Hegseth solders himself to Trump in the face of impeachment resolution vote ‘circus’

At 0800 hours on Tuesday morning, US secretary of defence Pete Hegseth stood before the American people, via a press conference held in the Pentagon, and dismissed as a “farce” and a “circus” the impeachment resolution vote against him, expected to come before the House of Representatives as soon as Tuesday evening.

It says something about the wildness of the moment in US politics that Hegseth is at once the subject of impeachment articles submitted by a Republican, dismissal rumours, and widespread conjecture that he will, in the future, declare himself as a candidate for the president of the United States in advance of 2028.

If the equation held true by current president Donald J Trump – that governance is largely a series of reality television appearances – then Hegseth did himself little harm. He was suited and Brylcreamed for the occasion and delivered prepared remarks in his familiarly theatrical style: that of an off-Broadway Col Nathan Jessup giving an extended You Want Me On That Wall speech.

Cannily, Hegseth firmly soldered himself to the wishes – and orders – of “the greatest commander in chief”, Trump, at every opportunity. He noted that the impeachment resolution, drafted by exiting Kentucky Republican congressman Thomas Massie, coincides with Veteran’s Day and sought to position the motion as a prosecution not of him but of the military personnel he commands.

“And on the eve of Veteran’s Day, these resolutions tell every one of them that their service was a crime. Their service was not a crime. These are heroes and no politician in Washington will tell them otherwise while I am here,” he said.

“Make no mistake about what is happening. This is not about me. Politicians in Washington have accused the sailors and pilots who struck narco terrorist boats of war crimes for doing their job. Senators, in cute videos, have suggested the same. This resolution is the next step.

“Put the secretary on trial today and the men and women who carried out those orders tomorrow. If they want to come for the warriors, they are going to have to come through me.”

Among the early morning viewers was the only audience Hegseth really cared about: Trump himself. Even as last Tuesday night’s midterm election results rolled in from regions of the republic that have been unquestioningly Red in voting returns for decades, speculation on Hegseth’s future loudened.

The cost of fuel and living crisis exacerbated by the Iran war imbroglio was identified as the chief cause of discontent and the collapse of the Republican command of Congress. Vice-president JD Vance went so far as to state that in a social media post that effectively chastised the president.

Trump remains adamant that he has no plans to axe Hegseth. After watching Tuesday’s television show – the first conference Hegseth has held in months – he took to his own social media channel to offer an appraisal.

“Pete Hegseth gets an A PLUS, PLUS, PLUS, for his defence against a disgruntled, angry, defeated, former congressman Thomas Massie, a TOTAL LOSER,” he wrote.

The total loser in question had given his own press conference and television interviews on Monday evening and seemed in remarkably chipper form for someone with anger issues.

Massie lost his seat in Kentucky’s 4th last May when the Republican Party threw some $37 million in attack-adverts promoting his opponent, Ed Gallerein, in the primary election. It was a seat that Massie had held since 2012, when he came into Congress as part of the Tea Party movement. The timing of his ousting is notable: it was just two months into the Iran campaign.

Massie had voted with the party 90 per cent of the time but was openly critical of both the Iran war and the failure of the president and party to fully disclose the Epstein files. He formed a high-profile alliance with Democratic congressman Ro Khanna to co-author two transparency Bills, in May of 2025 and again this summer.

For all of this, he was punished in his primary. Of the four Republicans who signed the discharge petition to force a vote on the Epstein files release – Massie, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace – all have now lost their seats.

But Hegseth’s attempt to narrow the impeachment rumblings down to Massie’s last act of revenge before he returns to farming in Kentucky may be wishful thinking. At one point on Tuesday morning, Hegseth noted that even Massie had admitted that his actions had been effective. It was a wilful misreading of what Massie had said on CNN on Monday evening.

“He has been effective – he was effective at killing 200 schoolchildren, he was effective at bombing fishing boats that may or may not have had people who were guilty of smuggling drugs; he has been effective at waging an unconstitutional kidnapping in Venezuela [a reference to the raid and arrest of Venezuela president Nicolás Maduro, last January]. The president himself bragged that they have captured this oil and that our corporations are getting rich from the oil that Pete Hegseth helped to capture. In some aspects he has been effective, and that’s what we are impeaching him for- his effectiveness in breaking the law and violating the constitution.”

Massie believes that there is a high chance that Hegseth will be gone from his role as secretary of defence before Christmas.

“They stand by them until they don’t,” he said.

It will fall to House Speaker Mike Johnson on how to vote on each of the eight articles written by Massie: they could be stand as individual votes or as part of one package. The articles of impeachment will be read aloud in the House in advance of the vote, which was tabled for late Tuesday afternoon.

House Republican leaders might then decide to move the articles to committee. As Massie noted, the mood in the House will be different now, with some 30 Republican representatives seeing out their terms and many others having won or held seats by frighteningly narrow numbers.

“They felt their political mortality on November 3rd,” Massie said.

“I think they are scared, and they realise in two years this could go even more south for president Trump and the Iran war and they need to start putting themselves further from this administration so that when they are on the ballot in two years, they have a chance of surviving. I don’t know if it will pass. I think there’s a good chance it will pass. And people who are basically saying it has no chance in the Senate, don’t say that too quickly.

“Because you see Republican senators like Thom Tillis who are more willing to speak out now. If we can get it out of the House, the Senate will have to vote on it, either when John Thune is the leader or there is another leader. The first thing Mike Johnson will do is to try and refer this to committee. And I want everyone to know right now: a referral to committee is to try and kill this Bill.”