Will you sign the petition demanding Secretary Pete Hegseth be fired NOW?
Dear MoveOn member,
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s failed leadership has entangled the U.S. in multiple forever wars and led to thousands of deaths. And now, he is trying to secure a shocking $1.5 trillion budget for the Defense Department, including $200 billionto fund Trump’s unconstitutional war with Iran. A war that has already cost taxpayers $25 billion.1
Secretary Hegseth has dragged us into a war that the American people oppose and that Congress never authorized. And he’s making everyday people pay for it, while he tried to invest millions in weapons stocks so he could profit from the war he helped initiate.2 It’s not only shameful, it’s completely unethical.
Secretary Hegseth thinks he can use fearmongering to funnel more money into the already inflated military budget. But his tactics are backfiring, as the majority of Americans oppose the war with Iran and his aggressive militarism.3
And Hegseth’s cruelty and mercilessness expose him as the opportunistic and hateful coward that he is. At the Pentagon recently, Hegseth prayed for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”4 A message that Americans, including people of faith, overwhelmingly reject.5
Taxpayer money should be going to fund schools, healthcare, housing, food, parks, and infrastructure—public projects that benefit all of us. Instead, Secretary Hegseth wants to redirect it to bombs and destruction. His violent and reckless approach is a liability every day that he remains in office. It’s time for him to go.Public pressure works. In March, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was fired, and Attorney General Pam Bondi was recently ousted, as well. We can do the same to Secretary Hegseth. Will you sign the petition?
Pete Hegseth is too dangerous and reckless to lead the Department of Defense.
U.S. Army soldiers who survived a deadly strike in Kuwait earlier this year have spoken out about their experience, saying that they were unprepared and sent to a small military outpost that was not fortified to protect against aerial attacks.
“We moved closer to Iran, to a deeply unsafe area that was a known target. I don’t think there was a good reason ever articulated,” one surviving soldier recollected.6
Instead of taking responsibility for the deadliest attack on U.S. troops in the past five years, Secretary Hegseth downplayed the strike and misled the public.7
And that’s not the only thing he’s misled the American people about. The entire war in Iran has been a chaotic campaign of misinformation, with no clear answers about why the U.S. escalated the conflict or when it will be resolved.
Every step of the way, Secretary Hegseth has demonstrated his ineptitude. From when he revealed sensitive and classified military intel in a Signal chat—actions that even the Pentagon reported put U.S. pilots at risk.8 To committing potential war crimes by ordering a deadly strike against survivors of a Caribbean boat attack.9
Any single one of his failed actions should be disqualifying. Instead, Republicans in Congress want to give him more responsibility and a bigger budget that would allow him to sow chaos domestically and globally.
Not on our watch.
Thanks for all you do.
–Kellie, Nakia, AD, Erica, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. “Pentagon says Iran war costs $25 billion. See how it measures up.” USA Today, May 6, 2026
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/05/06/iran-war-cost-pentagon-budget/89891758007/
2. “Democrats Launch Another Probe Into Pete Hegseth’s Alleged Effort To Buy Up Defense Stocks Before Iran War,” Forbes, April 2, 2026
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2026/04/02/democrats-launch-another-probe-into-pete-hegseths-alleged-effort-to-buy-up-defense-stocks-before-iran-war/
3. “Americans Broadly Disapprove of U.S. Military Action in Iran,” Pew Research Center, March 25, 2026
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2026/03/25/americans-broadly-disapprove-of-u-s-military-action-in-iran/
4. “America has a clear message for Trump and Hegseth: Scrap the religious rhetoric,” The Independent, May 6, 2026
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-hegseth-religious-language-poll-b2971484.html
5. “Poll shows most Americans unhappy with Trump’s Jesus image, criticism of Pope Leo,” National Catholic Reporter, May 7, 2026
https://www.ncronline.org/news/poll-shows-most-americans-unhappy-trumps-jesus-image-criticism-pope-leo
6. “Pentagon misleading public about deadly Kuwait base attack: CBS report,” News Nation, April 9, 2026
https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/military/pentagon-misleading-public-kuwait-base/
7. Ibid.
8. “Hegseth’s Signal chat put U.S. personnel at risk, Pentagon watchdog finds,” PBS, December 3, 2025
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/hegseths-signal-chat-put-u-s-personnel-at-risk-pentagon-watchdog-finds
9. “Moulton: Hegseth is guilty of war crimes,” The Hill, April 30, 2026
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5857356-moulton-hegseth-war-crimes/
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