Why Pete Hegseth Just Became More Valuable to Donald Trump

Newsweek · Shane Croucher · 2026-11-05 10:29 UTC

Perspective: George W. Bush answered a war-driven midterm rout by replacing his defense secretary. Trump’s incentives point the other way.

Twenty years ago this week, President George W. Bush walked into the East Room the day after his party’s midterm defeat—a "thumping," as he put it, three years into Iraq and five for Afghanistan—and announced that Donald Rumsfeld was leaving the Pentagon.

President Donald Trump just received an almighty thumping of his own, mostly because of his own Middle Eastern adventurism in Iran, which blew back as a painful energy price pinch on already hard-pressed Americans.

Since Tuesday night, the president has reportedly been asking advisers whether his embattled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should stay.

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