Trump Biographer Hints Who’s Next on President’s Hit List
As the president assigns blame this month, Maggie Haberman says the “easy move” is right in front of him.
Evan Vucci/REUTERS
President Donald Trump may soon cut a loyal soldier from his Cabinet to save face after a brutal Republican defeat, one of his longtime sternographers predicts.
The New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman says Trump could fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the coming weeks as he searches for someone to throw under the bus for his disastrous war with Iran, which he now admits cost Republicans the midterms.
Haberman, who co-wrote the Trump biography Regime Change with her Times colleague Jonathan Swan, made the bombshell prediction in an appearence on MS Now, aggreeing with a point raised by former Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.
“Watch what happens with Hegseth,” McCaskill said. “It will not surprise me if Trump wants to dump Hegseth before January. And the easiest way to do that is to get Marsha Blackburn to appoint him as senator in Tennessee.”
Haberman concurred, saying that she thinks “this is very much where this goes right now.”
Democrats and some Republicans have called for Pete Hegseth to be impeached.
Kevin Lamarque/Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS
“There is a defense spending bill that has to get passed,” Haberman said. “The military has a lot less money than I think the average voter realizes at the moment.”
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She continued, “Getting rid of Pete Hegseth and putting the blame on him for the Iran war—which, to be clear, there are many, many valid criticisms of the defense secretary, and he certainly was the most optimistic about the war in Trump’s circle—but this was ultimately President Trump’s decision by a wide mile, and his advisers just went there with him, even though most of them had reservations.”
The White House correspondent suggested that Trump firing Hegseth would be an "easy move" to curry favor after a disastrous Republican performance in the midterms.
MS NOW
She added, “This might be an easy move for him to make to get rid of Pete Hegseth and try to propel some kind of a comity with Democrats.”
Haberman explained that Trump will have to adapt to the new normal set by Democrats’ resounding midterm victory, in which they comfortably retook the House and Senate.
“Yes, he will be in power for another two years. He is very hard to predict about what he will try to do,” she said. “Voters gave a very, very clear message about what they don’t want to see in terms of overreach last night.”
She added, “And I’m not quite certain that Republicans are going to suddenly become very critical of President Trump openly. We have heard that repeatedly. It very rarely happens. But I do think that there is going to be an impetus to at least focus on delivering, and on a more populist message.”
Haberman and Swan's biography covering the second Trump administration was released in June.
Simon & Schuster
The White House did not immediately return the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
CBS News also reported Wednesday morning that Trump was allegedly eyeing Hegseth, 46, for the chopping block after Tuesday night’s catastrophic midterm rout for the GOP.
The president later addressed the speculation head-on at a White House event for his ballroom’s construction.
“No, I think he’s doing a very good job,” he said Wednesday afternoon about Hegseth.
Trump ranted about his ballroom the day after suffering a massive midterm humiliation.
Evan Vucci/REUTERS
Asked whether Hegseth could potentially fill a Senate vacancy in Tennessee after Martha Blackburn’s gubernatorial win, Trump said the defense secretary would be “very popular if he did that.”
“But I haven’t heard that at all,” the president added.
One source told CBS News that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has emerged as a possible successor to Hegseth.
DeSantis is being touted as a potential replacement for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
The 48-year-old governor could be confirmed by the Senate before Democrats take control next year. DeSantis is termed out as Florida’s governor in January.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told CBS News that the president has “full confidence” in Hegseth.
Trump himself appeared to admit that his war on Iran was costly for the Republican Party, agreeing with sentiments shared by his Vice President JD Vance in a lengthy X post on Wednesday.
Vance is at his core a skeptic of U.S. military intervention in the Middle East.
Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS
“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance, 42, wrote. The president didn’t disagree, saying his second-in-command’s analysis was “good.”
“We knew that when we went in,” Trump told reporters Wednesday.
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