In the fallout from losses in Tuesday's midterm elections for the Republican Party in state and federal races, Democrats are eyeing members of President Donald Trump's administration as targets for impeachment. One of the first names to float to the top has been that of Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth.
On Thursday afternoon, Hegseth put out a video in an X post, with his department's - and the president's clearly defined America First rules of engagement over the next two years with "the Democrats and the Deep State radicals" who hate us.
"President Trump's War Department has never been afraid to lead the way. Just like the president, we don't back down, and that especially applies now," he said.
"The next few months and years are critical for our department and our Republic," Hegseth said, reeling off a list of accomplishments of the first two years of Trump 47, with them "restor[ing] the DOW to its core function: warfighting"
Among the items were removing DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), firing failed leaders, and restoring deterrence all around the globe. The department has gotten recruitment numbers way up, too, as part of rebuilding our military "bigger, better, and stronger than ever before."
Then he dove into the reason the Left hates them. "Because we tore down their sacred cows, one by one, and without apology." He reminded everyone, as we have written about at RedState, that "DEI is a Marxist ideology built to destroy us." The department crushed it.
"Diversity is not our strength, our unity is," Hegseth said. "Men and women are not the same thing, but in the military, they must be held to the same standard."
"'Patriot extremism' is not a thing," he said. "Patriots are now in control."
Being trans is a mental illness incompatible with military service. Combatting climate change is not a military objective. Military bases should not be renamed in the name of understanding 'white rage.' The faith of our Founding Fathers - well, that faith belongs inside our formations.
"Generals work for elected civilians, not for the Pentagon bureaucracy," he said, then noted that while the U.S. continues to have a free press, they are not "free to roam our classified spaces here at the Pentagon."
He also spoke about how the DOW will continue to hunt down and kill narcoterrorists seeking to bring deadly fentanyl and other drugs into our country. Previous administrations were happy to arrest and release them. Hegseth chided our allies for not pulling their weight for their own defense.
"Sealing the border and mass deportations are military functions," he said. "And when we say that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon, we actually mean it," adding that "we will do the hard work to ensure" it stays that way in the Trump administration.
Hegseth addressed the perceived unpopularity of the Iran War during the midterms head-on:
Regardless of how people feel about the war, which I believe is a courageous and historic effort that will ensure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon we need to continue, as Pres. Trump did in his first term, to rebuild our military...The Department of War must be funded to meet the moment right now.
For that to happen, Hegseth asserted that DOW needs a "generational investment, a reconciliation bill of at least $350 billion." Passing that, he said, would require "every vote, from every patriotic member of Congress."
Hegseth began one statement with what might have been a slight slip: "They attack me - they attack us, because we are effective. It's not going to work. We're not going to back down."
He said that applies during the lame duck Congress, too, hitting former President Joe Biden and then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for "leav[ing] our country and this department in a terrible place, and we have had to fight every single day to restore it."
"'Peace through strength' is once again American military policy," Hegseth said.
In a defiant moment near the end of his video, the secretary also spoke about the "sham articles of impeachment" threat made against him:
This is not about me, but of course, the other side, in case you noticed, they're obsessed. A disgruntled, defeated congressman, along with all of his Democrat allies, has also dropped sham articles of impeachment against yours truly, just like they tried against President Trump - twice.
He had more to say.
Watch:
At the War Department: We Stand. We Fight. We Defend the Republic. https://t.co/Kkr0DazmCE
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) November 5, 2026
Editor's Note: Thanks to President Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth's leadership, the warrior ethos is coming back to America's military.
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