Hegseth criticized for locking Democrats out of closed-door defense budget talks

Republican lawmakers express concern after US defense secretary repeatedly excluded Democrats from briefings

Republican senators have criticized the Pentagon for locking Democrats out of classified briefings on defense spending, warning that Pete Hegseth’s approach could jeopardize passage of Donald Trump’s record $1.5tn military budget increase.

The US defense secretary has made at least two trips to Capitol Hill in recent weeks to pitch the budget, but has repeatedly excluded Democrats from the closed-door sessions, according to lawmakers from both parties.

Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, argued that Hegseth was undermining his own case. “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,” Tillis told Politico . “You got to engage.”

Much of next year’s defense budget will still require Democratic votes to pass, even if Republicans push part of the package through, under the party-line reconciliation process. Senate Democrats have threatened to boycott the funding bills altogether, meaning Hegseth’s exclusion of the party’s congressional representatives could backfire on the administration’s own spending priorities this fall.

“The Department of War remains fully committed to working with Congress to ensure our warfighters have the resources necessary to execute their mission,” said Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesperson. “Secretary Hegseth and senior department leadership regularly engage with lawmakers to discuss the defense budget, readiness, and national security priorities.”

Mike Rounds, a Republican senator of South Dakota, said he had personally raised the issue of engaging Democrats with defense department officials. “The Democrat members need to be brought up to speed,” Rounds told Politico, adding that Pentagon officials feared classified material would leak.

Lisa Murkowski, a senator of Alaska, also called for a bipartisan approach to the briefings. “I know that sometimes you want to have smaller groups, but I think it needs to be bipartisan,” she told the website.

The dispute follows comments Hegseth made in April, when he told the US House of Representatives armed services committee that congressional Democrats were among the “biggest impediment” to stopping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. “The biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” he said.