Pete Hegseth's odds of being the next Cabinet official to leave collapsed from 99¢ to 15¢ as the Defense Secretary weathered recent controversies around Iran war conduct. The 84¢ plunge follows his recent statements defending joint U.S.-Israeli operations against Iran, characterizing them as concluding "an existing conflict" and noting the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during strikes. Markets initially spiked on tensions after Hegseth banned Anthropic from federal contracts in late February, sparking a legal challenge from the AI company's CEO. Despite ongoing war operations and university military training cuts, traders now price in Hegseth's survival through immediate political headwinds.