Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigns after clashing with Hegseth over generals' firings

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll submitted his resignation to President Trump on Monday, ending an 18-month tenure marked by an increasingly public rupture with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the firing of senior generals and the direction of the Army's modernization effort. The White House confirmed the departure Monday evening, and Driscoll's exit was expected to take effect within days.

Driscoll, who was confirmed at 38 and is one of the youngest secretaries ever to lead the Army, had spent the day at the White House speaking with the president about what an administration official described as "the current state of the Army" before submitting his letter. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement that Driscoll had been "highly effective in advancing President Trump's agenda to Make America Strong Again at the Department of the Army," crediting him with "restoring an emphasis on readiness and lethality" and helping with diplomacy between Russia and Ukraine. No reason for the departure was given in that statement, though people familiar with Driscoll's thinking said he had grown frustrated that his transformation agenda was being undercut from within the Pentagon.

The numbers behind the rupture

The dispute traces to Hegseth's handling of Army general officers. Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement released Monday that Hegseth "has fired and blocked the promotions of dozens of senior officers without explanation, including Army Chief of Staff General Randy George and half of all four-star generals." Hegseth had separately directed the military in 2025 to cut its four-star ranks by 20 percent across all the services as part of a broader downsizing of senior leadership.

• Gen. Randy George, Army Chief of Staff, ousted in April 2026 without a stated reason
• Gen. James Mingus, Army Vice Chief of Staff, removed
• Gen. David Hodne, head of Army Futures and Transformation Command, removed
• Gen. Christopher Donahue, commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, removed

Driscoll had worked closely with several of the officers on his signature project, the Army Transformation Initiative, which he launched in May 2025 to push artificial intelligence, decentralized equipment-modification authority and expanded drone formations into Army units faster than the service's normal procurement cycle allows. After George's removal in April, the acting chief who succeeded him ordered a drone-focused battalion that Driscoll had championed to return to conventional infantry duties, a decision that associates said Driscoll took as a direct repudiation of his agenda.

How Driscoll got here

Driscoll, a Boone, North Carolina native and Yale Law School classmate and close friend of Vice President JD Vance, was commissioned as an Army armor officer in 2007, led a cavalry platoon in the 10th Mountain Division and deployed to Baghdad in 2009 before leaving active duty for a career in venture capital and private equity. Nominating him in late 2024, Trump called him "a disruptor and change agent." The Senate confirmed him 66-28 as the 26th Secretary of the Army on February 25, 2025, following a confirmation hearing at which Driscoll delivered a prepared opening statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee outlining his priorities for the service. Inside the Pentagon he became known as Trump's "drone guy" for his focus on fielding new unmanned technology faster.

For a stretch last year Driscoll also served as acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, an unusual dual role that underscored the administration's early confidence in him. That standing frayed over 2026 as Hegseth moved to consolidate authority over senior promotions and installations across the services, a pattern that has produced a wave of forced departures of flag officers government-wide. Driscoll gave a widely noted address at the Association of the United States Army conference last October arguing for urgency in adopting new technology; associates say the gap between that public message and what he was encountering internally widened through the summer.

An independent account of the friction between Driscoll and Hegseth that preceded his departure was published separately this week, describing months of behind-the-scenes tension between the two men over control of the Army's modernization push.

Who is affected

The Army has no confirmed successor as of Monday night. Under Secretary of the Army Mike Obadal, a retired Army colonel and special operations aviator confirmed to his post last September, would ordinarily be positioned to serve as acting secretary, though Hegseth is not obligated to choose him. Multiple outlets have reported that Hegseth instead favors Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell, an Army combat veteran and Purple Heart recipient with close ties to the defense secretary, for the permanent nomination — a choice that would place a Hegseth ally atop the service and, career Army officers and outside defense analysts said, remove one of the few remaining internal checks on the defense secretary's personnel decisions.

More broadly, the departure lands amid what Senate Democrats describe as sustained turnover atop the military's uniformed leadership, a dynamic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan has separately pressed the Pentagon on this summer over concerns about the armed forces' role in the run-up to the November midterms. In a letter released last week, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine assured Slotkin the military has "no plans to send Federal military personnel or Federalized members of the National Guard to polling places" this fall, a commitment Slotkin's office noted came only from Caine and not from Hegseth directly.

Reaction

Reaction on Capitol Hill split sharply along party lines. Reed's statement did not celebrate the departure; he said he did "not welcome Secretary Driscoll's resignation" and used it to press for the defense secretary's removal.

"It is far past time for President Trump to recognize the lasting harm that Pete Hegseth is inflicting on the Department of Defense. In the Army alone, he has fired and blocked the promotions of dozens of senior officers without explanation, including Army Chief of Staff General Randy George and half of all four-star generals. Secretary Hegseth is cultivating a culture where dissent is punished and competence is secondary to personal allegiance," Reed said.

Republicans offered a warmer send-off without directly addressing the friction with Hegseth. Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas, a former Army National Guard officer, wrote on social media that Driscoll was "a transformative leader who brought common sense and discipline to the Department of the Army" and said he had "appreciated how engaged he was, from mentoring cadets at West Point to leading the Army at the Pentagon." A Defense Department spokesperson did not respond Monday to questions about the circumstances of the resignation or Reed's criticism of Hegseth.

What happens next

The Senate Armed Services Committee, which vetted and advanced Driscoll's nomination ahead of his 66-28 confirmation in February 2025, will need to review and advance whoever the White House nominates to succeed him, a process that could stretch into the fall given the chamber's calendar. In the interim, day-to-day Army leadership falls to whoever Hegseth designates to run the department, and lawmakers on both sides said they expect the fight over control of the Army's modernization budget and general-officer promotions to continue regardless of who ultimately holds the secretary's office. The House and Senate Armed Services committees are expected to press Pentagon officials on the departure and on the broader pattern of general-officer removals when Congress resumes work on the annual defense authorization bill this month.