Pete Hegseth Pentagon turmoil after 2026 midterm elections, Digi Mart USA News: After the midterm elections, in which voters firmly rejected the Republican agenda, the US government is in turmoil, and changes are coming that will affect the world.
The self-styled “Secretary for War” Pete Hegseth is already under scrutiny over the Iran conflict, which is widely acknowledged as the most important factor in the GOP’s midterm defeat. He is also under scrutiny over the Trump administration’s war on woke, with Hegseth launching a culture war over diversity in the Armed Forces.
As Republicans try to regroup and redirect for the final two years of Trump’s presidency, a political firestorm is tearing through the Pentagon, the largest US government department. Speculation is growing that Hegseth, a former Fox News presenter and National Guard officer, could be impeached by Congress or moved to another post, with reports that Trump has been calling advisers to consult on the Secretary of War’s future.
The President said he was not considering changing Pentagon leadership. However, when asked about rumors that Hegseth could take a vacant Republican Senate seat in Tennessee, Trump said he would be “very popular” in that role.
The President also shut down Hegseth’s plan to livestream a public execution last month.
Rachel Ellehuus, who held a number of roles at the Pentagon, including acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for European and NATO policy, said there had been “turbulence” in the Pentagon for a long time, with the mood among civilian and military staff “pretty negative” regarding the strategy and culture. Ellehuus, director-general at the defense think tank Rusi, said, “I don’t think anybody in the United States wanted essentially the makings of a two-front war.”
“I think they wanted to manage and end the conflict in Ukraine, and nobody ever wanted the war on Iran. Many in the Pentagon are still very keen on rebalancing to Asia and preparing for that long-term competition with China,” she said.
Ellehuus said Trump and Vance may now see Hegseth as “a convenient fall guy,” but she warned that “the fallout could be broader than just Hegseth.”
A British military source who has worked closely with the US suggested the Trump administration may try to move Hegseth out of the department before an impeachment attempt. This would “shield the organisation” from what might come out in an impeachment trial over the handling of the Iran war, effectively “damage limitation.” The insider said many in the Pentagon were upset with how the US military had been handled and would have breathed a sigh of relief at the midterm results, but warned “it’s still going to be turbulent.”
Chris Sevello, a retired naval officer who spent ten years in the Pentagon and now runs the public and government relations firm Provision Advisors, said Trump is unlikely to take responsibility for the political fallout of the war, “so it’s just a question of who the blame lands on.” He said it would be “kind of unfair to throw all this on Secretary Hegseth,” adding that from a military perspective the Pentagon did a “pretty decent job” of executing its commands.
“It was more the diplomatic and the political side of the war that I think has been a bit bungled,” he said.
Sevello said Trump campaigned on fixing the economy, strengthening the middle class and keeping the United States out of wars like those in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that he is “zero for three on all of those.” He said that was why voters delivered the results they did. Sevello predicted other high-profile US military figures, such as the CENTCOM commander or the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, could also come under pressure for their part in the conflict.
It is not clear how Trump will extricate himself from Iran, with some indications he will escalate attacks to try to claim a decisive victory. Sevello noted that the President and the Pentagon have been trying to end the war for a while, and that senior officials believed it would be a weeks-long war and have been seeking an off-ramp.
“It may be that the election results make the type of off-ramp that they’re looking for a lot more immediate,” he said.
Under Hegseth, the US defense budget has ballooned to a record $1 trillion. With Democrats about to take control of Congress and the public demanding a reduction in the cost of living, the Pentagon could face budget cuts, greater scrutiny and limits on its activity.
The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee called this week for investigations into military action in Iran, the Caribbean and Latin America, as well as a smaller military budget and probes into Pentagon contracts.
The new Congress seated in January will also be able to block attempts to move US troops out of Europe, restore sanctions on Russia suspended by the Trump administration and limit the use of AI in the military, Ellehuus suggested. The Pentagon will also have to contend with air defense shortages after expending large numbers of interceptor missiles to fight off Iranian attacks.
“It’s hard to know what direction they will go in, but there’s certainly a lot of rebuilding that has to be done again in terms of readiness and the reserves of capabilities that the Pentagon has,” Ellehuus said. “If the US is [aiming to] rebalance to Asia and really keep up with China and deter Russia, that’s not going to happen with the kit that they have left in the inventory.”
Since entering the Pentagon, Hegseth has fired more than a dozen senior military officers, including the Army Chief of Staff, the chief of naval operations and the Air Force’s vice chief of staff. He has blocked several female and Black service members from promotion, having railed against so-called “wokeness” in the military, and has pledged to “tear out” diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Ellehuus said the Pentagon had traditionally been a building where there was a lot of integration and people were promoted by, and valued for, their merit. “That culture has been undermined by Hegseth,” she said.
“So, Democrats and Republicans alike are probably eager for him to go.”
Sevello said the department had experienced a “change in culture” during Trump’s second administration. “It’s just as much of a challenge to change the way the Pentagon does business, in buying things, as it is to fire generals and admirals,” he said.
He added that Hegseth and the current leadership have accelerated the Pentagon’s buying power, are trying to bring new people into the industrial base, and are seeking to bring manufacturing back to the United States, while also pursuing a culture war within the Pentagon. “The balance of those two has been, I would say for those working in the Pentagon, it’s been tough for folks to reconcile,” he said.
The military source said that without Hegseth, the Pentagon would likely “rein back the bullish nature” of the culture wars and “dial back somewhat, but not all the way.” “Some things needed to change and they will keep those in place,” they said. “It had swung too far to the left, Hegseth took it all the way to the right, I would see it settling just to the right of centre.”
