Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is wading in deeply unpopular waters as he faces efforts to remove him from his post after Republicans were trounced in last week’s midterms, CNN’s chief data analyst Harry Enten revealed Sunday.
Hegseth holds a net approval rating of -29 points, a figure that’s worse than that of Donald Trump (-24) and two former Cabinet members — ex-Attorney General Pam Bondi (-20) and ex-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem (-16) — before the president fired them, according to Enten’s numbers.
“There’s good reason to believe that he might not be sticking around for too long,” said Enten of where the polling puts Hegseth, noting that Bondi and Noem look “downright popular” compared to where the ex-Fox News host stands.
On Thursday, outgoing anti-Trump Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) announced plans to introduce an impeachment resolution against Hegseth this week, a move that has the support of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) due to what he called the secretary’s oversight of a “reckless and costly war of choice” in Iran.
While Trump has signaled his interest in keeping Hegseth on the job, he’s reportedly asked advisers whether the secretary should stick around following the red wipeout.
Enten turned to polling showing Hegseth’s net approval rating of -29 points, which makes him less popular than former defense secretary and Iraq war architect Donald Rumsfeld (-25) before the 2006 midterms.
Those midterms, like ’26, led to Republicans losing the Senate and House.
And Rumsfeld resigned from George W. Bush’s Cabinet before the new year.
“It kind of feels like, to quote Yogi Berra, ‘Déjà vu all over again,’” he said.
Later in the segment, Enten stressed that the GOP traditionally has held an advantage over Democrats when it comes to voters trusting the party’s approach to wars, conflicts and terrorism.
Republicans were trusted more on the issue by a margin of +18 points in January 2025, but by last month, Democrats held the keys over the GOP by a margin of +5 points, per Reuters/Ipsos polling.
“This is a 23-point switcheroo, my goodness gracious,” Enten said.
He later added, “This potentially equals major troubles for Pete Hegseth when it comes to this new Democratic Congress that’s coming in January, and it may, of course, happen before then.”