Pete Hegseth

Pete Hegseth was confirmed as Secretary of Defense by the narrowest margin in modern history, Vice President Vance casting the tie-breaking vote, after a nomination by Donald Trump. A Princeton and Harvard Kennedy School graduate, he served in the Army National Guard with deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay before a decade as a FOX News weekend host.

On 29 April 2026, Hegseth filed a 27-page Posture Statement to HASC (the House Armed Services Committee), signed Secretary of War. The phrase DoW (Department of War) appears 18 times in FY27 appropriations text; Operation EPIC FURY is named in a congressional document for the first time; NATO allies who refused base and overflight rights during the Iran campaign are condemned as 'unconscionable, and we will remember' . The statement surfaces a $25 billion Iran war cost, the first public figure of the conflict, mostly munitions, and a $1.5 trillion FY27 defence request, 40% above FY26 and the largest absolute rise since 2003. He led the campaign overseeing over 9,000 targets struck and 130 Iranian warships destroyed in the first 25 days .

His management of the conflict has drawn scrutiny from both parties. Republican opposition blocked the $200 billion war supplemental , and DNI Tulsi Gabbard contradicted Pentagon claims under oath. He held a 7 April press conference claiming the day's strike volume was 'the largest since Day 1' as both US carriers repositioned out of Iranian missile range and Iranian outbound volume reached its lowest level since the war began . Hegseth's transition from cable news pundit to wartime defence secretary, now publicly rebranding the department he leads, is without precedent in American history.

On 12 May 2026, testifying before Senate Appropriations, Hegseth declared Trump holds all authority he needs under Article 2 of the Constitution and that a congressional Iran AUMF is unnecessary, the first time a cabinet officer made this claim under oath. Murkowski's bipartisan AUMF collapsed within 24 hours. His claim that a Ceasefire pauses the WPR 60-day clock has no basis in the 1973 statutory text.

On 10-11 June 2026, CENTCOM completed a second consecutive day of strikes on Iran, hitting military surveillance, communications and air-defence sites at western Tehran, Sirik and Minab. Hegseth publicly framed the strikes as designed to set the terms for a deal, saying Iran 'would be wise to take it', a negotiate-with-bombs posture casting consecutive days of US bombardment as preconditions for a settlement rather than as war aims in their own right. Trump ordered the strikes verbally from the Oval Office with no AUMF, no Article 51 notice to the UN and no signed instrument, repeating the method of the first order.

On 21 July 2026, Hegseth told the Senate Appropriations Committee the campaign has cost $37.5 billion so FAR, the first official figure Washington has attached to the war, giving no accounting basis for whether it is obligated, appropriated or incremental spending, with Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine beside him. Ranking member Patty Murray said the committee would not rubber-stamp the request; Dick Durbin said the two witnesses could not explain how the money would be spent.