Trump cites victory in ongoing Iran war in post defending Hegseth from impeachment

President Donald Trump urged Congress in a Monday Truth Social post to protect Pete Hegseth from impeachment, attributing “VICTORIES” in Iran and Venezuela to the embattled Defense Secretary.

"Pete Hegseth should be praised, not Impeached. Congress, stand up for Pete!!!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. He called Rep. Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican behind the effort, "a total loser."

"Like you, we will never back down," Hegseth responded on X.

The war in Iran is still ongoing. Earlier Monday, Trump said "Iran militarily is effectively over," but added that the U.S. stays "locked and loaded." He said the conflict is "going to be ending fairly soon," and backed keeping the U.S. naval blockade in place.

"I think he's won the war in Iran, but he's certainly winning the war," Trump said of Hegseth.

Trump has made this kind of rhetorical flip flop in the past. On March 20, Trump declared the Iran fight "Militarily WON." That same afternoon, he added that the U.S. was "getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts."

Massie lost his primary this year and is leaving Congress. On Monday, he filed a 34-page resolution containing eight articles of impeachment, triggering a requirement for House action within two legislative days. Three articles accuse Hegseth of waging war against Iran without approval from Congress.

The House can vote on the resolution directly, send it to a committee or set it aside. Impeachment takes a simple House majority, though removing Hegseth from office would take a two-thirds vote to convict in the Senate.

Trump also touted an “ALL-TIME HIGH” in recruitment under Hegseth, “from an all-time low under Sleepy Joe Biden.”

At a Monday news conference, he said: “We have the best numbers we've ever had. More people want to be in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, even the police, Space Force, firemen, anybody with a uniform.”

“If you go back two years ago, before I got into office, two years ago, we could not recruit people,” he added.

Military recruitment dropped precipitously during the covid-19 pandemic — with one analysis attributing the decline to a lack of in-person recruiting at high schools — and rebounded in 2025, according to data published by the Defense Department that showed the Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force and Marines meeting their 2025 recruiting goals early. Still, meeting annual goals does not establish an all-time enlistment record.

Trump’s language around recruitment has grown more exaggerated over the years.

On Feb. 6, 2025, he said Army recruitment "is the highest it's been in more than 15 years," adding, "it could be 25 years." A month later, he claimed the U.S. was seeing "the largest number of new enlistees or people enlisting in the military forces that we've ever had." Then in June of 2025, he shifted within one speech from "the strongest peacetime recruiting records ever" to "the strongest recruiting numbers in the history of our country."