U.S. President Donald Trump and members of his administration attend a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 29, 2026.
In the view from the cheap seats, it certainly looks as if War/Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth increasingly could be in trouble over keeping his job.
While there have been reasons since his confirmation hearing to take Hegseth out of the role, the combination of a moribund strategy over Iran and a strangled Strait of Hormuz, a continuing, unpopular drain of military brainpower, and Hegseth’s prime allegiance to a culture war within the Pentagon seem to be sapping his political strength.
We are beginning to see Republican senators who supported Hegseth, a strange choice for the top military job from the start, now calling for his ouster or at least asking tough questions about why someone increasingly seen as “inept” military leadership remains in the job.
Donald Trump said last week that he had been surprised to hear that there was tumult among the military brass when Army Chief of Staff Daniel Driscoll quit, following a series of personnel decisions in which Hegseth personally struck several general officer candidates who were Black or female.
It is Hegseth who pushed for attacks in Iran over U.S. intelligence warnings, it is Hegseth who unapologetically calls for more “lethality” among our military forces even as he extends deployments, it is Hegseth who refuses to acknowledge errors in selecting civilian bomb targets, it is Hegseth who has sought to prosecute reporters for reporting that he is depleting weapons caches and leaving the Pacific unguarded. It is also Hegseth who is stepping out to campaign in Iowa for partisan Republican candidates in violation of law and tradition, and it is Hegseth who is allowing speculation that he might himself be a presidential candidate.
From pundits on the political left, there is certainty that Trump is keeping Hegseth around solely because he may be the unchallenging force to send armed troops into U.S. streets if the votes in November do not look to support Trump forces.
The Guardian wrote, “As the war drags on, Hegseth stands accused of being insufficiently engaged with such grave policy matters, preferring instead to focus on ‘cultural’ issues – sacrificing the careers of talented career officers in the process – and his future political ambitions.”
The Continuing War
Fairly or not, Hegseth finds himself once again in the spotlight as shooting has resumed in the Strait. Just days earlier, Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had unleashed a supposed economic D-Day that would replace missiles with sanctions. It may be Trump making the conflicting calls, but it is Hegseth who personifies the war itself, along with its non-military economic effects.
Hegseth, a former weekend Fox News host with no substantive managerial experience and a personal history checked with bad deeds, is at war inside the Pentagon just as much as he is with threats to Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Greenland and beyond.
Primarily, Hegseth needed his vision for quick strikes to work in Iran. As Hegseth keeps reminding us, the strictly military targeting has successfully destroyed Iran’s official Navy ships and blunted a central command. But resistant, decentralized Iranian forces have rebuilt missile launchers and apparently have drones and medium-range missiles galore still available to stop shipping, hit U.S. and Gulf nation bases, and to keep the U.S. tied up with policing the area for months or years.
Meanwhile, Hegseth has enraged military families with extended deployments on ships that apparently have lacked basic supplies. When questioned, Hegseth seethes at congress members who do not reflexively praise the war effort, and he seems to be in a tug of war within the Cabinet for Trump’s attention. Hegseth has drawn accusations of war crimes for ordering a succession of strikes on alleged drug-ferrying boats off the coasts of South America.
His internal Pentagon turf wars are chewing up leadership ranks, and he is mocking contributions by non-white, straight, male, Christian soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines. He has dismissed without explanation now dozens of flag-level officers in the name of what he claims is a diversity-free environment.
Criticism from Right and Left
The criticisms are now coming in greater numbers from retired military leaders, senators like Thom Tillis, R-NC, and John Kennedy, R-La., as well as those from U.S. intelligence, and our allies along with our rivals.
Hegseth is not at Trump’s Republican political convention in Dallas this week, apparently the result of being recognized as a drag on the party’s mid-term prospects.
“The secretary of defense is a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States and the world,” said Randy Manner, a retired major general in the US national guard – in which Hegseth also served – and member of National Security Leaders for America (NSL4A), a group of former military leaders told reporters.
Retired generals are appearing on the political talk shows with loads of scorn for Hegseth’s management of military affairs and for lack of planning.
Tillis called for Trump to fire Hegseth, adding, “I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country.”
Rather than consider erroneous strikes inside Iran that once again killed civilians or weigh the broader concerns from generals and admirals around the world who have told the joint chiefs that maintaining 50,000 troops in the region and 19 warships is unsustainable, Hegseth has ordered polygraph tests for his own military leaders to determine the leak.
The question is quickly turning from whether Hegseth will face dismissal into wonder about why Trump does not see advantage in sending him away.
Terry H. Schwadron retired as a senior editor at The New York Times, Deputy Managing Editor at The Los Angeles Times and leadership jobs at The Providence (RI) Journal-Bulletin. He was part of a Pulitzer Gold Medal team in Los Angeles, and his team part of several Pulitzers in New York.
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