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Hegseth Pitches His $1.5 Trillion Defense Budget on Capitol Hill and Locks Democrats Out of Every Classified Briefing — and It Is Senate Republicans Who Tell Him to Stop

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made at least two closed-door trips to Capitol Hill in early August 2026 to sell President Trump's record $1.5 trillion defense budget, and lawmakers in both parties said he excluded Democrats from every session. The sharpest criticism came from Republicans on the Armed Services Committee, who warned that the appropriations portion of the package cannot pass without Democratic votes. Sen. Thom Tillis said Hegseth "calls himself the secretary of war" but will not "go to war and win the argument with nearly half the members of the Senate." Sen. Lisa Murkowski said the briefings "need to be bipartisan," and Sen. Mike Rounds said Democrats "need to be brought up to speed," while adding that classified material must stay classified. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on Foreign Relations, said the pattern extended past the Pentagon to routine committee-staff briefings. Senate Democrats threatened to withhold support from defense spending bills over the exclusions. The Pentagon said it "remains fully committed to working with Congress."

“[It] comes down to relationships, and I don't think he's built strong enough relationships. … [W]hy is anybody going to blindly appropriate anything to him?”

Senate Democrats Demand a Navy Accounting for the USS Abraham Lincoln's Record 250-Day Deployment as Hegseth Calls Reports of Sailors Going Overboard "Completely Misrepresented"

On Wednesday, August 12, 2026, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao demanding an accounting of conditions aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 3 supporting operations in the war against Iran. The Lincoln left San Diego in November 2025 on what was scheduled as a roughly seven-month deployment. By mid-August 2026 it had been at sea more than 250 days and had gone more than 200 days without a port call, a record for consecutive days at sea. Reporting by Military Times and Stars and Stripes, drawing on sailors' families, described shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing failures, deck safety problems, disrupted mail, and deteriorating mental health aboard the ship — including accounts that at least two sailors had been stopped from jumping overboard and that another entered the water and was recovered. A U.S. official confirmed to ABC News that a sailor went overboard in early August and was quickly recovered; CENTCOM disputed the broader characterization. Blumenthal's letter was joined by demands from other Senate Democrats: Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) called for a bipartisan congressional delegation to visit the ship, and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), a former Navy combat pilot, called the reports "disturbing" and tied them to an undefined mission. On Thursday, August 13, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called for Hegseth's firing. Hegseth pushed back the same day, telling reporters the accounts were "completely misrepresented" and defending the Navy's support for the crew. A Navy official said the Lincoln was "operating in a highly contested environment where traditional supply hubs in the Middle East were disrupted by combat actions" and that the command had not identified an increase in reported suicidal ideation. The Pentagon subsequently announced the USS George Washington would deploy to the Middle East to relieve the Lincoln. No Senate or House Republican was found on the record about the Lincoln's conditions during this window; Congress was in August recess.

“That this administration can find endless taxpayer dollars for bombs, ballrooms, and billionaires, but cannot take care of our service members, is completely unacceptable. … The American people need hearings, accountability and a clear plan to protect our service members and prioritize American families.”

After Seven Working Days Since Summer Recess, the House Cancels Thursday's Votes and Goes Home Until the Midterms — Speaker Johnson Says "The House Has Done Its Work," Hakeem Jeffries Says the "American People Deserve Better Than a Do-Nothing Republican Congress," and Two Republicans Say Out Loud That the Job Is Not Finished

On September 16, 2026, House Republican leaders cancelled Thursday's votes and sent members home until after the November midterms — closing a post-recess session that ran just seven working days. Left on the floor were AI legislation, further action on the Russia sanctions package, and the privileged resolution Thomas Massie had filed to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Speaker Mike Johnson framed it as members returning to their districts to make their case to voters, and said he would bring the House back on 48 hours' notice if the Senate moved legislation. He rejected the charge that the cancellation was designed to duck the Hegseth impeachment vote as "ridiculous." Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries called it a do-nothing Congress and argued the House should not leave town without acting on the pace of AI development. Notably, the sharpest objections also came from Johnson's own conference: Chip Roy and Ralph Norman both said publicly that the House should stay until the work was done. Stances below are relative to the decision to adjourn: "support" backs going home, "oppose" wanted the House to stay.

“It's ridiculous to suggest that canceling Thursday's votes was meant to avoid the vote on impeaching Hegseth.”

