Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been overwhelmingly rejected by the American public, according to a new series of polls — and it's to such an extent that CNN’s Harry Enten was left astounded.
“He's going over like a lead balloon, not just overall, but especially with independents,” Enten said, reviewing new polling data from Quinnipiac and Yahoo. “Past secretaries of Defense at a time of war, this early on in the war, tend to be very popular, [but] just look at this!”
According to the new polling data, Hegseth’s net popularity currently sits at -15 overall and -28 among independent voters per Quinnipiac. Yahoo’s poll produced even lower figures, with Hegseth netting -18 net popularity, and a staggering -33 among independents.
The polls were conducted around two weeks after the Trump administration launched its war against Iran, a period that historically has seen secretaries of defense's popularity rise. That pattern was not repeated in Hegseth’s case.
“Normally, secretaries of defense are celebrated early in wars,” Enten noted. “At this point, Pete Hegseth is anything but celebrated.”
Looking at historical polling data, Enten noted that former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney enjoyed 62-point net popularity around two weeks into the Gulf War, and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a 58-point net popularity a few weeks into the Iraq War. Roughly the same time into Trump’s Iran war, Hegseth had a -17 net popularity.
“It's just completely on the other side of the aisle, 17 points below water in the average!” Enten said. “He is on a completely different planet, this war is being received completely differently, at least when looking at the secretary of Defense.”
CNN’s John Berman asked Enten whether Hegseth’s unprecedented unpopularity this early on in the Iran war could be due to President Donald Trump’s own historic unpopularity.
“No!” Enten answered. “No, secretaries of Defense under the first Trump administration were popular, especially 'Mad Dog" [Jim] Mattis!”
"The last two times Republicans lost the majority — 2006 and 2018 — their speaker didn’t return as minority leader," Punchbowl reported. "Dennis Hastert declined to run for the post in 2006. Paul Ryan was already on his way out of the door in 2018. In fact, you have to go back to Joseph Martin in the 1940s and 1950s to find a Republican speaker who lost the majority yet remained as minority leader. So history is against the 54-year-old Johnson."
However, Johnson raises tons of cash and has plenty of supporters in the GOP conference and Trump's backing — which is crucial in a party defined by loyalty to the president. But he could be miscast as a minority leader.
"Being minority leader means fighting the majority every day about everything," Punchbowl noted. "The top Republican in any minority will have to be an attack dog against Democrats, who are vowing to investigate every facet of Trump’s presidency."
That's where Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) could emerge as a top choice to replace Johnson.
"He’s chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and he made his name sticking up for Trump and lambasting Democrats," Punchbowl reported. "Trump sees Jordan as a championship wrestler who’s always ready to brawl."
The Ohio Republican came close to becoming speaker instead of Jordan, but he's had a rocky relationship with GOP moderates, although they're the most likely to lose in swing-seat districts.
"Jordan would be a prime choice if Republicans want to dump the current leadership slate and start over," Punchbowl reported. "Will he run against Johnson? That’s tough. It would depend on Trump. But Jordan is one of the few non-leadership Republicans you should watch."
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Held last Tuesday, Illinois’ Democratic primary elections saw substantial increases in voter turnout when compared with the previous midterm elections. The Democratic Senate primary election, for instance, saw a close to 50% increase in voter turnout, and the race to represent Illinois’ 8th Congressional District, a 63% increase. The Democratic primary race for Illinois’ 9th Congressional district saw a 71% increase in voter turnout.
Recent polling supports Bowen’s prediction. Democrats carry a 6-point lead in taking back control of Congress according to a recent NBC poll conducted between Feb. 27 and March 3, with President Donald Trump’s historic unpopularity appearing to drag down GOP candidates nationwide.
The possibility of a Democratic “rage turnout” this November has also sparked hopes of ousting Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), who’s held his seat since 2013.
“We will flip this seat,” said Eli Cousin, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, who went on to call Perry “extreme and deeply unpopular,” speaking with NOTUS in its report Friday.
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On Wednesday, the Trump administration quietly registered a new federal government website domain: “Aliens.gov,” though as of Friday, the website has not yet been launched.
The wait has apparently been difficult for Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO), however, who told NOTUS Friday that, should there be no movement on Trump’s promise soon, he planned to “get a little bit more loud about it.”
A member of the House Oversight Committee, Burlison said he’s pressed the Trump administration to disclose federal government files on unexplained phenomena since at least early 2025.
“I’ve been asking the White House for this to be done since Trump entered into office,” Burlison told Missourinet last month after Trump’s initial announcement. “I’m not one that believes that there’s little green men from another planet, but I can’t deny the fact that there’s a lot of video evidence of objects that we have no idea what they are, but we know that they’re not us.”
Burlison’s interest in the unexplained phenomena raised eyebrows last year after comments he made suggesting he believed in the existence of giant humans resurfaced last August. Those comments were made during an interview with BlazeTV, where he also spoke at length about “angels” potentially explaining supposed alien sightings.
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