A Republican Wants Hegseth Impeached. Trump Fired Back: ‘Pete Hegseth Won Two Wars.’

Pete Hegseth ran the operation that captured Nicolás Maduro and the war that, by Trump’s count, has knocked out most of Iran’s ability to build weapons. On Monday, one Republican congressman asked the House to impeach him for it. President Trump wasn’t having it.

“So I say this: Pete Hegseth won two wars,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Oh, let’s impeach him.”

What Massie filed

Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky stood on the House floor shortly after 2 p.m. Monday and read eight articles of impeachment aloud, according to The Well News. House rules let any member force action on a “question of the privileges of the House,” and the House must take it up within two legislative days. That sets up a vote as early as Wednesday.

Three of the articles are about the war in Iran, which began Feb. 28. The others cover the strikes on suspected drug boats, the Jan. 3 raid in Caracas that captured Maduro, the 2025 bombing of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and Hegseth’s treatment of Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat.

Massie is on his way out. He lost his primary to Trump-backed Ed Gallrein and leaves Congress in January. He has fought Trump on the Iran war for months.

Trump’s answer

Asked whether he’d watched Massie lay out the charges, Trump said no. “Massie is a loser,” he said, calling him “a stone-cold loser” who “shouldn’t be taking up the time of Congress.”

Then he made the case for Hegseth. “He won the war in Venezuela,” Trump said, calling that operation “flawless,” and added that Hegseth is “certainly winning the war” in Iran. He compared that to Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, wars where he said “nothing was won.”

“In one case, he’s not going to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said of Iran. “And in the other, we’re making hundreds of billions of dollars for this country.”

Hegseth sounded ready for the fight too. “If you want to take issue with what we did in Epic Fury or Rough Rider or nabbing Nicolás Maduro,” he said earlier Monday, according to the Associated Press, he’s eager to argue it out.

Where Iran stands

Trump said Iran’s ability to build weapons is “basically about 85% gone.” It can still make “some limited numbers of missiles and drones,” he said, and its leaders are “talking very politely.”

For now, he said, it’s “really status quo territory.” The U.S. has “the greatest military blockade ever,” now joined by what he called the new Iron Gate effort, “by land and by sea.” He didn’t promise peace. “I don’t guarantee anything,” he said. “But if we do have to go back in, we are locked and loaded and ready to go.”

Trump was also set to host Qatar’s prime minister at the White House on Monday, CBS News reported, as talks with Iran continue.

What happens next

Republicans still hold the House until January, and the vote could come midweek. It will put every member on the record: stand with the man who carried out Trump’s orders in Iran and Venezuela, or side with a congressman his own voters just sent home.