Donald Trump says war with Iran is militarily 'effectively over' as he backs Pete Hegseth

Donald Trump has made a bold statement about the Iran war before backing the man in charge of carrying out his operation in the Middle Eastern country. Mr Trump defended Pentagon boss Pete Hegseth on Monday, lashing out at a fellow Republican . He did so while speaking about Iran in the White House briefing room. Mr Trump told reporters, " Iran, militarily , is effectively over." He said, "We're just keeping it the status quo." The US leader added that Iran has been "decapitated" but said he is still looking to make sure there's a long-term solution to ensuring that its nuclear programme is defanged.

Mr Trump has repeatedly said he is on the brink of ordering US forces to escalate attacks if Iran's leaders do not agree to American terms to end the war. The comments on Monday were some of Mr Trump's most definitive about moving away from his threat to resume strikes on Iran after the midterm election. Now, Mr Trump and his defense secretary could face a war closer to home. The Republican Party lost both the House and the Senate to Democrats last week, as voters made their opposition to Mr Trump's policies know.

The elections highlighted American dissatisfaction over the eight-month-old war, which has led to a surge in fuel prices and impacted the US economy as well as global markets. Earlier Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the next steps on the war are up to Mr Trump, including the possibility of telling Iran: "Hey, we're done, and we're going to watch your nuclear material. You better not move it." Mr Hegseth has been one of the administration's most prominent defenders of the war.

Critics have long said said the war was launched without proper authorization, but now Mr Hegseth has come under renewed fire. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky on Monday moved to force a vote to impeach Mr Hegseth, largely over his execution of the war. Mr Trump lashed out at Mr Massie personally just hours after the congressman read the resolution. The president called him a "loser" who "has a lot of hatred in his heart." Mr Hegseth has stepped up his public statements ahead of the vote, telling reporters that he's eager to defend the military actions that he and Mr Trump have taken against Iran.

After giving a speech at the Naval War College in Rhode Island, he brushed aside the impeachment push. "There's a lot of politically motivated people who may have substantial policy disagreements, but their disagreements are with success," he told reporters. He added that "if we want to litigate" the military actions that the Trump administration has taken, "I'm happy to do it all day long."