President Donald Trump has claimed the House vote as a complete vindication of his Secretary of War. Posting on Truth Social on Tuesday night, after the House voted 211-204 to send Rep. Thomas Massie's eight articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth to the Judiciary Committee, Trump declared that the impeachment attempt had "miserably FAILED!" and that the result was the "EXONERATION of a Great American Patriot." His case is the record he credits Hegseth with building: every Republican in the chamber except Massie himself stood with the secretary, and the victories in Venezuela and Iran, the strongest recruitment numbers in the military's history — with long waiting lists to get in — and a spirit in the ranks like rarely seen before are what, in the president's words, carried the day. Here is his post in full:
"The Democrats' attempt to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has miserably FAILED! Every single Republican, except Thomas Massie, a major LOSER, voted in favor of Pete. Again, Victories in Venezuela and Iran, the Best Recruitment Numbers in the History of the Military (Long waiting lists to get in!), and Spirit like rarely seen before, led to the EXONERATION of a Great American Patriot. The Democrats continue to weaponize and abuse the United States of America. They must be stopped! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. President DONALD J. TRUMP" — the president's post on Truth Social, archived here.
Trump had already put his weight behind Hegseth before the vote. Hours earlier, after the secretary defended his record at a Pentagon briefing — calling the impeachment effort a farce and a stunt over policy disagreements, not high crimes — the president posted: "Pete Hegseth gets an 'A' PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated, former Congressman, Thomas Massie, a TOTAL LOSER!" Vice President JD Vance backed him on X: "Has Pete Hegseth committed impeachable crimes? The question is absurd, and the answer is: obviously not." And after the vote, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell called the referral of the articles "total victory for Secretary Hegseth, the Department of War, and the American warfighter."
Massie, the Kentucky Republican who wrote the articles and forced the vote, answered his own party instead. He told reporters Republicans "still haven't broken from the spell of Donald Trump. He still controls this Congress," and, comparing his colleagues to passengers staying aboard the Titanic, said: "They know it's a sinking ship but committed to staying on board." Massie — who lost his primary after breaking with the president and leaves Congress at the end of his term — was the only Republican to vote against the referral, and he had warned beforehand that sending the articles to committee would kill the effort.
What the House decided on Tuesday was the referral itself, not the merits of the eight articles, which accuse Hegseth of waging war against Iran without congressional authorisation and of misconduct in other military operations; the articles are allegations, and no vote was taken on whether they are true. The Judiciary Committee is not required to take them up, and with the current Congress ending on January 3, the referral leaves the impeachment effort shelved for this session. Democratic leaders, who take control of the House in January, have said the push can be revived then — which is why both sides are treating Tuesday's vote as a reprieve to fight over, not a finish.
For the men and women in uniform, and for the families behind them, the immediate effect is stability at the top of the Pentagon: the secretary the troops are serving under stays in post, with the president publicly grading his performance an A-plus-plus-plus and pointing to record recruitment and waiting lists as proof the force backs its leadership. For taxpayers, the argument that started the fight — who gets to authorise America's wars, the president or Congress — has not been settled by this vote; it has only been postponed to the new Congress in January.
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