Analysis: Hegseth fights for his political life with appeal to Trump

There was plenty of defiance and rhetorical venom from Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon on Tuesday, as the under-pressure US defence secretary gave his first news conference in six months.

Much of his ire was directed at the Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, who has brought articles of impeachment against him. Hegseth dismissed him as “one disgruntled and defeated congressman” who was leading a “farce and a stunt”.

But this was, in many ways, a news conference with an audience of one – President Donald Trump.

Again and again, Hegseth tied his fate to that of the president.

The military operations in Iran and Venezuela that are now at the centre of impeachment proceedings, he said, were “ordered by the commander-in-chief, then ordered by myself”. If standing with the president put him in the firing line, he added, “I’ll take that company every day of the week”.

That positioning matters.

Hegseth has frequently echoed the president’s rhetoric and public statements and he did it repeatedly on Tuesday. Attacks on the media, denunciations of political enemies and even reflecting the very words the president uses.

Referring to Trump’s 2019 impeachment over a call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, Hegseth described it as a “perfect phone call” – the exact formulation the president has used when discussing the issue.