Pete Hegseth remains the incumbent Secretary of Defense (now overseeing the renamed War Department) more than 18 months after his narrow January 2025 Senate confirmation, with recent activities including Senate Appropriations Committee testimony on a roughly $1.5 trillion defense budget request, authorization of annual testosterone screening for service members, and responses to congressional inquiries on troop deployments ahead of the November 2026 elections. No administration statements, resignation signals, or confirmation votes indicate an impending departure. Traders’ 80.5% “No” pricing on removal by year-end aligns with his sustained policy role and the absence of fresh catalysts that would typically prompt cabinet turnover in the final months of a presidential term.