Trump Backs Hegseth After Midterm Losses as Impeachment Vote and Job Questions Loom

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is "doing a very good job," after CBS News reported that Trump had asked advisers whether Hegseth should keep his post following Republican losses in Tuesday's midterm elections. Democrats won the House and Senate. NBC exit polls showed 74 percent of voters called the Iran war a crucial or major factor in their vote. Asked about Hegseth taking the Tennessee Senate seat of Marsha Blackburn, who won the governor's race, Trump said he would be "very popular" but that he had not heard of the idea. The Iran war has lasted more than eight months, cost an estimated $47 billion and killed more than 20 American service members. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) introduced impeachment articles in September, and Speaker Mike Johnson sent the House home early to avoid a vote. Massie has said he will push for a vote in the first week of the lame-duck session after Congress returns next week. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said Hegseth faces a "reckoning." CBS sources named Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a possible replacement.

Left-leaning outlets read the results as a verdict on the war. Slate's headline ties the "blue tsunami" to the war and high prices and asks whether Democrats can use their majorities against Trump's policies. The New Republic leads with Trump preparing to "dump" Hegseth, citing CBS, the NBC poll and possible successors, and does not feature Trump's denial in the opening. The right-leaning Washington Examiner agrees on the election outcome and the war's role, but leads with Trump's public support for Hegseth and frames his job security as an open question. It adds the war's cost and casualties and Tillis's criticism, and says impeachment talk comes mostly from Democrats. The left stresses internal White House doubts and the war's electoral damage; the right stresses Trump's statement and Republican criticism. Antiwar.com and Reason offer a distinct angle: the coming House impeachment vote, which Reason argues Republicans should support.