Key Pentagon priorities in peril after Democratic sweep

Tuesday's election was great for Democrats. It was bad for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and some of the White House's most ambitious national security projects.

Surprise wins across the map for Democrats — including in the Deep South — complicate a lot for the Trump administration.

Republicans have relied on a simple-majority funding mechanism known as reconciliation to pay for marquee projects like Golden Dome. That option is now a long shot over the next few months, and impossible after that.
Outrage over the Iran war, well beyond the half-year mark, is sure to turbocharge a long list of congressional inquiries.
And lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including Reps. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), have suggested impeaching Hegseth.

Defense analysts agree prospects for the administration's full $1.5 trillion defense budget look grim.

A Wednesday note from TD Cowen's Washington Research Group warned that "Trump 'branded' projects are dead." Golden Dome, Golden Fleet and "other signature efforts," it added, "will be curbed."
Meanwhile, Todd Harrison, an American Enterprise Institute defense budget expert, said it's unlikely the lame-duck congressional session will pass reconciliation and that it instead will keep the defense budget operating under a continuing resolution into next year.
"They're all at risk," Harrison said of reconciliation-backed programs. "My base expectation is nothing happens on the defense budget."