The midterm election defeat has triggered a fierce settling of scores within the Republican Party, making Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth the first major target. Vice President J.D. Vance, working to lay the foundations for the new right, has ignited the debate, blaming the electoral collapse primarily on the war with Iran. President Donald Trump has once again defended Hegseth ("I intend to keep him in office"), but with the reopening of Congress after the electoral recess, the Secretary of Defense's position will be increasingly exposed to impeachment. Meanwhile, Vance is not the only one looking ahead to 2028: Marco Rubio is also considering a presidential run and considering leaving the State Department to definitively distance himself from the tycoon.

Democratic attempts to impeach Hegseth have so far failed. But, after the midterm blue tsunami, a reintroduction of the motion to the House floor—perhaps as early as this week—would find support from Republican discontent with the Secretary of Defense. The debate over him harks back to 2006, when George W. Bush, following the Republicans' losses in the 2006 midterm elections, decided to replace Donald Rumsfeld amid criticism of his handling of the Iraq war. Meanwhile, at the Pentagon, it's a "free-for-all," according to the Washington Post, with many in Trump's entourage questioning whether the president should remove Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command. Vance, in a post, emphasized that any attempt to rebuild the party in the post-Trump era must begin with an "honest" analysis of the disastrous decision to launch the war, subsequently launching the "new right's" four pillars: ending the war; greater efforts to combat the cost of living and inflation; a return to the authentic spirit of the Maga's America First agenda; and a review of the US relationship with Israel.

These assessments have earned him accusations of cowardice from Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic senator-elect from Michigan: "He's desperately trying to distance himself from this terrible and disastrous war in Iran. It makes you say, 'Now is not the time, my friend.' The right time would have been eight months ago." Ron DeSantis, the outgoing governor of Florida, the only major Republican bastion remaining to resist the Democratic advance, called for significant changes within the party, citing the America First slogan. "Many of our voters have stayed home because they're frustrated by the Republicans' lack of concrete results in the House and Senate. We need to get our act together and win in 2028, otherwise the Democrats will destroy America," DeSantis said.

The midterms were "a Watergate-level defeat" for the GOP, which suffered a "colossal defeat," commented Ted Cruz, the influential Texas senator, in an episode of his podcast, The Verdict. Vance, DeSantis, and Cruz are all candidates with ambitions for the 2028 presidential election. Another is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the only one who disappeared from the radar after the midterms. The former Florida senator is reportedly considering resigning. A move, The Independent reported, to distinguish himself from "an administration that could damage the prospects" of running in 2028. Republicans opposed to Trump, including several former GOP lawmakers who voted in favor of his impeachment, saw the Democratic tsunami as a kind of vindication. “Bad policies and bad character make bad politics,” wrote former Senator Mitt Romney on X, among the first to throw in the towel after the tycoon’s rise to power.

(Unioneonline)

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