"doing a very good job," President Donald Trump said of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Pete Hegseth, impeachment talk, and political vulnerability
The Defense Department heads into a new Congress under intensified scrutiny. Reports tied to the midterm results say Democrats won "overwhelming[ly]" and that many lawmakers — and "an increasing number of Republicans" — want to remove Secretary Pete Hegseth, Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told Defense One. Some members of Congress have voiced an intention to impeach Hegseth, and rumors suggest he is seeking appointment to “Tennessee Governor-Elect Marsha Blackburn’s vacated Senate seat,” the reporting says.
President Trump, however, publicly defended Hegseth, telling reporters he thinks Hegseth is “doing a very good job” and that he would be “very popular” in a Senate office. Harrison said that if the White House sought to replace Hegseth now, there would still be time to nominate and confirm a successor, but added that once the new Congress is seated “they will have a hard time getting anyone confirmed.” Harrison also warned that an impeachment that earns significant House Republican votes could nonetheless be politically damaging enough to prompt Hegseth’s departure even without Senate removal.
AUTOWARCOM, Golden Fleet, Golden Dome, and program survivability
Several high-profile Pentagon initiatives face different prospects depending on congressional willingness to fund or authorize them. Harrison assessed that an Autonomous Warfare Command (AUTOWARCOM) could be created administratively — “something they can do without Congress” — yet he cautioned it “would not receive any significant funding of its own.” By contrast, he called the Golden Fleet, and especially the battleship element of it, “a dead idea” because those plans “definitely require Congress for funding.”
Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, indicated that many major initiatives — drones, munitions, shipbuilding, and missile defense — retain bipartisan support and therefore may continue in some form. Cancian also said the administration could pursue a rebranding of Golden Dome and the Boeing F-47, the Air Force’s six‑generation fighter “named for Trump’s position in the line of U.S. presidents.”
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See what we buildReconciliation, munitions funding, and the $1.5 trillion proposal
The administration had proposed a sweeping defense package tied to a 2027 reconciliation bill. Harrison noted that if the “huge increase in munitions funding requested through reconciliation does not pass in the lame duck,” the next Congress will have to address that shortfall. Cancian quantified the fiscal impact of losing reconciliation: the administration’s $1.5 trillion defense proposal would shrink to a “still substantial” $1.1 trillion without the reconciliation vehicle. That shift would directly affect planned procurement for autonomous capabilities and critical munitions, among other priorities.
Investigations and contracts involving Elon Musk and Palmer Luckey
Lawmakers are expected to press for investigations into the department’s handling of the Iran war and into what Harrison described as “potentially improper access and contract awards for Trump’s political allies,” specifically naming Elon Musk and Palmer Luckey. The reporting frames these probes as likely political pressure points for the incoming Democratic majority and as part of broader oversight of senior Defense Department decisions made under Hegseth.
How Representative-elect Elaine Luria, Nancy Lacore, and the House Armed Services Committee matter
- Representative-elect Elaine Luria, D‑Va.: Luria, a retired Navy commander who reclaimed her former House seat, previously held a spot on the House Armed Services Committee and is positioned to press oversight on defense decisions.
- Nancy Lacore: The former Navy admiral whom Hegseth forced to retire last year flipped a South Carolina House seat, replacing former Rep. Nancy Mace, and her arrival opens another potential House Armed Services Committee position sympathetic to investigating the administration’s personnel and policy choices.
- The House Armed Services Committee: With new members who have direct service experience and prior committee roles, the panel is likely to be a focal point for investigations into procurement, personnel actions, and military policy changes enacted or proposed under Hegseth.
Taken together, the facts reported sketch a narrow but concrete set of levers the new Congress can use: funding denial, statutory rollbacks, re‑naming or authorization reversals, and committee investigations that may culminate in an impeachment vote in the House. What remains unsettled in the account is whether such political pressure will produce legal disqualification, administration personnel changes, or legislative reversals — and how quickly the newly seated Congress will move on those paths.
