Yesterday, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky filed a well-deserved impeachment resolution against Pete Hegseth, on eight specific charges. And he filed it as a privileged resolution, which requires the House to act within two days.
Also yesterday, seven Republicans voted with Democrats to invoke the War Powers Act against President Trump’s undeclared war in Iran. The impact of the vote is only symbolic, but the fact that it got seven Republicans suggests that Massie just might peel off a few colleagues to vote to impeach Hegseth.
With the House divided 218-to-214, it would only take Massie plus two more. At the very least, forcing a record vote on impeaching Hegseth would be a huge embarrassment to Republicans.
In response, House Speaker Mike Johnson abruptly changed the schedule this morning, sending the House home Wednesday, in order to avoid the impeachment vote.
The previously published schedule by Majority Leader Steve Scalise had the House staying in session through this week, which would force a vote.
Their ability to go into recess early is the handiwork of two faithless Democrats. On Tuesday, Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state joined with Republicans to pass a rule to set up votes on bills to give Trump new powers to sanction Russia’s trading partners and to roll back some EPA regulations.
With this last bit of needed business done, it’s not yet clear when the House will go into recess. Democrats have urged Johnson to keep the House in session to take up AI legislation.
Meanwhile, with unerring timing, Hegseth has just issued orders that only the “fittest” troops will be welcome at his speech September 30 on the sad state of the military. This speech will echo his command-performance Quantico speech of last year for senior officers in which Hegseth disparaged “fat generals” and “beardos.”
In an email sent Tuesday to Army commanders, Hegseth’s office explained that this year’s event will include lower-ranking officers and NCOs. But to attend the event, service members must display a set “waist-to-height ratio” as well as “impeccable grooming and uniform standards (no exception).”
But of course, the true sad state of the military, with its badly depleted weapons and purged ranks of competent senior generals and civilian officials, is Hegseth’s own handiwork, as two just-released reports about failed preparations for the Iran war make all too clear.
According to new findings by the Congressional Budget Office, the Iran war has cost the Pentagon $38.1 billion through August 1 and will cost another $2 billion to $3 billion for each additional month of fighting. The CBO also found that the U.S. has used about two-thirds of its missile-defense interceptors since June 2025, and that replenishing them could take at least five years.
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The just-released Pentagon Inspector General Report adds that Iranian counterattacks damaged or destroyed “hundreds of buildings and structures” at U.S. military bases in “Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan.”
In addition to the latest CBO and IG reports on weapons depletion, The Wall Street Journal reports that the military had to use 70 or more high-end interceptor Patriot and THAAD missiles on just one recent Iranian attack on Jordan. They take years to replace. Lockheed Martin, which makes the Patriots, produced a record 620 of the interceptors in 2025 but is nowhere near its target of 2,000 a year.
As the Iran war is not only failing to reach its goals but is leaving the U.S. stripped of key defensive weapons systems needed in other, more strategic theaters, Hegseth’s obsession with the appearance and testosterone level of troops is the counterpart of Trump’s fixation with the Mall reflecting pool—a delusionary distraction.
Hegseth’s demand that only trim, fit, and well-shaven officers will be welcome at his September 30 address is a signal for the troops to go on fast-food binges and grow Wall Street–style beard stubble in order to be rejected, just as men in my generation worked to flunk their Vietnam draft physicals.
It’s all too fitting that the secretary of war is fixated on appearances. Trump appointed the utterly unqualified Hegseth only because he looked good on Fox.
Hegseth has repeatedly denied that the military is short of defensive weapons. With the Iran war in a state of costly and endless stalemate, you have to wonder why Trump keeps Hegseth around. Let’s see if he is still there on September 30.
