Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigns after tensions with Defense Secretary Hegseth over officer removals

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigned Monday evening, according to ABC News reporting, after weeks of escalating tension with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over Hegseth's removal of senior military officers. President Trump accepted the resignation that evening, per ABC News. Driscoll and Hegseth differed on several matters since both took office in 2025, most notably Hegseth's firing or sidelining of multiple senior officers up for promotion to the rank of general, according to ABC News reporting. In April, Hegseth fired Gen. Randy George, the former Army Chief of Staff, without explanation, per ABC News. Driscoll had a close working relationship with George and said at a congressional hearing that he did not know why George had been removed. Driscoll resigned Monday at one of the busiest moments for the service since the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, creating a potentially significant leadership void, according to ABC News reporting. More than two dozen senior U.S. military officers have been fired or sidelined by Hegseth without any public explanation, per ABC News reporting. The removals included Chairman of the Joint Chiefs C.Q. Brown, the first Black military service chief; female military service chiefs including Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti and Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Fagan; Air Force General David Allvin; regional four-star commanders including Admiral Alvin Holsey in Latin America; and popular generals including C.D. Donahue, according to PBS NewsHour reporting. Hegseth also fired multiple top military lawyers known as judge advocate generals, per PBS reporting. Trump appeared surprised by the extent of the problem, according to sources familiar with the conversation reported by ABC News. Driscoll had warned the White House repeatedly, including Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, about what has been described as Hegseth's widespread and seemingly indiscriminate firing of senior military officers, per ABC News reporting. Driscoll also warned about unprecedented efforts by Hegseth to block others from advancing into the military's highest ranks after they had been thoroughly vetted, according to ABC News reporting. Before becoming secretary, Hegseth stated that he would fire senior officers involved in what he called DEI woke efforts, according to PBS NewsHour reporting. Hegseth has launched a campaign of what he has called ending the war on warriors and made statements such as "It's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon" and "We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind," per PBS reporting. In response to reports of the officer removals and their impact, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said: "Secretary Hegseth communicates with the president daily and is grateful to serve a commander-in-chief who loves our military," and he added that Hegseth "takes great pride in keeping the White House informed," according to ABC News reporting. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly stated: "The President has complete trust in Secretary Hegseth, who is doing an incredible job leading the Pentagon," adding that results in recent military operations, including the war in Iran, "speak for themselves," per ABC News reporting. Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast defended Hegseth's tenure, stating: "Pete Hegseth is doing a great job making sure that people in the ranks across the board from bottom to top are focused on one thing alone, their capabilities," according to PBS reporting. Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Democrat Jack Reed stated: "Hegseth, as I said from the very beginning, was unqualified to be secretary of defense, both operationally, experientially, and also temperamentally," per PBS reporting. Driscoll arrived at the Pentagon as an unconventional choice with no national security experience and a background largely in venture capital and Republican politics, according to ABC News reporting. He served in the Army from 2007 to 2010 as a cavalry officer with the 10th Mountain Division and deployed to Iraq in 2009, leaving the service as a first lieutenant, per ABC News. In 2020, he ran unsuccessfully for North Carolina's 11th Congressional District, finishing sixth in a crowded Republican primary, according to ABC News reporting. Driscoll later advised the Trump-Vance transition team and worked for the Republican National Committee, per ABC News. Driscoll was widely seen as less combative than Hegseth and positioned himself as a driving force for modernizing the Army through updating its doctrine and integrating robots, drones and other emerging technologies, according to ABC News reporting. He became popular on Capitol Hill and had access to the White House because of a prior relationship with Vice President JD Vance, whom he had met at Yale Law School, per ABC News reporting. Driscoll's popularity also grew from his work with Democrats, including Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, on right-to-repair reforms aimed at cutting through Pentagon rules and defense industry restrictions that can prevent troops from fixing their own equipment, according to ABC News. Vice President Vance said of Driscoll: "He's a man of integrity. He's a man of character," per PBS reporting. Trump had chosen Driscoll last fall to head a diplomatic initiative to restart Ukraine-Russia peace talks, according to ABC News reporting. The White House statement on his resignation praised Driscoll for being "highly effective" and stated: "Secretary Driscoll has been highly effective in advancing President Trump's agenda to Make America Strong Again at the Department of the Army by providing outstanding leadership during historic military operations, restoring an emphasis on readiness and lethality, assisting with negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, and more." A senior defense official told ABC News that "This is a big hit to the Army." The official believed Driscoll had served as a buffer between Hegseth and the Army, particularly by pushing back through the White House on Hegseth's purge of senior officers, even if those efforts ultimately did little to slow it, per ABC News reporting. The Army secretary job has often been marked by turnover, with acting officials and tenures of roughly two years or less being common in the past two decades, according to ABC News reporting. John McHugh served as Army Secretary from 2009 to 2015 under President Barack Obama and became one of the longest-serving Army secretaries in recent decades, per ABC News. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell is widely viewed as a potential replacement for Driscoll and has advocated for the job behind the scenes, according to multiple U.S. officials familiar with the matter reported by ABC News.