Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is fighting for his job, and his first press conference in six months came off as desperate rather than reassuring.

• Representative Thomas Massie filed eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth over strikes on Iran, drug cartels, Venezuela's Maduro, and Yemen, arguing they violated war powers law.
• Hegseth defended himself by saying he was just following Trump's orders and that "history will judge" the Iran war well, echoing language Donald Rumsfeld used in his own farewell press conference twenty years ago.
• Trump is backing Hegseth fully, which matters because Republicans would need to confirm a replacement and no Senate Democrat would vote to confirm anyone unless the war ends first.
• Military morale problems are adding pressure, including reports of sailors in crisis on a deployed carrier and troops expressing anger over fighting what they see as other countries' wars.
• Trump is also publicly pushing election-fraud claims again and is reportedly extending a blockade on Iran rather than negotiating, a stance critics say raises the risk of the conflict escalating further.

Outlook: Impeachment is likely to pass the House given Republican anger, but conviction in the Senate is unlikely, leaving Hegseth's fate mostly dependent on whether Trump keeps shielding him.