If I were Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, I might start packing up my office at the Pentagon.
While President Trump is boasting about the so-called success of a war with Iran that has no clear mission nor end in sight, Americans are souring on it. Big time.
New polling from CBS News/YouGov shows an increasingly bearish public when it comes to the war, with 57% saying it’s going somewhat or very badly. Sixty-three percent believe the war will make the U.S. economy weaker in the short term, while a whopping 92% say the most important thing the U.S. should do with regard to Iran right now is “end the conflict as quickly as possible.”
Hardly a rousing endorsement. We know Trump closely monitors the polls, which is perhaps why he said what he did on Monday while at a roundtable in Memphis.
While discussing crime, Trump oddly detoured to brag about his decision to go to war with Iran and then pointed to Hegseth, who was in the room, and said: “And Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up. And you said, ‘Let’s do it, because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.’ ”
Now, any other time and any other president and you’d call this a compliment. But seasoned Trump-watchers’ eyebrows raised at the subtle but discernible sign of what may be to come.
It would be, after all, a very Trumpian and convenient blame-shift to make the war all Pete’s idea when it’s slumping in the polls, and it doesn’t help Hegseth that reports are swirling around D.C. that Republicans on the Hill and inside the administration have “zero confidence” in him.
As former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem knows all too well, Trump only loves you until he doesn’t. When ICE raids in Minneapolis turned deadly and the sordid headlines around her spending and personal life got too unbearable, Trump dumped the glammed-up grifter with an unceremonious thanks and a move to a made-up new post.
Former Kennedy Center head Ric Grenell had also been one of Trump’s longtime favorites, but he too lost his job this month after overseeing plummeting ticket sales, a mass exodus of artists, and scathing headlines. And that’s after he put Trump’s name on the building!
A couple other Trump cabinet members may want to prepare for early exits, while we’re at it.
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s DOJ has been rightfully dragged through the mud for its incompetence and political hackery, overseeing multiple failed attempts at indicting Trump’s political opponents, an obvious cover-up of the Epstein files, and losing so much talent it now has to recruit prosecutors straight out of law school. Maybe that’s why Bondi recently hung the North Korea-coded banner of Trump on DOJ HQ.
DNI Tulsi Gabbard might not be long for this world either. She’s been excluded from high-level meetings at the White House, so much so that the joke among aides is that DNI stands for “Do Not Invite.” Even Trump has publicly dismissed her advice.
If you’re wondering why these folks continue to work for a guy who humiliates them, sidelines them, and then dumps them, that’s easy — they have no principles, integrity or self-respect! And when you’re solely motivated by naked power grabs and money, you can put up with a lot.
Only time will tell if Hegseth, Bondi and Gabbard can survive what will only become worse and worse headlines. But in the meantime, Pete might want to put a Trump banner up on the Pentagon — just in case.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.
