Maggie Haberman knows who’s first on Trump’s Cabinet hit list after wipeout

President Donald Trump with members of his Cabinet, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in 2025 (image from White House galleries)

Maggie Haberman, the veteran New York Times political reporter and Trump biographer, says the president has an obvious candidate if he wants someone in his Cabinet to take the fall for the GOP’s midterm drubbing.

Appearing on a morning panel with MS NOW’s Stephanie Ruhle, Haberman noted that the military is working with far less money than most voters likely realize, even as multiple global crises pile up. She then explained why the defense secretary could make an easy scapegoat for the Iran war.

“And getting rid of Pete Hegseth and putting the blame on him for the Iran war, which… To be clear, there are many, many valid criticisms of the defense secretary, and he certainly was the most optimistic about the war in Trump’s circle, but this was ultimately President Trump’s decision by a wide mile, and his advisors just went there with him, even though most of them had reservations,” Haberman said.

“This might be an easy move for him to make: to get rid of Pete Hegseth and try to propel some kind of a comity with Democrats.”

Haberman warned that Trump will face “a very different reality come January.”

Unlike after the 2018 midterms or his 2020 defeat, when he was on his way out of the White House, he still has two years left in power, and she said his next moves are hard to predict. She added that voters sent an unmistakable message Tuesday about the kind of overreach they don’t want to see.

She was skeptical that Republicans would suddenly start openly criticizing the president, noting that the prediction has been made many times before and rarely comes true. Still, she expects GOP lawmakers to feel pressure to focus on delivering results and to lean into a more populist message.

As for the Supreme Court, Haberman suggested it is largely off the table for Trump unless he takes a different approach, and that’s assuming any justice even retires while he is in office.

When Fox News anchor Bret Baier asked Trump late Tuesday whether he planned to shake up his Cabinet after the losses, the president brushed off the idea.

“No, I don’t think so. Had nothing to do with my Cabinet,” Trump said. “It was just a point — honestly, look — I’ve been doing a lot of great things for a long time. It’s just a point in time, Bret. The way it is. There was a mood in the air, I guess.”

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