Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Wednesday that his continued insistence the Iran war is going well raises questions about his fitness for office, closing a sharp exchange at a House Armed Services Committee budget hearing by suggesting the president should consider replacing him.
“Mr. Secretary, if you think that this is what winning looks like, then maybe we should be questioning your mental stability,” Jacobs said. “Maybe you are the one responsible for this failure, and the president should think about replacing you.”
The exchange occurred during the House Armed Services Committee’s full committee hearing on the Department of Defense FY27 budget request, held Wednesday morning in Rayburn House Office Building Room 2118. Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine testified before the committee, which is chaired by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL).
The Exchange
Jacobs opened her line of questioning by challenging Hegseth’s repeated characterization of President Trump as the best commander-in-chief and best negotiator the country has ever had.
“Mr. Secretary, you keep saying that he is the best commander-in-chief we’ve ever had, the best negotiator—” Jacobs began.
Hegseth interjected: “Talk to the troops.”
Jacobs pressed forward, ticking through a list of outcomes from the Iran conflict: 13 American troops killed, more than 380 wounded, the Strait of Hormuz — previously open to international commerce — now closed, with less than 90 percent of pre-war traffic flowing through it despite a ceasefire, the Iranian regime still in power, nuclear material still in Iranian hands, and a war costing Americans billions of dollars.
“Mr. Secretary, if you think that this is what winning looks like, then maybe we should be questioning your mental stability,” she said. “Maybe you are the one responsible for this failure, and the president should think about replacing you.”
Jacobs then yielded back to the chair.
The First Public Questioning Since the War Began
Wednesday’s hearing marked the first time Hegseth has answered questions from Congress publicly since the Iran war began on February 28, when the United States and Israel launched large-scale strikes against Iranian military and nuclear infrastructure. Democrats on the committee described it as their best chance so far to hold the administration publicly accountable for what they called an “undefined” and “unauthorized” war. “We get one day with this guy, so we’re going to use it,” Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-MD) said ahead of the hearing.
In his opening remarks, Hegseth dismissed the weight of Democratic criticism and identified the biggest adversary the United States faces at this point in the war as the “reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” according to CNBC. “Two months in, on an existential fight for the safety of the American people, Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb — we are proud of this undertaking,” he said. Trump had initially said at the war’s outset that the conflict would be over within a matter of weeks.
$25 Billion and Counting — With No Supplemental Request Yet
The hearing was formally called to receive testimony on the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2027 defense budget request — a record $1.5 trillion ask — but the war’s costs dominated the session. Pentagon comptroller Jules “Jay” Hurst III, who also testified, said the war has cost approximately $25 billion so far, mostly in munitions, according to CNBC. The administration has not yet sent Congress a supplemental spending request to finance the conflict; Hurst said the Pentagon would do so once it has a full accounting. White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, testifying separately on April 15, declined to estimate the cost of the war at all.
Armed Services Committee ranking member Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) questioned how the administration plans to sustain the requested spending increase alongside the nation’s $39 trillion national debt and $3.4 trillion in tax cuts. “There’s been no assurance of how Secretary Hegseth is going to manage that windfall amid the chaos that has defined his tenure in the Department of Defense,” Smith said in a statement ahead of the hearing.
Jacobs was not alone in scrutinizing the war’s human and material costs. Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-CA) questioned the extended deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford — at sea for a record 309 days — pressing Hegseth on the trade-offs of keeping the Navy’s newest carrier deployed far beyond the standard six-to-seven month rotation schedule. Hegseth acknowledged the decision was difficult but said it was made in consultation with the Navy.
The hearing took place as the 60-day War Powers Act deadline for the Iran conflict expires Wednesday. Senate Democrats forced a sixth war-powers vote this week seeking to invoke congressional authority over the conflict, and House Democrats announced plans to force a war-powers vote in the lower chamber as well. Under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, if Congress invokes the act, the Trump administration would have 30 days — until late May — to withdraw from the conflict.