Pete Hegseth Faces Bleak Future as Even Trump Starts to Turn on Him

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appears to be on the verge of getting kicked out of Washington.

Capitol Hill Republicans—including the president—have started to turn on Hegseth publicly. The bombastic former Fox News host could face a House impeachment vote as early as this week.

Republican Representative Thomas Massie originally introduced a 34-page impeachment resolution against the Defense secretary in mid-September, accusing Hegseth of high crimes and misdemeanors, and specifically of abusing the power of his office by advancing Donald Trump’s war against Iran without congressional approval.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz suggested that “one of the reasons the House has been out of session for a couple months is because they didn’t have the votes to stop a Hegseth impeachment” when Massie originally announced the articles. That has not changed.

Massie told MS NOW Monday that he planned to force a vote on the impeachment resolution that afternoon. Several members of the GOP believe it will pass.

But some conservatives are mulling over other solutions that could similarly strip Hegseth of his authority. Speaking with CNN’s Manu Raju Monday morning, retiring Nebraska Representative Don Bacon said it would be easier if Hegseth just resigned.

“I’m weighing it,” Bacon said when asked about the proposed articles of impeachment. “Eight articles, and I’m not very sympathetic to those articles.”

“But the areas that concern me most about the secretary aren’t in the articles of impeachment: firing and redlining abiding generals or admirals; withholding appropriated money all year from Ukraine,” Bacon said. “I’m not the only one that feels this way, there’s a bunch of us that have been talking about it.”

“Some of us don’t feel comfortable with [Massie’s] justifications,” Bacon added, describing Massie’s approach as libertarian, “but I think there are other ones out there.”

Even Trump blamed Hegseth for the Iran war, one of the main reasons Republicans lost so badly last week, while speaking to Fox News from West Palm Beach, Florida on Sunday. Trump claimed that the Pentagon chief was “one of the guys that was most responsible” for the conflict.

Exactly what becomes of the bombastic “secretary of war”—or his political future—after such an ousting is unclear.

Last week, Trump mused about the possibility of effectively pushing Hegseth into Tennessee’s open Senate seat. Trump told reporters Hegseth would be “very popular” as a replacement for Governor-elect Marsha Blackburn. The Hill reported that Hegseth had shown interest in the job, and was actively campaigning for it behind the scenes.

But that’s unlikely to happen: a source close to Blackburn told the Associated Press Thursday that Hegseth was not in consideration for the seat, and dismissed the ongoing rumors as “baseless chatter.”

The Trump administration is hemorrhaging officials following Republicans’ crushing defeat in the midterm elections and Stephen Miller’s ascension to White House chief of staff. 

Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate resigned Monday, and White House deputy chief of staff Richard Walters handed in his resignation letter on Friday. That follows at least five other resignations of top officials in the Justice Department and the White House last week.

Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Shumate’s resignation in a post on X. “Under his leadership, the Division pursued important affirmative litigation to challenge sanctuary policies and delivered key wins in lawsuits against local policies that endangered federal law enforcement,” he wrote. “The Division also secured historic settlements to end illegal corporate DEI practices and shuttered dozens of clinics which were providing so-called ‘gender affirming care’ to minors. We are grateful for Brett’s service at DOJ and wish him continued success.” 

Shumate is the fourth DOJ official to resign in a week, following Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon quitting on Thursday as well as Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg and U.S. Attorney Jason Quiñones stepping down Friday. 

Walters, who resigned the same day as White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, told The Daily Beast in a statement that “Serving President Trump has been the honor of a lifetime and I will always be thankful to Susie Wiles for the opportunity.” He was Wiles’s deputy for only six months, after previously working as executive director for  President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s inaugural committee. 

“Stephen [Miller] is building an incredible and capable team to implement the President’s agenda and I look forward to being part of it from the outside,” Walters added. 

Miller told Fox News in a statement that “While he will be leaving us, Richard will continue to help from the outside as we continue to work with all of our strength to deliver for President Trump and his courageous fight to Save America.” 

Despite these conciliatory statements, it’s obvious that people are fleeing the Trump administration due to the rise of one its most reviled officials in Miller—and the likelihood of being hauled before a Democratic Congress as part of a wide-ranging investigation. The DOJ in particular is going to be in Democrats’ crosshairs, and nobody wants to spend the next two years having to lawyer up and avoid subpoenas. 

Attorney General Todd Blanche has completely lost the plot.

The Justice Department chief effectively confessed on CNN Sunday that the historically independent agency will investigate Democratic lawmakers at Donald Trump’s behest.

Leaning on their forthcoming congressional majority, Democratic lawmakers have advertised their intent to use oversight tools to investigate alleged misconduct and corruption in Trump’s MAGA administration. The president attempted to preempt the looming inspection over the weekend by likening it to a “criminal act,” which he ordered Blanche to investigate.

When explicitly asked by State of the Union host Dana Bash on Sunday whether he would comply with the president’s directive, Blanche flippantly accused Democrats of threatening “anybody that’s conservative and anybody that happens to be a Republican.”

“And over the last several days, we have seen the rhetoric even rise up, to the point where they’re already—before they’re even in power, they’re already talking about investigations and impeachments, with no basis, no facts, just out there running around,” Blanche claimed. “That should be something that President Trump is very concerned about, and certainly I am as well.”

