Republicans fuming at Hegseth as war costs build
Semafor ·
Some lawmakers are resisting the Pentagon chief’s budget requests amid concerns over his leadership.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is running into a wall of congressional GOP resistance as he tries to secure $1.5 trillion for the Pentagon next year.
Lawmakers’ growing reluctance to fulfill Hegseth’s eye-popping budget request reflects real intraparty concerns about his leadership, his relationship with Congress, and the ongoing war with Iran. It also punctuates months of drama at the Pentagon over the ouster and resignation of various top officials, in addition to reports of blocked military promotions.
Hegseth’s fraying ties on the Hill put him on course for a bigger headache after the election, according to interviews with a half-dozen senators as well as multiple administration officials.
“This could turn into a real standoff with the military caught in the middle,” a Trump administration official told Semafor. “The implications: There won’t be money available to pay recruitment bonuses, money to upgrade military housing and repair military housing won’t be there, money to fix ships and aircraft from the war won’t be there, and money to restockpile munitions won’t be there.
“And the longer this drags out, the more dangerous it becomes, because we’re really depleted after the Iran war,” the official added.
Hegseth is pushing for both a sharp increase in military funding — he’s seeking spending more than 40% higher than last year — and a separate $88 billion to cover costs associated with the Iran war and additional weapons. The Pentagon chief’s expansive needs only heighten some Republicans’ skepticism of his leadership over the US military.
It does not appear that Hegseth has an executable plan to get the hundreds of billions in additional military funding he is requesting in the fall, one Republican senator told Semafor, adding that the lack of permanent civilian nominees to lead the Army and Navy are weighing on the Senate. Hegseth’s preferred pick for Army secretary, Sean Parnell, has faced questions over whether he could even be confirmed by the GOP Senate.
“There are a lot of people that are really upset with the war in Iran and how it’s being played out. We feel it’s hurting our chances in the elections in the fall, and it seems rather haphazard,” said the senator.
“We don’t like what we’re seeing when it comes to the pulling of officers off of the promotion lists,” this senator added. “We don’t like what we see with … indiscriminate firings of admirals and generals across the force.”
Hegseth retains the backing of President Donald Trump, despite his Republican doubters in Congress. Those closest to Trump currently see no chance that Hegseth is replaced. That would leave GOP lawmakers with little choice but to work with him, lest they risk holding up funding the White House says is badly needed.
“The president still is very much in Pete’s corner, but beneath him, there are very serious concerns,” the Trump official said. “Are they going to be able to get any additional money through? Are they going to be able to get any nominees confirmed?”
Most Republicans believe a party-line budget reconciliation bill is the best way to get the Pentagon more money after the election. But getting 50 out of the 53 GOP senators on board for that would be a major challenge.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who regrets voting to confirm Hegseth, said the secretary’s quandary “comes down to relationships, and I don’t think he’s built strong enough relationships.” Tillis said the first “meaningful briefing” he’s received on Iran occurred last week; the senator subsequently voted against continuing the war, along with three Republican colleagues.
Those four senators alone would be enough to tank a party-line defense spending bill. And given Hegseth’s distance from Congress, Tillis asked Semafor, “why is anybody going to blindly appropriate anything to him?”
“I agree there’s friction,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. “The genesis of that friction is different, depending upon the senator.”
The Trump administration can’t rely on Democrats to pass bipartisan legislation if multiple Republicans are already set to block Hegseth’s request. The secretary, as the administration official noted, is “not going to get Democrat votes — he just can’t do it.”
Kennedy agreed: “Anybody who thinks that we’re going to get money for the Pentagon, which needs it, other than through reconciliation, needs to put down the bong.” He urged Republicans “to sit down and talk about it.”
Hegseth’s supporters also acknowledge a rift that’s damaging the Pentagon’s ability to get what it wants. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said in an interview that the continued lack of engagement with Democrats “continues to be a strategic error” for Hegseth and his team.
“Republicans are frustrated that he hasn’t reached out to Democrats. He didn’t in his confirmation, and he hasn’t much since at all,” Cramer said.
Kingsley Wilson, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, said the administration conducted over 500 briefings on the budget request — some of them bipartisan — and said the department is “in lockstep with the Republican conference in Congress to achieve the President’s historic investment in defense.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
At the heart of the GOP frustration with Hegseth is his handling of military firings and promotions. Cramer supports much of what the secretary has done but acknowledged the turbulence has “bothered some people.
“And it probably has had an impact on morale a little bit,” Cramer added. “But all in all, I think Pete’s a pretty strong leader.”
Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, worked to arrange a bipartisan classified briefing about the administration’s funding request last week. The Senate Armed Services Committee also heard closed testimony from Hegseth’s top deputies, including Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg.
But Collins is cool to another party-line bill. “I don’t like reconciliation, period,” she told Semafor — and Hegseth, who she voted against.
“One of my concerns, which unfortunately has been borne out, was that he would fire a lot of very capable military officials, and he has done that. He has blocked promotions for some of our most capable military officers,” Collins said. “The number of women and Black people that had been struck from the list was awful.”
“He also is not the most respectful when it comes to Congress’ role,” she added. It’s something Republicans are urging Hegseth to fix.
Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., started prodding the Pentagon to go into sell mode last winter. He said he believes the $1.5 trillion top-line number is needed to maintain military superiority but said the administration has got “to communicate that better” to Congress.
“You’ve got to come up here and sell your vision to the board of directors of America, which is us,” Sheehy said. “Everyone has every right to be skeptical … [the Pentagon’s] been almost a symbol of bureaucratic dysfunction. It’s not quite Somali fraud in Minnesota, but it’s been some pretty dumb sh*t we spent money on.”
The upcoming election isn’t necessarily going to bring relief to Hegseth; in fact it might be the opposite, if Republicans lose serious ground in the midterms.
Several of the party’s candidates are now campaigning to end the Iran war, and it’s hard to see where 50 Senate votes for more funding will come from right now. And that’s not even getting into the fractious House.
Trump’s continued backing of Hegseth sets up a choice for Republicans, who have no realistic shot of ousting the defense secretary. They’ll have to decide whether to risk his ire (and military readiness) or hold their nose and vote the money through this year.
Because if Democrats take either chamber of Congress, it appears more military funding is off the table until the war ends.