Senate Democrats are quietly floating Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s ouster after the midterms as the price for any cooperation on expiring defense funding and must-pass bills.
The Hill reported that Democratic senators are privately pressing the idea of terminating Hegseth once the Nov. 3 election passes, treating his departure as leverage for emergency and regular Pentagon funding in the lame-duck session.
Regular Defense Department funding expires Dec. 11. The White House requested emergency defense money in June. Democrats are signaling they may hold both packages, along with the annual defense authorization, unless the political temperature around Hegseth drops.
Some Republicans are open to a leadership shake-up at the Pentagon to avoid a messier fight later. Others call the demand a non-starter. President Trump has shown no public appetite for dumping his defense secretary.
A senior Pentagon official rejected the criticism outright and defended Hegseth’s record.
"Secretary Hegseth has been a transformative leader for the Department of War and, at President Trump’s direction, has ushered in a new era of Peace Through Strength,"
the official said, adding that standards and merit are back, the arsenal is stronger, and morale and recruitment across every service sit at all-time highs.
"Secretary Hegseth has slashed bureaucracy, unleashed innovation, and delivered for our warfighters every step of the way. By every measurable metric, the Department of War is better under Secretary Hegseth’s leadership than before. The entire Department is unified behind the Secretary’s vision and will continue working to put our warfighters and America first."
Funding holds and confirmation fights become the pressure points
Democrats are also threatening to block a special congressional waiver for Hung Cao, Trump’s nominee for Navy secretary. Federal law imposes a seven-year waiting period before former military officers can take top Pentagon civilian posts. Without the waiver, the Navy slot stays empty.
That vacancy sits beside other leadership gaps. Hegseth has already removed Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, Army Chief of Staff Randy George, Navy Secretary John Phelan, and Gen. Chris Donahue, the top U.S. military officer in Europe. Phelan’s post remains open.
Those earlier shakeups mirror the prolonged power struggle that ended with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll’s resignation after months of friction inside the building.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, told reporters before the Senate left for the election that Hegseth’s resignation could lower the partisan temperature and open the door to bipartisan work on the National Defense Authorization Act and annual defense appropriations.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), expected to become Democratic whip next Congress, tied any cooperation to the status of military conflict with Iran.
"My own view is that if the war is over, then the opportunity for bipartisanship on defense authorization and defense appropriations is there. I think if the war’s not over, it’s going to be extremely difficult,"
Schatz said.
Democrats have drawn a hard line: if the Iran fight is not wrapped up by year’s end, defense funding talks grow far tougher.
Republican unease surfaces without a clean break from Trump
Four Republican senators, Appropriations Chair Susan Collins of Maine, John Cornyn of Texas, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, signed a letter last week to Defense Department Inspector General Platte Moring. They demanded an immediate investigation into whether any Pentagon officials “directed” or “authorized” changes to intelligence-sharing arrangements or Starlink and Starshield services affecting Ukraine.
Collins separately faulted the department for failing to anticipate Iran’s ability to choke shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint that carries nearly a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil.
"For example, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz should have been anticipated. It happened during the Iraq-Iran war and it’s an obvious point of leverage but there doesn’t seem to have been any plan for it,"
Collins said last month.
Tillis has gone further in print. In his memoir he called his deciding vote to confirm Hegseth in January 2025 “the biggest regret of my career.”
Still, one GOP senator, speaking anonymously, dismissed the idea that Trump would simply push Hegseth out.
"That’s a bridge too far,"
the senator said.
Trump continues to praise Hegseth’s appearance as a military leader “from central casting” and has not signaled he is prepared to cut him loose. That stance fits a pattern in which the president has stepped into Pentagon personnel fights himself, including when he appointed an acting Army secretary outside the usual order.
Impeachment talk returns from both parties’ edges
House Democrats led by Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) filed six articles of impeachment against Hegseth in April. Speaker Mike Johnson scrambled to keep a floor vote from happening before the election; the House recessed early.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) later told Semafor that impeaching Hegseth should rank among House Democrats’ “top three priorities” next year if they retake the majority.
On the right, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a maverick who lost his primary after Trump backed his opponent, posted Thursday that the president should act first.
"Trump should fire Hegseth to avoid Hegseth’s impeachment. It’s the honorable thing to do,"
Massie wrote on X. He added that he will reintroduce the articles in the lame-duck session “regardless of the outcome of the midterm election.”
The same dynamic played out earlier this year with then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Democrats tried to force her out during a funding stalemate. Key Republican senators, including John Kennedy of Louisiana, turned on her. Trump eventually fired her.
Democratic strategists see a similar path with Hegseth. Republican sources say some colleagues would rather see a quiet exit than months of impeachment theater that distracts from the defense bills themselves.
Recent coverage of Republican critics joining Democrats after the Driscoll resignation already showed how quickly internal Pentagon friction can spill onto Capitol Hill.
Livestream plan and other flashpoints add to the pile
Trump recently cancelled Hegseth’s plan to livestream the execution of Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 at Fort Hood in 2009. The episode fed questions about whether the White House and the Pentagon chief are fully aligned on every high-profile call.
Questions also linger over a temporary halt to intelligence sharing with Ukraine and restrictions on Starshield access. The senators’ letter to the inspector general seeks to determine whether those moves were directed or authorized by Pentagon officials, and whether they occurred without clear presidential approval. No final finding has been released.
Hegseth’s defenders point to recruiting gains and a sharper focus on warfighters after two decades of what they call bureaucratic drift. His critics inside both parties list the leadership churn, the Hormuz contingency gap, and the Ukraine-related service changes as proof the building needs steadier hands.
That churn includes Hegseth’s own efforts to shape the next Army secretary pick even as Driscoll’s departure neared, underscoring how contested every senior slot has become.
The lame-duck calendar is short. Lawmakers return after the election with defense money running out Dec. 11 and a long list of must-pass items. Democrats have telegraphed their opening bid: Hegseth goes, or the bills stall. Trump’s public posture so far is that his Pentagon chief stays.
Whether enough Republicans decide a change at the top is worth the fight, or whether they close ranks around the man the president still backs, will decide if the defense bills move before Christmas or become the next funding cliff.
National security funding should never be a hostage for settling scores over one cabinet secretary; troops and readiness come first, and voters can judge the rest.
