Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will appear before relevant House and Senate committees later this week, where he will face difficult questions about the first few months of his tenure.

The hearings he will participate in are intended to focus on the Defense Department’s fiscal 2026 budget, which is expected to exceed $1 trillion for the first time, though committee members will likely take their allotted time to ask him about a litany of topics that have dominated since his confirmation in late January.

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He will appear alongside Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who will also be making his first post-confirmation appearance on the hill. Caine replaced Gen. Charles Q. Brown, whom President Donald Trump fired in February for unspecified reasons.

During his confirmation hearing, Democratic lawmakers pointedly asked Hegseth about his infidelity, a disputed sexual assault allegation that he was never charged in connection with, and his drinking history. They will most likely continue that hostile mentality toward him.

Signal

The secretary will almost certainly face questions about his use of Signal, the encrypted but not DOD-approved social media platform, to discuss operational details of an impending military operation in Yemen.

He shared details of the weapons that would be used and when the strikes would occur in two separate group chats on Signal, one that featured more than a dozen Cabinet officials and unknowingly, an Atlantic editor, while his wife, brother, and personal lawyer were in the second group chat he shared the details in.

Hegseth has repeatedly denied sharing “war plans” in the group chats, but the Atlantic published the contents of the group chat, undercutting his denial.

The Senate Armed Services Committee chairman and ranking member, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), respectively, asked the Pentagon’s inspector general to review the secretary’s use of Signal, and the inspector general accepted the request. They are also reportedly looking into whether any of his staffers were asked to delete those messages.

National Guard

Due to the timing of the hearing, he will likely face questions about the administration’s deployment of the California National Guard and 500 active-duty Marines to defend federal property and personnel over this weekend’s riots.

California residents began protesting ICE raids targeting undocumented immigrants. Those protests turned increasingly violent over the weekend, leading the president to federalize the National Guard and bring them in to quell the unrest.

Over the weekend, the secretary said on his personal social media account, “Under President Trump, violence & destruction against federal agents & federal facilities will NOT be tolerated. It’s COMMON SENSE.”

The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of federal active-duty service members from performing law enforcement duties domestically, though there are some ways for the president to work around it, one of which would be for him to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1792.

Staff retention

Hegseth may also face questions about the turmoil in his own office. The department accused three officials of leaking information to reporters and fired them, all of whom denied any wrongdoing. In addition, his chief of staff left, as did a senior communications official who worked in the first Trump administration but began criticizing the secretary after leaving the department.

The subject of their dismissals has largely faded at this point, though John Ullyot’s harsh comments could be brought up. Despite being an avid supporter of both the president and secretary, Ullyot said in April that there had been “a full-blown meltdown at the Pentagon.”

The department has struggled to find replacements for those roles, according to NBC News.

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‘Golden Dome’

The secretary will also likely face questions about the department’s development of the Trump-backed “Golden Dome.” The project, which the president has said will take around three years and $175 billion to build, will be a multifaceted air defense system that will protect the homeland from various air, ground, sea, and space-based hypersonic, ballistic, and cruise missiles.

It will rely on various sensors on the ground and in space to detect and ultimately intercept any incoming missiles.

Trump picked Gen. Michael Guetlein, the second-highest-ranking Space Force officer, to lead the oversight of its development.

Removing DEI

One of the secretary’s key priorities during his first months on the job has been to reverse many of the decisions made by the previous administration regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. These efforts range from the elimination of DEI-related positions, policies, and references in books, on websites, and on social media platforms.

The effort to remove all of the references was mired by mistakes.

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Hegseth has repeatedly said, “DEI is dead at DOD,” and has called the phrase “diversity is our strength” the “single dumbest phrase in military history.”

The secretary has also sought to force transgender troops out of the military and to bar their enlistment, and he implemented gender-neutral standards across the services.