But Blanche seemingly could not keep his cool after Bash brought up Congress’s constitutional duty to provide oversight. “Is that what you’re concerned about?” asked Bash.

“Wait. Hold on a second. Sorry,” Blanche responded. “Wait, wait, wait, wait. No, no, no, no, no. They have a very unique role in oversight. I agree. Have you been listening to the rhetoric the past couple days? You honestly think that all they’re doing is talking about their oversight obligations when they’re talking about going after basically every member of the Cabinet, they’re talking about impeachments, they’re talking about going after companies, private companies who happen to have made investments in this country over the past couple of years?”

“That is not oversight,” insisted the attorney general. “I welcome oversight. Oversight is exactly something they should be doing.”

But amidst Blanche’s sprawling rant, he failed to identify a single criminal act by the Democratic Party. In another portion of the interview, Blanche concurred that it was his duty as the DOJ chief to represent administration officials during impeachment proceedings.

Contrary to Blanche’s opinion, the Justice Department is supposed to be independent and free from presidential interference. That’s been true since at least Watergate, after which the agency established interdepartmental policies and new political norms to distance its operations from the White House.

But that started to shift in 2024, when the Supreme Court sided with Trump to expand his presidential immunity. At the time, Chief Justice John Roberts penned a majority decision that effectively transformed the Justice Department into an arm to be leveraged by the Oval Office, opening communication channels between the federal law enforcement agency and the presidency for all future investigations.

Since then, Trump has repeatedly used the Justice Department for his own personal gain, directing prosecutors to lead his retribution campaign, to investigate election records, and to strongarm other federal institutions.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up at a hospital in Los Angeles on Saturday and blocked off the ambulance entrance.

KABC-TV, a Los Angeles TV station, reports that ICE showed up at about midnight at Adventist Health White Memorial Medical Center with a person in custody who needed medical treatment in the emergency room. A hospital spokesperson said federal agents blocked the entrance to the ER for two hours.

“When agents formed a line across our ambulance entrance, which we did not request nor authorize, we diverted ambulances to nearby hospitals for about two hours to ensure every patient received timely, respectful, and culturally sensitive care,” the spokesperson told NBC Los Angeles.

Protesters soon showed up to object to the presence of ICE agents at the hospital, and one of the demonstrators, a teenage girl, was reportedly pepper sprayed by agents and needed medical attention.

Los Angeles Mayor-elect Nithya Raman showed up at the hospital as well. “What happened last night at this hospital was an affront to the wishes of the American people and to the people of Los Angeles,” she later said.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli (whose appointment was ruled illegal last month) attacked Raman in an X post.

“I know you’re new to this, but facts matter. ICE was there to get medical treatment for a detainee who requested to see a doctor. I assume you support federal agents providing medical care to illegal immigrants in custody?” Essayli wrote. “As a public official, you should know the applicable laws. Agents are enforcing federal immigration laws passed by Congress. As mayor, you have no say in federal affairs. It’s called the Supremacy Clause. I can send you a copy of the U.S. Constitution if you’d like to study up.”

The city’s outgoing Mayor Karen Bass also condemned ICE’s actions.

“A hospital should be the one place where people feel safe. No one should have to think twice about receiving care or fear that a loved one’s treatment could be interrupted because of their immigration status,” Bass posted on X. “I condemn ICE’s actions and call on the Trump Administration to stop all immigration enforcement in and around health care facilities. Hospital leadership also had a duty to step in right away to protect patients and neighbors, and by all appearances, that did not happen.”

Hospital president Daniel Fontura said that agents entered the hospital and wanted to be present when doctors were speaking with the patient in ICE custody. According to Fontura, hospital officials rebuffed the agents.

“There was a time when ICE actually wanted to break protocol and be present with the physician in that sacred physician-patient encounter and we said no,” Fontura said. He said that when ICE started to block access to ambulances and EMS vehicles, the hospital then contacted the Los Angeles Police Department for help.

President Donald Trump emerged Monday with muddled accusations of election fraud, nearly a week after saying he would accept the sweeping Republican losses in the midterm elections.

“Does anybody really believe that this ‘Election’ was honest. How could the Polls be so wrong???” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Some early voting ‘dumps’ were so large that it was impossible to win, no matter how many people went to vote.”

“It’s all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter!” he added.

It was not immediately clear what polls Trump was referring to. Trump’s own personal pollster Tony Fabrizio had been warning since last year that Republicans would take a major hit in the midterms. In July, Fabrizio found that Republicans were lagging three percentage points on a generic ballot. Among 65 percent of highly motivated voters, a Republican would lag by seven percentage points.

Vice President JD Vance also disputed polls that showed a Democratic blowout, following his party’s disastrous midterm results. “There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team: our people were showing up,” he wrote on X last week.

It’s possible that Trump’s expectations were simply being manipulated by his sycophantic staff. A White House source told the Daily Mail that former White House chief of staff Susie Wiles had been promising a win right up to the end, telling people as recently as September that Republicans would sweep in the midterm elections. Trump announced last week that Stephen Miller would replace Wiles as top aide.

Trump’s latest missive represents a shift in the president’s outlook on the election results. On election night, Trump told The New York Times that he was “absolutely willing” to accept the election results and was looking forward to working with Democrats. Now he seems to be reverting back to his old tricks by making broad, unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.

This story has been updated.