[…] that some Democratic members had already called him. We covered why the Founders built that veto in “Mr. Veto”…
Written By TNT Staff, Posted on November 6, 2026
President Trump is not firing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Rep. Thomas Massie still wants him impeached. Democrats, about to run Congress, want hearings and worse.
Those are three different fights. Only one of them is about whether Iran was allowed a nuclear weapon.
On Wednesday Trump told reporters Hegseth is “doing a great job” and dismissed replacing him, ABC News reported. On Thursday he called Hegseth’s work “fantastic,” NBC News reported, even while acknowledging “opposition” over purges of military leadership.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Hegseth is “100% committed” through the end of the term and will not be deterred by “phony investigations.” Hegseth himself posted a video branding Massie’s renewed articles “sham” politics of “personal destruction.”
NBC, citing two people familiar with the talks, also reports Trump has privately asked allies who might replace Hegseth. Publicly he is holding the line. Privately shopping names is not the same as a decision — and Trump has denied imminent firings before following through. For now, the public order stands: Hegseth stays.
Massie, the Kentucky Republican who lost his primary after crossing Trump and is serving out his term, told CNN he will reintroduce articles of impeachment when the House returns — scheduled as early as Monday. “There is one contingency in which I won’t reintroduce the articles of impeachment: Hegseth resigns,” he wrote on X. On Thursday he added that his resolution is “a much gentler version of what’s coming when Dem’s control Congress.”
Massie’s September articles focused on war powers: Iran without a fresh authorization, Yemen, lethal force against suspected drug boats, the Maduro operation and retaliation against Sen. Mark Kelly. Whatever one thinks of his conclusions, those are constitutional arguments about Congress’s power over war — not fitness-test culture fights.
Speaker Mike Johnson killed the September vote by sending the House home early. The privileged clock resumes in the lame duck. Massie needs Republicans to join Democrats for a House majority. Senate conviction still takes 67 votes. No Cabinet secretary has ever been convicted.
The fair case against the war’s management is not a mystery. Trump launched it in late February promising weeks. It is month eight. DoD figures cited by CBS put U.S. deaths at 23 and wounded at 865. Gas prices rose. Munitions stocks are not infinite. Hegseth declared a “historic and overwhelming victory” in April while fighting continued. Voters noticed. The ABC News Voter Poll found 34% of House voters called the Iran war “crucial” to their vote — behind cost of living (49%) and corruption (55%), but real.
None of that means Iran should have been left with a path to the bomb. Stopping a nuclear Iran was the mission. Scapegoating the Pentagon chief so Republicans can audition as anti-war for 2028 is not a strategy. Neither is letting Democrats turn every war-powers dispute into a years-long impeachment circus while affordability — the issue that actually flipped seats — gathers dust.
Trump is right to keep a defense secretary who will not apologize for denying Tehran the bomb. Massie is within his rights to force a war-powers vote; Congress should debate authorizations like adults. Democrats will investigate either way.
What the country cannot afford is confusing those lanes. Impeach over grooming standards and Signal chats, and you tell the world the nuclear file was never serious. Fire Hegseth to sate a midterm panic, and you tell Iran that American politics will finish what their enrichment started.
Keep the aim. End the drift. Argue the war powers on the merits. That is the classical liberal order of operations — not a billboard in Tehran, and not a resignation as a political sacrifice.
November 7, 2026
November 6, 2026
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