1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Pete Hegseth must be impeached. His appointments to the Defense Policy Board are a textbook corruption scheme: Marc Andreessen and Blake Masters both have direct financial ties to 1789 Capital, the venture fund where Donald Trump Jr is a partner, which holds stakes in the same defense contractors their firms back. These men now advise the Pentagon on the exact sector where their investments are concentrated. This isn't a gray area. Andreessen's firm co-leads funding rounds for Anduril Industries, which received $1.25 billion in federal contracts in the first 500 days of this administration. Hadrian won a $900 million Navy partnership and an $80 million Army contract. SpaceX, a shared holding, has accumulated roughly $22 billion in cumulative federal awards. Hegseth handed advisory seats over this spending to the people who profit from it. Scott Amey of the Project on Government Oversight put it plainly: these appointees may be there "to raid the cupboards" and steer contracts toward their own clients. The Defense Policy Board helped build the case for the Iraq War. Putting the president's family financial interests at the center of it is a corruption of the office that warrants removal. Start impeachment proceedings now.