Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has emerged as a potential scapegoat for the Republican party’s election bloodbath due to his role in doggedly pursuing the unpopular Iran war.

One Trump adviser said Hegseth “could be on the chopping block” as Republicans assess their losses across the country.

US President Donald Trump publicly backed Hegseth when asked on Wednesday (local time) whether he was considering replacing Hegseth.

“No, I ‌think he’s doing a very good job.”

But sources said: “Someone is going to get blamed for this and you know it’s not going to be him (Trump).”

Sources say Donald Trump could replace Pete Hegseth as Republicans assess their losses. Photo: AAP

As Republicans sift through the ashes, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the swings against them were so widespread that it would take years for the party to recover.

DeSantis said the election wipeout was more than just a wave. He called it “close to an extinction-level event for Republicans”.

“To call it a wave, I don’t think would be fully accurate,” DeSantis said, one of the first Republicans to speak out publicly.

“It’s the political equivalent of a meteor strike that went all around the United States, blue states, red states, everything in between.”

On Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance publicly questioned whether the Iran war was worth it and said it cost Republicans control of Congress.

Trump has described Hegseth as a key proponent of the unpopular conflict, saying on March 23: “Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up, and you said, ‘Let’s do it, because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon’.”

The Defence Department said Hegseth was “100 per cent committed” ‌to leading the Pentagon ‌until the end of Trump’s term in the White House on January 20, 2029.

Hegseth has been a polarising figure in American politics and has made enemies even within his own Republican Party. One Republican ​lawmaker, US Representative Thomas Massie, even filed articles of impeachment against him earlier in 2026, accusing him of abusing his office by launching hostilities against Iran without approval by Congress.

Democrats have promised to investigate Hegseth and his handling of the Pentagon. Aides ⁠say that could include everything from his handling of the Iran war to his purges of top military officers, including the chairman ‌of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

He ​could also face scrutiny over his Ukraine policy and US military strikes on suspected drug trafficking boats in Latin American waters, which some Democrats say could amount to war crimes.

One long-rumoured possibility for Hegseth would be filling the Senate seat that will be vacated by Senator Marsha Blackburn. She was elected on Tuesday to become Tennessee’s next governor starting in January.

Trump has regularly ​praised Hegseth publicly, and has given the former Army National Guard soldier significant leeway as he sought to reshape the Pentagon. But last month, Trump publicly split with Hegseth by pulling the plug on his plans to livestream ​the Army’s firing-squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan.

Many fellow ⁠Republicans, along with religious leaders and international observers, raised objections to the plan. Defence officials privately expressed relief that the livestreaming would not go forward.

-with AAP