Hegseth in the Hot Seat

What It Covers

NYT reporter Eric Schmitt analyzes Pete Hegseth's first congressional testimony in a year before the Senate Armed Services Committee, covering the $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget request, the two-month-old Iran war at a stalemate, and pointed Democratic challenges to Hegseth's management style and accountability.

Key Questions Answered

• •Budget scale: The FY2027 Pentagon budget request totals $1.5 trillion — $500 billion more than the current year's budget — funding munition stockpile replenishment, Navy rebuilding, and a new anti-missile system called Golden Dome. Understanding the scale helps contextualize why this annual hearing carries unusually high political and fiscal stakes.
• •War Powers deadline: The Iran war triggers the War Powers Act's 60-day congressional authorization deadline, which fell the day after the hearing. Hegseth argued a current ceasefire pauses the clock — a legal interpretation legal scholars consulted by the Times rejected as unsupported, leaving the White House's next move legally and constitutionally unresolved.
• •Republican deference pattern: Senate Republicans on the Armed Services Committee asked zero critical questions about the Iran war, contrasting sharply with pointed GOP questioning of other cabinet members like Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi, which contributed to their departures. This signals the Iran war remains a protected political topic within the Republican caucus.
• •Election security gap: Senator Alyssa Slotkin pressed Hegseth directly on whether he would refuse a presidential order to deploy military forces to seize ballots or voting machines in the 2026 midterms. Hegseth deflected repeatedly, and only after Republican committee chair prompting offered a narrow statement that he had never been ordered to do anything illegal.
• •Insider trading exposure: Senator Elizabeth Warren raised a Financial Times report that Hegseth's broker attempted to purchase hundreds of shares in a BlackRock defense fund just before the Iran war began. The Times found no evidence supporting the allegation. Separately, a US special forces soldier was arrested for using classified Venezuela operation details to earn $400,000 on prediction markets.