Republicans Fear Hegseth’s Democrat Brushoff Could Backfire

The Pentagon is shutting congressional Democrats out of classified briefings — and even Republicans are shocked by the brazen partisanship.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth trekked to Capitol Hill at least twice in recent weeks to make closed-door pitches for his record $1.5 trillion defense budget. But lawmakers in both parties say he followed an increasingly familiar pattern of excluding Democrats.

The freezeout underscores the Trump administration’s hyperpartisan approach to Congress — particularly the Pentagon’s penchant for secrecy under Hegseth. Whether keeping lawmakers in the dark about the rationale behind prolonged boat strikes in the Caribbean or a decoy Air Force One flight, the administration risks jeopardizing its main priorities by cutting out key players.

“He calls himself the secretary of war, but ironically, he doesn’t want to go to war and win the argument with nearly half the members of the Senate,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). “You got to engage.”

Blowing off Democratic lawmakers could doom Hegseth’s pushto enact President Donald Trump’s unprecedented Pentagon budget increase, which worries Republicans who are largely supportive of it. Without Democratic support in the Senate, the effort could fail this fall.

“They’re preaching to the choir when they have Republicans on the Armed Services Committee and they’re making a case for the budget,” said a GOP member of the committee, granted anonymity to speak frankly about the dynamic. “It’s a briefing that should be provided to 100 senators.”

In keeping with their bare knuckles approach, Hegseth and other top Trump administration officials are pressing Republicans to use a special process — known as reconciliation — that would allow the GOP to steamroll Democrats so they can fund the Iran war and much of the Pentagon spending increase.

But even if Republicans can muster the political will for those party-line reconciliation votes, the GOP would still need Democrats’ help to enact the lion’s share of next year’s defense budget. Democrats have vowed to boycott the funding bills.

Republicans have urged the White House to change course — both to salvage the bills and as a matter of good faith. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said he discussed the issue with defense officials, and told them he disagreed with their exclusion of the opposing party.

“The Democrat members need to be brought up to speed,” Rounds said. “But there has to be a clear understanding that the information that’s being provided to them cannot be publicly discussed. And for some reason, some of the administration feels as though there’s a possibility that some of it would be leaked.”

Some lawmakers consider it a simple matter of precedent.

“I know that sometimes you want to have smaller groups, but I think it needs to be bipartisan,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, in a statement, said the department “remains fully committed to working with Congress to ensure our warfighters have the resources necessary to execute their mission.”

He said Hegseth and other Pentagon leaders “regularly engage with lawmakers to discuss the defense budget, readiness, and national security priorities.”

The White House referred questions to the Pentagon.

But senior Democrats who have long held top spots on national security panels said such actions are a break from years of congressional protocol.

“Not only are they excluding Democrats from classified briefings, they’re also not having the kind of routine briefings with committee staff on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that have been the hallmark since I got here 18 years ago,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the panel’s top Democrat.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) the top Democrat on the defense spending panel, said several Republican lawmakers had implored Hegseth to engage with Democrats and told him he shouldn’t be surprised when the party isn’t responsive to funding requests.

A former defense official, who has knowledge of the situation and was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic, said banishing Democrats from classified briefings was a stark departure from years of established norms on Capitol Hill.

The Pentagon’s approach is “extremely short-sighted, because you have got to have bipartisan majorities over a longer period of time to really build defense capability,” the person said. “It’s not built one year at a time. And some of the more frustrated people are the senior Republicans.”

And in the politics of the Hill, Hegseth’s exclusion of Democrats could come back to haunt him.

“If and when the House flips, as many political pundits think it will,” the former official said, Pentagon leaders “will have nobody to work with, because they have not built any relationships.”