WASHINGTON — Democratic members of Congress grilled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Tuesday morning during the first of several congressional hearings following the Trump administration’s deployment of National Guard members and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles.
Hegseth, along with Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine, testified before a House Appropriations subcommittee, and the pair is slated to appear at additional Congressional hearings in the coming days.
Since Saturday, President Donald Trump has sent nearly 5,000 service members to California — about 700 active-duty Marines along with a total of 4,100 National Guard members — to help quell mostly peaceful demonstrations that Hegseth described as a “deteriorating situation.”
California Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar pressed defense officials during Tuesday’s hearing about the cost, logistics and the legal basis for the deployment.
In response, Bryn Woollacott MacDonnell, special assistant to the defense secretary, estimated that the cost to send National Guard members and Marines to be about $134 million, and said that most of that money would go toward travel, lodging and food.
“I want to express my severe concern with the deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles without consultation of the state of California,” Aguilar told Hegseth. “There have been photographs that have shown these troops sleeping on the floor and have not been provided fuel, food or water by DOD.”
Hegseth pushed back, saying that his office was ensuring the soldiers were receiving necessary supplies for their deployment.
“That's a disingenuous attack that misrepresents how much we care about our troops and what they're doing to defend ICE agents,” Hegseth said. “I’m not going to take that we don’t care about the troops.”
The defense secretary said the military members would be deployed to California for 60 days to “maintain the peace.”
Meanwhile, California officials have said they do not want the soldiers there and filed a lawsuit seeking a court order to find Trump’s actions unlawful and a restraining order to block the deployment. Gov. Gavin Newsom called sending National Guard members to Los Angeles a “manufactured crisis” and an “outrageous overreach.”
Aguilar asked Hegseth to specify the legal basis that Trump used to call the National Guard into federal service, asking if the administration had determined if any of these situations had applied: an invasion by a foreign nation, a rebellion against the U.S. government or the president being unable to execute the laws with regular forces.
“It sounds like all three to me,” Hegseth said, later continuing, “The governor of California has failed to protect his people as well as the mayor of Los Angeles, so President Trump has said he will protect our agents, and the Guard and the Marines are proud to do it.”
Hegseth also faced questions about the administration’s proposed assistance to Ukraine and whether the U.S. was prepared to face a drone attack like the one Ukraine orchestrated against Russia earlier this month that reportedly destroyed more than 40 Russian planes.
Hegseth said the administration planned to reduce funding for Ukraine in the budget and that Trump “takes a very different view of that conflict.”
“We believe that a negotiated peaceful settlement is in the best interest of both parties and our nation's interests, especially with all the competing interests around the globe,” the defense secretary said, responding to Rep. Joseph Morelle, D-N.Y. “I don't think the word victory has been well defined or the path to it, and as a result, a path to peace that stops the killing and the carnage is something that President Trump is very invested in.”
Morelle replied that he defined victory as stopping "illegal incursions by the Russian federation into Ukraine, which is a sovereign nation."
Earlier in the hearing, Hegseth said that he and Caine spoke soon after they learned Ukraine had used drones hidden inside trucks to attack Russia and said his department was continuously looking at the best ways to protect the U.S. and its assets abroad from comparable attacks.
“It was a daring and very effective operation that we were not aware of in advance,” Hegseth said in response to questioning from Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., noting that Ukraine’s “Operation Spiderweb” represented “significant advancements in drone warfare.”
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers complained that the defense officials have not provided Congress with many details of the department’s proposed $1 trillion budget.
“We need more information than we have gotten from OMB [Office of Management and Budget],” Oklahoma Republican Rep. Tom Cole told Hegseth. “That’s not your responsibility, but it’s critical for us to make the decisions we are going to have to make.”
Democratic lawmakers were a bit more forceful in their requests for detailed documents.
“What is your plan for the future?" Rep. Rosa De Lauro, D-Conn. asked. "Can we get that in writing and on paper so that we know where you are going Because we don't have anything today. We have zip, nada in knowing where you are going.”
Several Congress members specifically asked about the cost of Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense plan, which Hegseth said is slated to cost $175 billion and the administration aims to make “mission capable” before the end of the president's term. The Defense Department is requesting $24.8 billion in the reconcilliation bill, Woollacott MacDonnell said.