Every passing month of a lengthening war in Iran, and every senior firing amid multiple reports of friction with his military leadership, has made Pete Hegseth appear increasingly vulnerable on his perch at the Pentagon. Yet there is a strong case that the opposite is true. Hegseth, in fighting his lonely war inside the Pentagon, and not yet able to bring the war in Iran to a conclusion even as President Donald Trump repeatedly claims victory, is rooted firmly in his place.
When Dan Driscoll resigned as Army secretary on August 31, he left behind a service with no Senate-confirmed civilian leader and no Senate-confirmed chief of staff. Driscoll, an Iraq veteran who wanted to modernize the military and make it ready for the new high-tech era of warfare, was also the official most often named as the man who would run the Pentagon if Hegseth ever stopped. That, right there, is the shape of one of Trump’s problems.
His defense secretary is extending deployments into 2027, Republican senators are calling for his removal, and an internal bench that could supply his replacement has been cleared—much of it by Hegseth. His own personnel decisions have thinned the structure that a successor would need. The removals that exposed Hegseth to criticism are the same that now make him harder to replace.
Moreover, Trump’s bold claims to have already won the war in Iran—which is still running hot, with fresh exchanges of fire this week—would be seriously undermined by the sudden removal of the top official leading what the president presents as a stunning victory. It would read as a verdict on the campaign itself; an expensive signal to send in the middle of one. Trump insists that he wants Hegseth exactly where he is.
But does he have much of a choice anymore? Roughly 50,000 U.S. troops are committed to the Middle East, and Hegseth has now ordered some of them to stay into next year, according to reporting drawn from the Pentagon’s classified force-allocation process. The cost is not only counted in months.
The Wall Street Journal reports a maintenance backlog from the extended deployments that could take years to clear. More telling, the commanders responsible for Europe, the Pacific and Latin America formally registered their disagreement with further extensions before agreeing to carry out the orders. Generals do not put dissent in writing casually.
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