Trump Military Strikes on Alleged Drug Boats in Caribbean and Pacific

Beginning September 2, 2025, the Trump administration launched a sustained military campaign of lethal strikes against vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific that the administration described as drug-trafficking boats operated by designated narco-terrorist organizations, principally Venezuela's Tren de Aragua. The first strike — announced personally by President Trump — killed 11 people on a vessel that had departed Venezuela. By late March 2026, the U.S. military had conducted more than 47 strikes on at least 48 vessels, killing at least 163 people, under what the Pentagon branded "Operation Southern Spear." The campaign has triggered an escalating war powers and legality fight in Congress. The Washington Post revealed in November 2025 that on the very first strike Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had given a "kill them all" order, and that a follow-on "double tap" strike killed two survivors clinging to the burning wreckage. Both House and Senate Armed Services committees opened bipartisan probes. Sens. Tim Kaine, Adam Schiff, Rand Paul and Chuck Schumer forced repeat war powers votes, all defeated by the Republican Senate majority — most recently on January 8, 2026 (52-47 to advance, then defeated on final passage). Critics across both parties argue the strikes are extrajudicial killings without congressional authorization and may constitute war crimes; defenders, led by Secretary Rubio and Sen. Lindsey Graham, characterize the boats' operators as terrorists in an "armed conflict" with the United States.

“Well again, it depends, and we still blow up ships.”

The Pentagon Fires the Publisher, Editor-in-Chief and a Reporter of Stars and Stripes for "Insubordination" — the Editor Says It Was for Saying on CBS That Censoring the Troops’ Newspaper Would Be a Red Line

On Friday, August 21, 2026, the Pentagon issued separation notices to three people at Stars and Stripes: publisher Max Lederer, who had held the job for 19 years; editor-in-chief Erik Slavin; and Middle East reporter Lara Korte. The stated cause was insubordination. Slavin said he was told his dismissal was tied to a "CBS Sunday Morning" segment that aired in July, in which he was asked a hypothetical about censorship of news for service members and answered that it would be a red line. Stars and Stripes is partially funded by the Defense Department but has operated with statutory editorial independence since the Civil War era. The firings capped a months-long sequence: a March memo tightening the department's oversight of the newsroom and imposing content restrictions; the April termination of the paper's ombudsman, a post Congress created specifically to protect its independence; and, this month, the installation of an active-duty Navy public affairs officer, Capt. William Urban, as a "military deputy" to the publisher — reportedly without consulting Lederer, who announced his retirement days later. Defense Department spokesman Sean Parnell was unapologetic, saying the department would "refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale" and that the paper would be "custom tailored to our warfighters." Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called the firings "political interference and intimidation" and said he would seek Senate Armed Services Committee hearings and changes in the National Defense Authorization Act. The day before the firings, Blumenthal, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) had written to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demanding answers by August 28 about the Urban appointment and Lederer's departure. The firings followed Stars and Stripes reporting on conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln during its record 250-day deployment — coverage that is itself the subject of a separate Senate inquiry.

“They fired the editor of the Stars and Stripes, an independent newspaper that’s been around since 1861.”

Hegseth Pentagon Purge of Senior Military Officers

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired or forced out more than a dozen senior military officers since taking office, including Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. CQ Brown, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George. The purge, framed as removing "woke" generals and restoring a "warrior ethos," has drawn bipartisan concern — particularly after the firing of Gen. George in April 2026 during the active U.S.-Iran conflict. Five former defense secretaries condemned the firings as "reckless" in a joint letter to Congress.

“He seems to be firing some pretty good people. Whether they deserve it or not, I don't know. I voted for him. I'd probably vote for him again.”

Three Four-Star Combatant Commanders and the Chief of Naval Operations Formally Tell Hegseth "Non-Concur" on Extending the Iran War — and When It Leaks, the Pentagon's Answer Is That Publishing It "Is a Crime"

The August 14, 2026 edition of the Secretary of Defense Orders Book — the classified internal document that allocates which forces go where — asked the services and the combatant commands to sign off on extending the units committed to the Iran war. According to reporting published by The Washington Post on August 30, they did not. The commanders of U.S. European Command, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. Southern Command, along with Adm. Daryl Caudle, the chief of naval operations, entered a formal "non-concur" — the military's institutional way of putting disagreement on the record. The chiefs of the Army and Air Force concurred but attached warnings that doing so carried significant risk. The substance of the objection was readiness. With so many aircraft, ships and air-defense systems pulled into the Iran campaign, the commanders responsible for Europe, the Pacific and Latin America told Hegseth they could not execute their own war plans if a crisis opened in their theaters — or, in one framing, defend the homeland. Caudle told Hegseth the Navy cannot sustain its current contribution when the campaign has no anticipated end date, and reported that barely a quarter of the destroyer fleet was ready to deploy. The Pentagon's public response was not to engage the readiness argument but to attack the disclosure. Chief spokesman Sean Parnell wrote that publishing the orders book is "a crime" and "a betrayal of the force," while simultaneously arguing that non-concurs are routine and that the secretary "sees them constantly." A Washington Post spokesperson said the paper was confident in its reporting and sourcing. In Congress — still in recess until mid-September, which sharply limited on-record reaction over the holiday weekend — the first responses came from House Democrats. Rep. Gil Cisneros, a Navy veteran on Armed Services, said the episode was "another example of mismanagement by Pete Hegseth" and that his decisions "will have a negative impact on readiness for years to come." Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a senior Intelligence Committee member, tied it directly to China: with the carrier USS George Washington moved out of the Pacific and munitions stockpiles depleted, he told Bloomberg the United States is inviting Beijing to test it over Taiwan.

