the count on July 7, when the short-lived ceasefire fell apart and bombings ramped back up. The move raises concerns that the Pentagon is willfully obscuring the numbers to make its failure of a forever war look better on paper.

The Pentagon faced backlash last week after it reduced its casualty totals from 482 wounded and 18 dead. And while Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez told media the reduction was due to “temporary data disruptions,” the Trump administration has refused to include four soldiers killed in recent days in the page on Operation Epic Fury’s death toll.

The Pentagon has been credibly accused of downplaying the severity and number of casualties in the war on Iran. In March, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth referred to an Iranian strike on a U.S. makeshift operations center in Kuwait as “a squirter,” and later whined that coverage of dead troops was only intended to “make the president look bad.” Six soldiers were killed in that strike, with over 30 hospitalized for burns, shrapnel wounds, and brain trauma. And last month, the Pentagon classified soldiers who suffered severe brain injuries in that attack as having “minor” injuries, causing their families to speak out against that decision.

This lack of transparency from the Pentagon is strategic, and ultimately foolish. This war is only dragging on as it grows increasingly unpopular. That will undoubtedly lead to more wounded soldiers and more body bags. Those are impossible to hide.

Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, blamed the Biden administration Sunday for depleting the country’s weapons stockpile—but then denied reporting that the country’s weapons stockpile was depleted.

Appearing on NBC News’s Meet the Press, Waltz was asked to respond to a report that the Pentagon had started rationing certain defense weapons in its campaign against Iran as its military assets diminished.

“Is America backing away from a larger military attack because its military stockpile has been depleted?” asked host Kristen Welker.

Waltz insisted that President Donald Trump’s administration had “inherited a depleted situation” from the previous administration, pointing to the war in Ukraine and U.S. strikes against the Houthis, which were also conducted by the Trump administration.

Waltz claimed, however, that the U.S. military “has everything that it needs to conduct this campaign as effectively as it needs to be.”

“The people that are leaking this nonsense deserve to be in jail,” he added.

Waltz couldn’t seem to keep straight whether the reporting was utter “nonsense” or leaked government information punishable by prison time.

Representative Ted Lieu pushed back on Waltz’s finger-pointing in a post on X. The California Democrat noted that many of the weapons that are reportedly running dry were not used by the previous administration in the conflicts Waltz cited.

For example, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defenses missiles that have become severely depleted and are incredibly difficult to replace were never provided to Ukraine, Lieu wrote. And the U.S. has used more Patriot missiles in the last five months of fighting than what was ever sent to Ukraine.

“Stop falsely blaming others and take responsibility for the disastrous Iran war,” Lieu wrote.