Key Pentagon priorities in peril after Democratic sweep
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Tuesday's election was great for Democrats. It was bad for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and some of the White House's most ambitious national security projects.
Why it matters: Surprise wins across the map for Democrats — including in the Deep South — complicate a lot for the Trump administration.
- Republicans have relied on a simple-majority funding mechanism known as reconciliation to pay for marquee projects like Golden Dome. That option is now a long shot over the next few months, and impossible after that.
- Outrage over the Iran war, well beyond the half-year mark, is sure to turbocharge a long list of congressional inquiries.
- And lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including Reps. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), have suggested impeaching Hegseth.
Follow the money: Defense analysts agree prospects for the administration's full $1.5 trillion defense budget look grim.
- A Wednesday note from TD Cowen's Washington Research Group warned "Trump 'branded' projects are dead." Golden Dome, Golden Fleet and "other signature efforts," it added, "will be curbed."
- Meanwhile, Todd Harrison, an American Enterprise Institute defense budget expert, said it's unlikely the lame-duck congressional session will pass reconciliation and instead will keep the defense budget operating under a continuing resolution into next year.
- "They're all at risk," Harrison said of reconciliation-backed programs. "My base expectation is nothing happens on the defense budget."
The other side: The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.
Between the lines: Some of the most powerful Republican lawmakers on defense matters were defeated or are on pace to lose.
- Sen. Susan Collins, the appropriations chairwoman, lost to Troy Jackson in Maine.
- Sen. Darline Graham, also on appropriations, lost to Annie Andrews in South Carolina.
- Rep. Jen Kiggans, a member of the armed services and veterans affairs committees, lost to Elaine Luria in Virginia.
- And as of Wednesday afternoon, Reps. Rob Wittman of Virginia, Mike Turner of Ohio, Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee and Jeff Crank of Colorado all trailed their Democratic challengers.
What they're saying: Hegseth himself may be on the hot seat.
- "Secretary Hegseth's chaotic and incompetent leadership has made America weaker and less safe, and now he will be forced to answer for it," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), a member of the appropriations, armed services and intelligence committees, told Axios.
- "We owe it to our service members, our military families and the American people to make sure that" Hegseth and the broader Trump administration "are held fully accountable," she added.
Yes, but: President Trump told reporters he's not considering replacing Hegseth. "No, I think he's doing a very good job," he said.
The bottom line: "People do expect there will be investigations and there will be oversight and all that, and certainly that will have an impact," VJ Sahi, a partner at strategic advisory firm Clark Street Associates, told Axios.
- But the "degree of the impact," he added, remains "TBD."
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