En esta noticia
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is under mounting pressure to take the fall for Republicans’ midterm defeat after President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance tied the GOP’s loss of Congress to the Iran war. A Republican lawmaker wants Hegseth impeached as soon as next week.
Democrats won majorities in both the House and the Senate in Tuesday’s election. Republican strategists privately compare the scale of the losses to the party’s 2008 collapse and expect the damage to take years to repair.
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican and frequent Trump critic, said he will force the vote when Congress returns. Several GOP sources told CNN they expect the House to approve it, even before Democrats take over in January.
Why do Donald Trump and JD Vance say the Iran war cost Republicans Congress?
Trump acknowledged the war played a part in a phone interview with Fox News on Tuesday night. He pointed to the jump in gas prices since the fighting began and said voters weren’t willing to absorb that short-term cost.
“People agree with what I am doing on Iran but they probably weren’t willing to do the short-term consequence of paying more for gasoline,” he said. “I understand that; I don’t agree with that.”
Vance was blunter. “The reason we lost is the war,” he wrote in a lengthy social media post Wednesday, daring anyone who disagreed to argue openly that giving up the Senate for six years was worth it. Trump later called the post “largely true.”
Much of the anger inside the party has landed on Hegseth. Several Republicans say he promised a quick, easy win and kept pushing to escalate even as the bombing failed to bring Iran closer to surrender. They also argue the war worsened voters’ cost-of-living squeeze.
Still, Trump hasn’t second-guessed the decision to go to war, and he told reporters Wednesday he would make the same call again. Republican strategists also concede privately that the party’s problems went well beyond the conflict.
Could Pete Hegseth be impeached over the Iran war?
Yes, and the vote could come quickly. Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment, or formal charges, against Hegseth on Sept. 16. They cover several issues, including his handling of the war. The House adjourned for the midterms without voting on them.
Impeachment by the House takes a simple majority, but it doesn’t remove anyone from office. It sends the case to the Senate, where 67 senators, two-thirds of the chamber, must vote to convict and remove.
That makes removal unlikely anytime soon. Republicans hold the Senate until the new Congress is sworn in in January, and a lame-duck session, the stretch before the new members arrive, rarely produces convictions.
Massie said on X that he would move ahead unless Hegseth resigns. He also urged Trump to replace him now: “He should do it while he can still get the replacements confirmed in the Senate.”
Will Donald Trump fire Pete Hegseth as Pentagon chief?
Not for now. In a phone interview with ABC News, Trump said he has “every intention” of keeping Hegseth, while admitting allies are urging a change: “I get these calls, you know, about him. I don’t understand why.”
On Thursday, he told reporters at the White House that Hegseth “has done a fantastic job.”
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, answered in a video posted to X that same day. He dismissed the “sham articles of impeachment” and compared the effort to Trump’s two impeachments. “They attack us because we are effective,” he said. “We will not back down.”
At the War Department: We Stand. We Fight. We Defend the Republic. https://t.co/Kkr0DazmCE
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) November 5, 2026
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Hegseth is “100% committed” to serving through the end of Trump’s term. Still, Trump’s allies widely expect some changes in the administration, and some in his circle see Hegseth as the obvious figure to absorb the blame.