Last Wednesday, Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) issued an extraordinary statement urging Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to drop reported plans to abandon a key NATO military command post and scrap an expansion of U.S. Forces Japan.
The next day, the pair spent the day in Tupelo, Miss., appearing at a veterans’ charity event and touring a General Atomics manufacturing facility.
It was an illustration of the increasingly difficult balancing act that has come to define Wicker’s nascent tenure as chair of a historically bipartisan Senate panel.
Wicker expended a ton of political capital to help get Hegseth confirmed. Yet Wicker has publicly challenged Hegseth more than any other Senate committee chair has done for the Cabinet secretaries in their jurisdiction.
And it’s not just Hegseth. Wicker’s relationship with President Donald Trump is unique in that he rarely gets backlash from Trump or online MAGA personalities when he diverges publicly from the president. This sets Wicker apart from other Republicans.
Consider this, all in just a two-month stretch:
— Hegseth’s first big speech included a suggestion that Ukraine would never join NATO, and that returning to its pre-war borders is “unrealistic.” Wicker said he was “disturbed” by the comments and called it a “rookie mistake.” Wicker also said Hegseth “is going to be a great defense secretary, although he wasn’t my choice for the job.”
— Wicker said it was a mistake for the Trump administration to oppose a UN resolution condemning Russia’s brutal assault of Ukraine. Remember that Wicker also declared last year that Vladimir Putin’s barbarism shows why negotiating with Moscow is a bad idea.
— Amid Trump’s high-stakes negotiations with Russia — and his disparaging comments about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — Wicker said Putin can’t be trusted and suggested the Russian leader should be “executed.”
— Wicker said there’s “no question” that mistakes were made when top officials, including Hegseth, were found to have been discussing sensitive war plans over Signal. Wicker said his panel will investigate and seek briefings on the incident.
Most of Wicker’s pushback is communicated in private. Wicker and Trump are close, and they spoke as recently as Monday. But Wicker constantly has to weigh whether — and how intensely — to speak out against a president of his own party. Importantly, Wicker just won reelection in November, which makes it a bit easier politically when he takes his criticisms public.
“We’re working together very, very well,” Wicker told us of Hegseth in a brief interview. “And the president — it’s interesting, members can dial Donald J. Trump and he picks up the phone. I’ve been in Congress 30 years now. It’s never been so easy to talk to the chief executive.”
Perhaps the dynamic is more of a reflection on Hegseth, who came into the job with very little experience compared to his predecessors and could benefit from Wicker’s counsel to guide him on their shared goals.
“He’s trying to be a good committee chairman,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said of Wicker. “What I’ve seen is, he’s trying to be supportive of the president and also make sure we have a military that can defend our freedom.”
But Hegseth has done and said things that naturally put Wicker in an uncomfortable position. For example, Wicker had defended Hegseth’s push for cost-cutting measures at the Pentagon — that is until last week, when Wicker learned that those cuts may extend to the NATO and Japan funding mentioned above.
“It seems to me like [Wicker] feels like he’s not in control,” observed a GOP senator who was granted anonymity to deliver a candid assessment.
It may seem that way sometimes. Wicker is one of Congress’ most outspoken and prolific defense hawks. He’s championed an ambitious national security strategy that includes massive increases in Pentagon spending. He frequently wears a Ukrainian-American flag pin. These don’t often line up with Trump and his national security officials.
“He’s continuing a bipartisan tradition of the committee, which is absolutely crucial,” said Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the Armed Services Committee’s longtime top Democrat. “There are decisions you might disagree with, but you don’t want to take such an overtly critical position.”
