Esra Tekin
09 November 2026•Update: 09 November 2026
US President Donald Trump on Sunday reiterated his support for two members of his Cabinet facing potential impeachment threats from Democrats.
He described Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as “very fine people.”
Speaking to reporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump praised Kennedy, calling him “a very popular guy,” while expressing strong support for Hegseth’s management of the war with Iran.
Regarding Hegseth, Trump argued that his only two alleged shortcomings were essentially “winning two wars,” referring to the conflict with Iran and the US military operation in Venezuela that resulted in the capture of President Nicolas Maduro.
Trump also urged Democrats to shift their attention toward more pressing national issues, saying they “gotta get back to the country.”
His remarks came ahead of an expected vote in the House of Representatives this week on whether to impeach Hegseth.
Hegseth has vowed to fight the impeachment effort, responding with a series of defiant videos posted on social media.
-Vance should have shown stronger support for military conflict
Trump said that many people had criticized Vice President JD Vance’s remarks linking Republican losses in the midterm elections to the Iran war.
He suggested that Vance should have expressed stronger support for the military conflict.
Trump sought to downplay any suggestion of a rift between himself and Vance, insisting that a viral mini-essay posted on Nov. 4 by the vice president on the US social media platform X analyzing the 2026 midterm election results had not created tension between them. He dismissed the notion that Vance’s commentary reflected a broader disagreement within the administration, maintaining that the post had done nothing to strain their relationship.
“A lot of people didn’t like his comments. But not me,” he said.
He added that Vance was correct on most points but should have included one important statement: whether the administration would make the same decision to go to war again.
According to Trump, the answer should be yes.
Vance, who had expressed concerns about the possibility of war with Iran before the conflict began, did not explicitly defend the decision in his statement.
He argued that anyone claiming the war was worth its political consequences, including the possibility of Republicans losing control of the Senate for the next six years, should openly make that case.
“If you’d like to argue it was worth it, then do so,” Vance wrote, emphasizing that an honest discussion should acknowledge the potential political costs.
He concluded by stressing that the reason behind the Republican losses was already clear and that any sincere discussion about the party’s future needed to begin with that reality.