As Democrats and a handful of House Republicans prepare to vote to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as soon as next week, Hegseth’s inner circle in the Pentagon is launching a forceful defense of the embattled defense secretary.

Hegseth is using the megaphone of the office to launch a fresh social media campaign in his own defense, as Pentagon officials on Thursday posted images online of Hegseth with the tagline, “Stand. Fight. Defend the Republic.”The White House later posted a video featuring Hegseth it its 5.3 million followers on The coordinated blitz came after U.S. Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Sean Parnell called a meeting at the Pentagon on Wednesday to plan an aggressive defense of Hegseth.

“Sean Parnell convened the team to map the most aggressive defense of Secretary Hegseth and the President’s agenda ever assembled, paired with planned offensive maneuvers that will define the next phase,” deputy press secretary Joel Valdez said in a statement to MS NOW confirming the Wednesday meeting. “What we’ve learned from this President is never back down and fight, fight, fight!”

Valdez would not disclose the full scope of the Pentagon’s strategy, but he said the meeting focused on impeachment, the department’s posture going forward and “energizing the staff that we’re preparing to fight.”Thursday’s social media campaign in support of Hegseth is just the beginning, Valdez said.

“It’s a very light appetizer. More and more to come,” Valdez said.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump doubled down on his support for Hegseth remaining in his role, telling reporters, “I think he’s doing a fantastic job.”Now that Democrats have won back the majorities in the House and the Senate, Congress is preparing to come back for its lame-duck session, and Republicans are grappling with who to blame and how to move forward.

Already, Trump has said it’s “largely true” that high gas prices after the Iran war launched contributed to the midterm losses. Vice President JD Vance was more blunt: “The reason we lost is the war.”Almost immediately, Congress will have a say in Hegseth’s fate.

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who’s retiring at the end of this year, is expected to force a vote on impeaching Hegseth as soon as Monday, a move that will spark a vote on whether the embattled defense secretary should be ejected from his post.

Massie, a top critic of the Trump administration, moved to force a vote on the matter in September, but it never came to the floor after Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., sent the House home early. Now, Massie is promising a redo as early as when Congress returns next week.

“There is one contingency in which I won’t reintroduce the articles of impeachment: Hegseth resigns,” Massie wrote on Once Massie moves to force a vote on the measure, Johnson will have two legislative days to act. He can either put the resolution on the floor for a vote, hold a vote to refer the legislation to committee, or motion to table it. All three options would require a majority vote for success. Two Republicans say if the impeachment vote comes to the floor, it will succeed.

“I think the numbers are there,” one House Republican told MS NOW, adding that they would be “inclined” to support the effort. “I think he’s been incompetent. It’s been all about bravado and not about strategy.”But the GOP lawmaker — who was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic — said it should not come down to Congress. Instead, Hegseth should leave on his own.

“I think he should resign,” the House Republican said. “He needs to have the honor and the integrity of knowing that he’s done a bad job in service to the country in this particular position, and he needs to resign and save face.”Another House Republican said there are plenty of Republicans who would support Hegseth’s impeachment — including those who lose re-election this week and those who are annoyed by his testimony before Congressional committees.

“There’s a ton of members that have been wanting to take this vote, and we don’t have that big of a majority,” said the second GOP lawmaker, who was granted anonymity to describe the internal discussions. The GOP lawmaker said that “there’s a lot of Republicans that don’t like Hegseth.”

“That he shows up in committee, doesn’t answer a question, acts like he doesn’t answer to anyone has pissed off a lot of Republicans for a long time,” the lawmaker added. “He’s got trouble. He does not have a good relationship with people on the Hill.”Earlier this year, Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment on Hegseth ranging from waging a war on Iran that was not congressionally authorized to violating the War Powers Resolution, using lethal military force against suspected drug traffickers instead of maritime law enforcement procedures, retaliating against Sen. Mark Kelly and the kidnapping of a sovereign foreign leader — Nicolás Maduro.

The articles also addressed Hegesth’s alleged failure to minimize civilian casualties in military operations, and his conducting a military campaign against Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen without congressional authorization.

While a vote in the House on the articles of impeachment next week could prove which Republicans in the lame-duck Congress are willing to break with the administration, it would be a harder lift to trigger a two-thirds Senate vote, or 67 Senate votes, to convict him that would force his removal.

“This is not about me, but of course the other side, in case you’ve noticed, they’re obsessed,” Hegseth said in a video on X, calling Massie “a disgruntled, defeated congressman.”“It’s all about the politics of personal destruction,” he added.

“Didn’t work against President Trump, and it won’t work with me.”