Vote on Pete Hegseth: Missed the right time

Introduced on Monday, voted down on Tuesday: the incumbent Republican majority in the US House of Representatives cleared the impeachment proceedings against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at record speed. The MPs once again demonstrated their full loyalty to President Donald Trump.

What the punished Republicans actually have in common is the urgent need to blame the economic consequences of the Iran war solely for the election defeat. Hegseth, as well as a minister who is not very valued within his own ranks, would be the right scapegoat.

The then President George W. Bush demonstrated how this could be done almost exactly 20 years ago. When the Republicans were defeated in the midterms in November 2006 after five years of war in Afghanistan and more than three years in Iraq, Bush fired his Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld the day after the election.

Trump missed the moment with Hegseth, and before he could show initiative himself, the impeachment proceedings forestalled him. This, in turn, urgently had to be rejected with Republican unity: all the accusations brought forward by Republican Trump opponent Thomas Massie were aimed just as much at Hegseth as at Trump himself. Rather, the President had to stand behind Hegseth in a way that now ties his hands.

For the time being at least, the impeachment proceedings have secured Pete Hegseth's stay in the Pentagon. But Trump doesn't have much of a window of opportunity if he wants to complete the cabinet reshuffle he announced after the election in a relatively intact manner. As of January 3rd, the Democrats have the majority in the Senate - from then on Trump will no longer push through such unqualified nominations. So it has to be quick.

In this respect, the most likely scenario is that Hegseth will resign on his own initiative next week - for purely personal reasons, of course. Then Trump can announce a new beginning.