Miller reportedly argued White House needed to wind down Iran war
BBC News analysis published on Tuesday said President Donald Trump faces an impossible dilemma over Pete Hegseth. Keeping the defense secretary, the outlet wrote, risks looking as though Trump has not heard the message from voters; firing him risks looking like an admission that the Iran war has become a damaging domestic liability. The BBC’s assessment was that “a scalp or a scapegoat, put it how you like, may be necessary if Trump is to move on.”
The same analysis said the promotion of Stephen Miller to White House chief of staff provides less comfort than it might appear. Miller and Hegseth are close allies, and Hegseth on Tuesday called him an “incredible American patriot.” But Miller reportedly clinched the job after arguing that the White House needed to wind down the Iran war, which BBC News described as putting a clear level of distance between the Pentagon and the president.
BBC News reported that for the time being Hegseth has the president’s backing, but that a full-throated endorsement from Trump can, in the blink of an eye, evaporate into nothing if a sacrifice is required.
Votes in Congress were the focus on Tuesday as impeachment proceedings against Hegseth got under way. BBC News said that in reality it is the president’s feelings that will likely be the ultimate arbiter of Hegseth’s political fate.
Behind that analysis sits Tuesday’s Pentagon appearance. BBC News described “plenty of defiance and rhetorical venom” from Hegseth at his first news conference in six months, calling it “in many ways, a news conference with an audience of one — President Donald Trump.” The outlet reported that again and again, Hegseth tied his fate to that of the president.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie has brought articles of impeachment against the defense secretary. Hegseth dismissed Massie as “one disgruntled and defeated congressman” who was leading a “farce and a stunt.”
Hegseth said the military operations in Iran and Venezuela that are now at the centre of impeachment proceedings were “ordered by the commander-in-chief, then ordered by myself.” If standing with the president put him in the firing line, he added, “I’ll take that company every day of the week.”
BBC News said Hegseth has frequently echoed Trump’s rhetoric and public statements, and did so repeatedly on Tuesday — attacks on the media, denunciations of political enemies and reflections of the very words the president uses. Referring to Trump’s 2019 impeachment over a call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, Hegseth described it as a “perfect phone call,” the exact formulation the president has used.
Behind the demonstrations of loyalty, BBC News reported, Hegseth is in a much weaker position. Republicans have just lost both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, with polls indicating the Iran war and its impact on voters’ pockets was at the heart of their unhappiness. Vice-President JD Vance has said bluntly that the war is why Republicans lost.
Asked on Tuesday morning about the political consequences of the war and Vance’s comments, Hegseth avoided disagreeing openly with the vice-president. He said the war was “not necessarily popular” but necessary — perhaps the closest he has come, in the BBC’s assessment, to accepting that Americans have soured on the enterprise.