“The Department does not comment on internal personnel or investigative matters but takes all leaks of classified national security information extremely seriously and investigates accordingly. Securing classified information is critical to ensuring the security of the United States and of our troops deployed around the world.”

The Army Secretary Quits After Eighteen Months of Losing to Hegseth Over Who Gets to Be a General — and the Senate Armed Services Ranking Democrat Says the Defense Secretary Is "Cultivating a Culture Where Dissent Is Punished"

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll submitted his resignation to the White House on Monday, August 31, 2026, effective September 3, after eighteen months of escalating conflict with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over control of Army senior officer promotions. Driscoll, an Iraq War veteran, tech investor and close friend of Vice President JD Vance whom he met at Yale Law School, became the youngest Army secretary in history at 38 and was known inside the building as the president's "drone guy" for his focus on Army modernization. The break point was personnel. Hegseth has removed at least 45 officers from promotion lists selected by their own peers this year, more than half of them women or Black officers, and in late August pulled four more Army colonels off the brigadier general list over their ties to Gen. Randy George — the Army chief of staff Hegseth fired without explanation in April — and Gen. Chris Donahue, the U.S. Army Europe and Africa commander he ousted in June. Reporting indicates Driscoll refused to strike names from a promotion list when Hegseth asked, and Hegseth did it himself. In his resignation, Driscoll raised concerns about Army transformation and readiness and about Hegseth blocking those efforts by firing the generals responsible. The White House praised Driscoll's tenure without acknowledging the dispute. Hegseth is reportedly weighing Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell as a successor, a pick that would face a difficult Senate confirmation. Driscoll was unusually well regarded by lawmakers in both parties, and the reactions to his exit split along a familiar line: Republicans praised the departing secretary, Democrats used the occasion to indict the man he was fighting.

“I am pleased to announce that Adam Telle, the current Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, will become Acting Secretary of the Army, effective immediately. He is a Great Patriot, who is respected by all.”

The Secretary of Defense Posts a Photo of Two Teenage Canadian Cadets and Writes "This Is Real" — the Pentagon Says the Post "Speaks for Itself," and an Arizona Senator Answers That These Are "Sycophants" Putting American Security at Risk

On Monday, August 31, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X an image taken at the Cadet Training Centre in Vernon, British Columbia — two young women in uniform — captioned "this is real" beside a Canadian flag. The Royal Canadian Army Cadets is a youth program; its members are not members of the Canadian Armed Forces. The replies filled with commentary on the cadets' appearance. The post was the third disparagement of Canada's military by a senior Trump administration official inside nine days. Vice President JD Vance told an audience in Brewer, Maine on August 24 that Canada "quite literally would get invaded by a foreign country" without American protection. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Fox News Sunday on August 23 that Canada "doesn't have a military." All of it landed while the 50 percent Section 338 tariffs were in force and Ottawa was preparing retaliatory duties for September 8. Asked about the backlash on Tuesday, September 1, Pentagon deputy press secretary Jacob Bliss said only: "The X post speaks for itself." Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), a Marine veteran and a member of the Armed Services Committee, was the sharpest American voice against it. Prime Minister Mark Carney's government said the remarks were "beneath their office," and B.C. Premier David Eby called the whole episode an embarrassment. Canada has 158 war dead from Afghanistan, a war it entered after the United States was attacked.

“What you’re seeing is a reflection of these sycophants that are just trying to make this president happy and not understand that they are potentially putting our security in danger.”

