President Donald Trump is asking advisers whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should keep his job after Republicans lost control of both the House and Senate in Tuesday’s midterm elections, according to a new report.
CBS News’ Jennifer Jacobs and Emma Nicholson reported Wednesday, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter, that the president has been asking people around him, both in person and over the phone, whether Hegseth should stay at the Pentagon.
Other sources told the outlet that Trump has not made a decision about replacing him.
The report comes as the war in Iran has emerged as a leading explanation for the GOP’s losses. Some White House aides predicted that part of the blame could also fall on Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, and Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, both of whom played major roles in guiding Iran war strategy.
One source told CBS News that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been floated as a possible replacement for Hegseth. Under that scenario, DeSantis could go through Senate confirmation during the lame-duck session and take over the Pentagon after his term as governor ends on Jan. 5.
Publicly, the White House is standing firmly behind the defense secretary.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement that the president “has full confidence in Secretary Hegseth.” Kelly also praised U.S. military operations in Iran and Venezuela, as well as Hegseth’s work to undo what she described as the Biden Pentagon’s focus on “DEI and woke ideology.”
Trump himself told reporters Wednesday that Hegseth is doing a “very good job” and said there are no plans to remove him.
The president was also asked whether Hegseth might move on to fill the Senate seat of Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who will soon become governor of Tennessee.
“Well, I think he’s doing a very good job, and I actually think he’d be very popular if he did that. But I haven’t heard that at all,” Trump said.
The CBS report follows an account in The Atlantic on Sunday, which said that even before Election Day, Trump had been asking people close to him about Hegseth’s performance.
Hegseth’s political troubles may only grow once Democrats take control of Congress in January.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., moved to impeach Hegseth over the Iran war in September, an effort that stalled when the House adjourned early. Massie has suggested he would bring articles of impeachment again if Hegseth remains in office after the midterms.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Monday that Democrats would run the Pentagon chief “out of town” if they won the House.
Vice President JD Vance added to the scrutiny of the war on Wednesday, publishing a lengthy statement on X that blamed the conflict for the party’s election losses.
“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance wrote.
Hegseth, a former Army National Guard officer and Fox News host, was confirmed as the nation’s 29th secretary of defense in early 2025 after a contentious Senate confirmation fight.
For now, the White House line remains that the secretary has the president’s backing. But with the administration’s top officials openly linking the Iran war to the party’s defeat, questions about who will be held responsible for the Pentagon’s strategy are unlikely to go away soon.
