Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced nearly six hours of questioning Wednesday from House lawmakers for the first time since President Donald Trump’s administration launched the war against Iran, which Democrats have contested as a costly conflict of choice waged without congressional approval.

Trump, meanwhile, told Axios that he’s rejecting Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for a lift of the U.S. blockade — a plan that would postpone discussions of Iran’s nuclear program.

Until now, Hegseth has avoided public questioning from lawmakers about the war, although he and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine have held televised Pentagon briefings. Hegseth has mostly taken questions from conservative journalists, while citing Bible passages to castigate mainstream outlets.

Democrats quickly pivoted to the ballooning costs of the Iran war, the huge drawdown of critical U.S. munitions and the bombing of an elementary school that killed children. Some lawmakers have also questioned how prepared the military was to shoot down swarms of Iranian drones, some of which penetrated U.S. defenses and killed or injured American troops.

Republicans have said they will keep faith in Trump’s wartime leadership, for now, citing Iran’s nuclear program, the potential for talks to resume and the high stakes of withdrawal. Still, GOP lawmakers are eager for the conflict to end, and some are eyeing future votes that could become an important test for the president if the war drags on.

The world’s largest aircraft carrier had been at sea for more than 300 days, including participating in the war against Iran and capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The Ford will be leaving the Middle East in the coming days and returning to its home port in Virginia in mid-May, according to two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to detail sensitive military movements.

The ship broke the U.S. record this month for the longest post-Vietnam War deployment, a nearly 10-month span after leaving Naval Station Norfolk in June.

The president leveled the new threat that he may reduce the U.S. military presence in Germany as tensions grow with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the Iran war.

“The United States is studying and reviewing the possible reduction of Troops in Germany, with a determination to be made over the next short period of time,” Trump said in a social media post.

Merz on Monday said the U.S. was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership and criticized Washington’s lack of strategy in the war. Trump attacked Merz in a social media post Tuesday, saying the German chancellor “thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon” and “doesn’t know what he’s talking about!”

In his first term, Trump also moved to cut U.S. troops in Germany because he said it spent too little on defense.

In the absence of substantive negotiations, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has been busy shoring up moral and rhetorical support in his country’s staring contest with America and Israel.

He spent Wednesday conducting a string of phone calls with the foreign ministers of India, Kenya and Poland, along with the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross Mirjana Spoljaric and Nabih Berri, the speaker of the Lebanese parliament.

Official reports of these chats contained few details, but the Iranian government account of the meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said Araghchi “informed his Indian counterpart about the situation in the region and the consequences of the continued illegal actions of the United States in threatening the freedom of international navigation, as well as the latest developments related to the negotiations to end the imposed war against Iran.”

Earlier this week, Araghchi conducted a whirlwind diplomatic tour, visiting Oman and Pakistan on Sunday then Moscow on Monday for a sit-down with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The vice president, in an interview airing Wednesday on Fox News Channel, was responding to a report in The Atlantic that said he, in private, has repeatedly questioned the Pentagon’s depiction of the war and the depletion of U.S. missile stockpiles.

Vance was dismissive of the reporting but said, “Of course I’m concerned about, you know, our readiness because that’s my job to be concerned.”

He praised the military, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine, but said, “It’s of course my job to ask these questions. It’s of course my job to make sure that we’re on top of every issue.”

Hegseth is exiting the House Armed Services Committee after a nearly six-hour hearing.

The hearing showed the partisan divide on Capitol Hill over the war with Iran. As Democrats questioned him on the economic costs and strategy of the war, Hegseth fired back that lawmakers were being “feckless” in their questioning. Republicans mostly stood behind the defense secretary, although a few questioned his reasoning for removing several top officials.

“At the end of the day, the Iran war is the biggest issue that we face,” said Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the committee.