Most Voters Support Impeaching Hegseth Over Iran War, Poll Finds

The majority of U.S. voters support impeaching Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth over the Trump administration’s war on Iran, new polling finds.

The Economist/YouGov found in a survey conducted September 18 to 21 that 51 percent of registered voters say that Hegseth should be impeached for “starting a war with Iran without authorization by Congress.”

The opinion holds a double-digit lead over those who say he should not face impeachment for the war, at only 34 percent. Support is strongest among those who identify as liberals, but a sizable chunk of MAGA Republicans and conservatives — roughly one-fifth — say they also back the idea.

President Donald Trump has openly bragged about flouting the requirement, set by the Constitution, that presidents cannot start a war without the approval of Congress. The Trump administration has tried making various excuses for this, including sometimes calling it a “military conflict” instead of a war.

Hegseth has pushed his own narrative in this vein. In a hearing before Congress in April, he dubiously asserted that the recently-struck ceasefire agreement “pauses” a crucial 60-day deadline for the executive branch to obtain congressional approval for a war. Legal experts said that this argument was clearly invalid, and that none of the administration’s protests have made the war less illegal.

Last week, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) filed eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth for violating the War Powers Resolution of 1973 three times in refusing to obtain congressional approval for the war. He also charged Hegseth with openly ignoring laws regarding minimizing civilian casualties in conflict, citing incidents like the U.S.’s strike on an elementary school in Minab, Iran, that killed over 160 people, including 123 children; as well as the U.S.’s boat strike campaign, known as Operation Southern Spear.

Both of those actions, as well as the U.S. strike on a sports facility in Lamerd, Iran, that killed 22 civilians in February, were recently cited in two separate UN reports accusing the U.S. of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The reports said that the U.S. has intentionally ignored international laws regarding civilian harm — and both reports specifically cited Hegseth as one figure responsible for the U.S.’s dismissal of such binding obligations.

Massie filed the impeachment as a privileged measure, meaning that the articles would have been brought to a full House vote on September 17. However, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other GOP leaders cancelled that day’s House proceedings, ending the chamber’s session a day early, before its recess slated to last until after the midterm elections.

Massie touted the Economist/YouGov poll on social media on Tuesday, saying that the public support for Hegseth’s impeachment “is why [Johnson] adjourned Congress to avoid the vote.”

The polling also found that 63 percent of voters say that the war should end “as quickly as possible,” while 59 percent say it was the “wrong decision” to start it in the first place. Nearly half of respondents said Trump, whose low approval ratings are being worsened by the war, has been “very ineffective” in the negotiations.