The man who championed the Iran war now faces the first serious question over his own job. US President Donald Trump has been asking advisers, in person and by phone, whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should stay in his post after Republicans lost both chambers of Congress in Tuesday's midterm elections, CBS News reported on Wednesday, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter. The sources stressed that Trump has not decided to replace Hegseth — but the question itself, asked within a day of the defeat, has put the Pentagon's leadership at the centre of the fight over who pays for the war.

Source: CBS News

Publicly, Trump said the opposite. Asked by reporters on Wednesday whether he was considering replacing Hegseth, Trump replied: "No, I think he's doing a very good job" — the same backing he had given Hegseth hours earlier at the White House ballroom ceremony, reported separately by Awaaz Punjab. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told CBS that Trump "has full confidence in Secretary Hegseth", praising the military operations in Iran and Venezuela. The contrast between the public vote of confidence and the private sounding-out of advisers is the story: in Washington, a president asking the question out loud, even through sources, is how a cabinet exit usually begins.

Source: Reuters

Trump first backed Hegseth in public at Wednesday's ballroom ceremony, where he also defended the Iran war itself. Read: Trump defends the Iran war at the ballroom ceremony

Why Hegseth is exposed: he sold the war

Hegseth is not a bystander to the conflict that cost Republicans Congress — by Trump's own account, he was its first salesman. Trump said on March 23: "Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up, and you said, 'Let's do it, because you can't let them have a nuclear weapon.'" On Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance publicly questioned whether the Iran war was worth it and said it cost Republicans control of Congress. One Trump adviser told Reuters that Hegseth "could be on the chopping block" because of the war, adding: "Someone is going to get blamed for this and you know it's not going to be him (Trump)." CBS reported that some White House aides expect part of the blame to fall instead on Admiral Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, and General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who both played major roles in guiding the Iran campaign.

Source: Reuters / CBS News

The congressional threat is concrete, not rhetorical. Republican Senator Thom Tillis told CBS on Tuesday night that Hegseth has "a reckoning" coming and that his strained relationship with lawmakers was undermining the administration's push for a $1.5 trillion defence spending package: "I think after the election, we need to determine whether or not he's the best person to bring those needs to Congress if he wants something done before the end of this Congress, which is only 60 days away." Republican Representative Thomas Massie filed articles of impeachment against Hegseth earlier this year, accusing him of abusing his office by launching hostilities against Iran without approval by Congress. Democrats, who take control of both chambers next year, have promised investigations into everything from his handling of the Iran war to his purges of top military officers, his Ukraine policy and US strikes on suspected drug boats in Latin American waters. Representative Adam Smith, expected to lead the House Armed Services Committee, promised vigorous oversight of what he called the erosion of the "apolitical foundation of the armed forces".

Source: Reuters

The DeSantis route, as floated by one CBS source, is built around the calendar: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis could be confirmed by the Senate during the lame-duck session, while Republicans still hold the chamber, and then take the Pentagon job when his term as governor ends on January 5. A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that the anger on Capitol Hill over Hegseth has featured in White House discussions about potential replacements, on the argument that a successor would need to be someone who could distance themselves from events coming under Democratic scrutiny. Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said Hegseth would continue to drive Trump's agenda and that the Pentagon "has followed the law", adding: "Secretary Hegseth will not back down or be deterred by politicians seeking to score partisan points or launch phony investigations where no wrongdoing exists."

Source: CBS News / Reuters

The Rumsfeld parallel — and the Senate-seat exit

Washington veterans hear an echo of 2006, when President George W. Bush fired Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld the morning after midterm elections in which voter anger over the Iraq war handed Congress to the Democrats, Reuters noted. Trump, so far, has done the opposite in public. One long-rumoured soft landing for Hegseth is the US Senate: Senator Marsha Blackburn was elected on Tuesday to become Tennessee's next governor from January, leaving four years of her Senate term to be filled by appointment. Hegseth is a Tennessee resident who voted there on Tuesday. Asked whether he wanted Hegseth to fill Blackburn's seat, Trump said: "Well, I think, 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." Last month, Trump publicly split with Hegseth by cancelling his plan to livestream the Army's firing-squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, a plan that had drawn objections from Republicans, religious leaders and international observers.

Source: Reuters

What happens next

For the Iran war, the stakes are direct: Hegseth runs the Pentagon that is running the campaign — the Qeshm Island strikes, the Hormuz operations and any post-midterms escalation decision all pass through his office. A change at the top, or months of a secretary fighting for survival, would land in the middle of the Qatar-mediated talks and Tehran's seven conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The next signals to watch are whether Trump repeats the public backing when the lame-duck Congress takes up the $1.5 trillion defence package, whether the DeSantis talk hardens into a nomination, and whether blame settles on Hegseth or is redirected to Cooper and Caine. Until Trump speaks beyond Wednesday's one line, Hegseth stays — but, on the reporting of two American newsrooms, no longer unquestioned.

Source: Reuters / CBS News