US President Donald Trump came out in support of secretary of war Pete Hegseth amid calls for his impeachment, saying that Hegseth had won two wars and reaffirmed his support for the defence chief.
"Well, he won two wars. I don't know how you can impeach him," Trump said in a brief phone interview to Reuters. “Well, what about impeaching the people from Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and all of that, where we fought forever and nothing happened?”
Trump also declared that Hegseth had done "good job" and had "won" wars in Venezuela and Iran. "Yeah, I'll stand by him... He won two wars. He was in charge."
Deep Dive
Why is Thomas Massie seeking to impeach Pete Hegseth?
What did Donald Trump say about calls to impeach Pete Hegseth?
How has Pete Hegseth responded to the impeachment push?
"And what are we going to do with one of the guys that was most responsible? They want to impeach him," he added.
Trump’s comments come after Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie introduced the impeachment articles on the House floor, accusing Hegseth of habitual obstructionism against party legislation and wasting congressional bandwidth.
Trump calls Massie a ‘loser’
Trump also directed sharp criticism at Massie, calling him a "loser" and claiming that there was "something wrong with him."
{{/usCountry}}Trump also directed sharp criticism at Massie, calling him a "loser" and claiming that there was "something wrong with him."
{{/usCountry}}“Defeated Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, a total loser, is trying to Impeach perhaps the most popular and successful military official in the Country, Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth. With recruitment at an ALL-TIME HIGH, from an all-time low under Sleepy Joe Biden, and TWO VICTORIES, Venezuela and Iran, Pete Hegseth should be praised, not Impeached. Congress, stand up for Pete!!!” Trump said on Truth Social.
Responding to Trump's post, Hegseth said, “Thank you Mr. President. Like you, we will never back down.”
We could come up with the best bill we could come up with, and he would always vote against it. There's something wrong with him," the President said, according to ANI.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also defended his fellow Cabinet secretary, saying that he believes Hegesth has been doing “a great job” and that its unfair that a Republican is pushing the impeachment effort.
“I work with him. And so I see perhaps a side of him that the media doesn’t see and members of Congress may not see,” Rubio told reporters at the Group of Seven industrialized democracies gathering in Paris. “But I think Pete works really hard. He’s incredibly smart," AP reported.
Massie moves impeachment motion against Hegseth
Massie, who is retiring at the end of the year, is accusing Hegseth of impeachable acts including waging the Iran war without congressional authorisation, committing extrajudicial killings through strikes on alleged drug boats, ignoring laws designed to minimize civilian casualties including in a strike on an Iranian school, and unlawfully kidnapping a foreign leader — Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.
“I’ve seen some of my colleagues say @SecWar Hegseth has been effective and they agree with the war, so they’ll vote not to impeach,” Massie wrote in a social media post on Monday morning. “That’s not the question though. The question is whether he committed impeachable acts, and the answer is yes, eight times,” Massie wrote on X on Monday while announcing the impeachment resolution.
US House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is likely to become the first Black Speaker of the House after the Democrats' victory in the midterms, also supported calls of impeaching Hegseth, accusing him of abusing his power and undermining national security.
"I'm a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution. The so-called secretary of defense has abused his power, undermined our national security, and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran, which has skyrocketed prices on the American people and made the country less safe," Jeffries told ABC's 'This Week'.
'Not worried about that': Pete Hegseth
Responding to calls for his impeachment, Hegseth on Monday said he was ready to defend his record at the Pentagon, Reuters reported.
"We're not worried about that," Hegseth said, when asked if he had enough Republican support to defeat articles of impeachment.
Hegseth had also announced that he will hold a press conference at the Pentagon Tuesday morning to address the House push to impeach him, Fox News reported.
It will be Hegseth's first press conference since May 5.
Setback for Republicans in US midterms
The move for Hegseth’s impeachment came after Democrats took control of the Congress in the US midterm elections.
Democrats have promised to investigate Hegseth, including his handling of the Iran war, purges of top military officers, Ukraine policy, strikes on suspected drug trafficking boats in Latin America, which could amount to war crimes.