A Democratic Senator and a Republican Congressman Jointly Tell Hegseth to Reverse the 30 Percent Cut to U.S. Fighter Jets Committed to NATO — "Deterring Russia Is Far Less Costly Than Fighting a War With Russia"

On August 19, 2026, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) and Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) sent a bipartisan letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth urging the Department to reverse planned reductions in the forces the United States commits to NATO operations in Europe. Earlier in the summer, U.S. European Command announced it would scale back its NATO commitment, including a roughly 30 percent cut to fighter jets, a reduction in reconnaissance aircraft, and the withdrawal of aerial refueling tankers. The lawmakers wrote that the decision and the speed of its implementation would weaken allied deterrence and send a troubling signal to Moscow at a moment of strain in the transatlantic relationship. The letter asked Hegseth to reconsider the cuts and to provide Congress, in writing by August 31, 2026, an explanation of how the United States intends to uphold its commitments to allied security. It arrives against a Congress that has already tried to fence in the drawdown: the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act set a 76,000-troop floor for U.S. forces in Europe and, through a provision secured by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), requires the administration to consult Congress and allies before changing force posture there. Neguse and Bacon lead the bipartisan effort from opposite parties — Bacon, a retired Air Force brigadier general, has been among the most consistent Republican critics of the administration's Europe drawdown.

“I doubt that Congress will approve, at this critical moment, reduction in force structure in Europe when Putin is more dangerous and threatening than ever.”

Hegseth Polled the Nine Combatant Commanders on Killing the Military's Civilian-Protection Program Expecting Them to Call It "Woke" — Every One Said Keep It, and He Cut It Anyway

ProPublica reported on August 25, 2026 that before gutting the Pentagon's Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response program, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put the question to the nation's top combatant commanders. He appears to have expected them to agree with him that protecting civilians was a "woke" distraction from "maximum lethality." Instead, according to internal documents and current and former defense officials, every command that answered said the program should be preserved. Gen. Erik Kurilla appealed the decision directly. Hegseth made the cuts regardless. CHMR was created by Congress and built out over more than a decade of bipartisan work following civilian-casualty failures in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Somalia. Under Hegseth the Defense Department fired the staff of the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence and cut CHMR positions at the combatant commands by more than 90 percent. Hegseth has publicly framed the broader project in his own words: "We became 'the woke department.' … We're done with that shit," and "No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement." The consequences arrived with the Iran war. The U.S. military has killed hundreds of noncombatants since the mission was gutted, including a strike on a school. A Defense Department inspector general report and the resulting congressional letters became the paper trail. After the blowback, the department is now weighing a partial restoration of the program it dismantled. Congress had been on this before the August revelation. On April 20, Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) opened an investigation with nine colleagues, writing that Hegseth's attempts to gut the institutions "contradicts more than a decade of bipartisan consensus and DoD-led reforms." On July 6, Warren led ten lawmakers — including combat veterans Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) — in a letter accusing the administration of acting "potentially in violation of federal law." Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the ranking Democrat on House Armed Services, told Hegseth flatly: "You are in violation of the law right now on civilian harm." No Republican member of Congress is on record about the commanders' poll as of publication. The Pentagon's response to the letters has been that it "will respond directly to the authors."

“No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement.”

The Pentagon Publishes the Clinical Rules for Hegseth's Mandatory Testosterone Testing — and Pulls Them Down the Next Day — Seven Weeks After a Senator Who Lost Both Legs in Iraq Said the Program Sounded "Like Gender-Affirming Care to Me"

On September 2, 2026 the Pentagon posted a draft "Clinical Guidance for Health and Human Performance Optimization" implementing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's July order that every active-duty and reserve service member aged 30 and older be screened annually for testosterone deficiency, with separate screening pathways written for men and women. On September 3 the document and the accompanying statement from Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell were removed from the website. A U.S. official said the draft "has been temporarily rescinded to allow for updates," and that interim guidance remains in force — so the mandate itself stands while the clinical rules for carrying it out are rewritten. Hegseth announced the program on July 15, 2026, framing it as restoring rather than enhancing capability and calling it necessary for troops to operate at their "absolute best." Screening is mandatory at 30 and up and voluntary below it, with testosterone replacement therapy available to those who test low. No other military requires the screening absent a specific medical indication, and four of six physicians surveyed by Military Times said there was no solid evidence that universal screening at 30 would improve readiness. The Democratic reaction has run along two lines. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Army veteran who lost both legs in Iraq, and Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, an Air Force veteran, both pointed out that a government-funded hormone program for men sits awkwardly beside the same administration's ban on hormone therapy for transgender troops, and both asked why the screening does not extend to women in uniform given elevated infertility rates in the force. Houlahan called it the department's "latest culture-war obsession"; Sen. Mark Kelly, a Navy combat pilot, called the change simply "weird."