Outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie says President Trump should fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth before a House impeachment vote, calling it the honorable move as he vows to force the fight in the lame-duck session.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) went public this week urging the president to remove his Pentagon chief rather than let the House take up articles of impeachment against him.
The Hill reported that Massie framed the choice as a matter of honor and said he will reintroduce the impeachment articles when lawmakers return after the midterms, no matter how November turns out.
Massie is a lame-duck congressman. He lost his Kentucky GOP primary this year to Trump-backed challenger Ed Gallrein. Now he is pressing a high-stakes fight against a Trump Cabinet secretary and accusing House Republican leaders of ducking a vote that could hurt the party before November.
Massie answered an unverified report on the social platform X by arguing Trump should act first.
"Trump should fire Hegseth to avoid Hegseth’s impeachment. It’s the honorable thing to do,"
He followed with a second pledge tied to the House calendar.
"The House recessed early to avoid the vote, so I will reintroduce Hegseth articles of impeachment when we return for the lame-duck session, regardless of the outcome of the midterm election,"
The Hill noted it has not verified the underlying report Massie was answering, claims that Trump blamed Hegseth for an unpopular Iran war and was weighing a post-midterm firing. Massie treated the choice as clear anyway: remove Hegseth now, or face an impeachment vote later.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) rejected the charge that leaders changed the schedule to dodge election-year heat. Johnson called those accusations “ridiculous.”
Massie first unveiled the effort in September and formally introduced a resolution with eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth on the House floor on Sept. 15, 2026. Fox News reported the package accused the defense secretary of high crimes and misdemeanors tied to unauthorized military actions and other alleged abuses.
The core charge centers on Iran. Massie says Hegseth executed unlawful orders and kept hostilities going past the deadlines set by the War Powers Resolution of 1973 without fresh approval from Congress. Additional counts in the articles reach beyond Iran to other operations and internal decisions.
Massie stated the constitutional case in blunt terms when he filed the resolution.
"In all of this, Secretary Hegseth abused the powers entrusted to him as Secretary of Defense by subordinating the constitutional limits on the use of military force and the laws governing the conduct of hostilities to his own policy objectives."
He argued the conduct warrants impeachment, trial, removal, and disqualification from future office. The impeachment case now heads toward a lame-duck showdown after leaders shifted the original September timeline.
The Washington Examiner reported that the eight articles accuse Hegseth of abusing the power of his office by executing an “unlawful order to impose hostilities” against Iran. The filing also lists charges involving the arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, strikes on drug boats, operations in Yemen, civilian casualty rules, and free-speech claims.
House GOP leaders pushed the vote originally set for September into the lame-duck season. Massie and Democrats accused Republicans of stalling a roll call that could damage GOP candidates in November. Johnson denied any election-driven schedule fix.
Massie had already moved a separate war powers resolution aimed at limiting military action in Iran as U.S.-Iran fighting continued and the American military death toll rose. That earlier effort underscored the same dispute: who decides when the United States uses force, and how long operations can run without a new vote from Congress.
Republicans control Congress, yet war powers votes have exposed real splits. A recent Senate clash over an Iran war powers resolution showed how midterm pressure can tighten every margin and turn procedural fights into campaign liabilities.
Massie’s standing inside the conference is not what it once was. Kentucky Republican voters chose Gallrein, the Trump-endorsed alternative, in this year’s primary. Massie is finishing his term as an outgoing member who has repeatedly broken with party leadership on foreign policy process and executive war powers.
The New York Post reported that Massie is forcing a House vote on the impeachment resolution tied to the Iran conflict and the War Powers Resolution of 1973. In floor language accompanying the articles, he declared that Hegseth “has executed unlawful orders in contravention of Section 2(c) of the War Powers Resolution of 1973” and “will remain a threat to the Constitution if allowed to remain in office.”
Those are Massie’s charges. They are not findings by a House committee, a court, or the full Congress. The articles still have to survive the calendar, the conference, and a floor vote that leaders already delayed once.
Other lawmakers have piled on from different directions. A House Democrat has demanded resignations over Iran war fallout, showing how the same conflict feeds partisan pressure from the left while Massie presses from inside the GOP.
Massie claims the House recessed early specifically to avoid the impeachment vote. Johnson’s one-word dismissal, “ridiculous”, leaves the public with a familiar Washington standoff: one member insisting the calendar was weaponized, leadership insisting the charge is nonsense.
That kind of procedural fog has become routine. Speaker Johnson has already drawn fire for canceling stretches of House votes even after promising steady work, feeding the sense that the floor schedule answers politics first and unfinished business second.
Public polling has also kept Hegseth in the conversation about Cabinet turnover. One survey named Hegseth the Trump official voters most expect to leave next, a reminder that personnel speculation runs hot whenever war powers and midterm math collide.
None of that settles the constitutional question Massie is raising. Congress holds the power to declare war. Presidents and defense secretaries run operations under existing authorizations, treaties, and the War Powers Resolution’s clock. When members believe that clock has been ignored, the remedy is supposed to be a vote, not a press conference and a delayed calendar.
Massie says he will make the House face that vote in the lame-duck session. He is doing it as a member already rejected by his own primary voters, aligned on this timing fight with Democrats, and openly inviting the president to fire a Cabinet secretary to short-circuit the process.
Trump will decide personnel on his own timeline. The House will decide whether Massie’s eight articles ever get an up-or-down roll call. Voters already decided Massie’s next term.
Constitutional war powers belong to Congress, but accountability also belongs to the voters who just retired the messenger.