EASTORA REPORT | For Americans paying $4.50 for a gallon of gasoline, Chuck Schumer says the Iran war has become an expense they never agreed to bear. On Monday, the Senate Democratic leader accused President Donald Trump of asking families to accept rising costs while offering no credible way out of the fighting.
“Americans are sick of being told to suck it up,” Schumer said on the Senate floor November 9. In separate remarks that day, he predicted Trump’s war would go down as one of “the greatest foreign policy fiascos in American history.” More than eight months after the campaign began, he said, the administration still had no plan to bring U.S. troops home.
Schumer’s anger extended to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He accused the Pentagon chief of conducting the war without congressional authorization and of ordering officials to conceal how many American service members had been killed or wounded. Schumer also criticized Hegseth for removing experienced military officers and failing to answer questions about deadly U.S. strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. He called for his removal through impeachment.
The call came as Republican Representative Thomas Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth. A Senate trial would require the House to impeach him first. Trump has defended his defense secretary, while Hegseth argues the campaign was necessary to counter Iran’s nuclear ambitions and rejects the impeachment effort.
Schumer also read the November 3 midterm results as a warning over much more than the war. He said voters wanted Trump’s tariffs stopped, health care made cheaper and stock trading banned for both members of Congress and the president. With Democrats set to control both chambers in January, he promised to pursue that agenda whether Republicans cooperate or not.
The clash is already moving toward a vote. Republicans still hold Congress, but Massie’s impeachment resolution could reach the House floor within days. House Speaker Mike Johnson opposes an impeachment vote amid continuing hostilities abroad. Schumer, meanwhile, is pressing for the Senate to act: “Hegseth must stand trial bef