Army Secretary Dan Driscoll submitted his resignation to President Trump on Monday after months of behind-the-scenes clashes with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, leaving the Army without a Senate-confirmed secretary or chief of staff.
The White House confirmed the departure, with spokesperson Anna Kelly praising Driscoll's record in a statement that made no mention of the tensions that drove him out. Driscoll, an Iraq war veteran and former adviser to Vice President JD Vance, spoke directly with Trump about the state of the Army before handing in his resignation, a U.S. official told CBS News.
Deputy Army Undersecretary Dave Fitzgerald is also expected to step down this week, compounding a leadership vacuum at the top of the service branch during a period of active military operations abroad.
The rift between Driscoll and Hegseth centered on the Army's modernization push, and Hegseth's decision to remove the senior officers leading it. A source familiar with the matter told Fox News that Driscoll raised concerns with the administration that Hegseth had blocked Army transformation and readiness efforts "specifically by firing the Generals who were responsible."
Chief among them was Gen. Randy George, the Army chief of staff whom Hegseth ousted earlier this year, asking him to retire. George and Driscoll had co-launched the Army Transformation Initiative last year, a program focused in part on fielding more unmanned systems, a priority sharpened by the drone warfare that reshaped the battlefield in Ukraine.
Gen. Chris Donahue, the Army's top commander in Europe and Africa, also filed for retirement. Both George and Donahue were supporters of a newly formed Army drone battalion that the service began making plans to phase out earlier this month, following friction between officers who backed the unit and acting Army chief of staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve.
Driscoll, who is described as a close friend of George, watched the generals he had partnered with on modernization get pushed aside one by one. That pattern appears to have made his position untenable.
The friction went beyond policy disagreements. A Trump administration official told the New York Post that Hegseth and Pentagon chief of staff Ricky Buria "made it so untenable for [Driscoll] that he felt it was best for not just him but for the people that he loved and respected in the Army to leave."
The Post also reported that Hegseth and Buria accused Driscoll, without evidence, of leaking reports about low munitions stockpiles. A Trump administration official called the accusation "absurd," saying "nobody seriously investigated it or took it seriously." Hegseth had previously tried to fire Driscoll as far back as April but was blocked by the White House, and had reportedly developed a fixation on the possibility that Driscoll might replace him.
That level of internal dysfunction at the Pentagon raises serious questions about whether personal grievances took priority over warfighting readiness. The Army is engaged in operations tied to the ongoing conflict with Iran, played a central role in the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro using its elite Delta Force, and has had personnel on the ground meeting with Ukrainian and Russian officials as part of Trump's push to end the war in Ukraine.
Driscoll also oversaw planning to reduce the number of U.S. forces stationed in Germany during his tenure, another significant strategic initiative now left without its chief civilian advocate.
With Driscoll gone and George already forced out, Newsmax reported that the Army now has no Senate-confirmed secretary or chief of staff. That is a significant institutional gap for the largest branch of the U.S. military, especially during a period of heightened global operations.
Driscoll was confirmed by the Senate in February 2025. Breitbart noted that he served roughly 18 months in the role, making him the youngest-ever Army Secretary. He attended Yale Law School alongside Vance after both men served in the military.
His departure is part of a broader pattern of senior military and civilian officials leaving the Pentagon during Hegseth's tenure. Navy Secretary John Phelan left his role earlier this year. Trump said at the time that Phelan "had some conflicts with some other people." Adm. Alvin Holsey, the commander of U.S. Southern Command, also retired in the last year.
Hegseth's leadership has created friction well beyond the Army's top ranks. Fired Stars and Stripes journalists have sued the Pentagon over alleged First Amendment retaliation, and senior military leaders have pushed back on the pace and sustainability of deployments tied to the Iran conflict.
The White House statement on Driscoll's departure was notably warm. Kelly credited him with "providing outstanding leadership during historic military operations, restoring an emphasis on readiness and lethality, assisting with negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, and more."
"The United States Army is more powerful than ever thanks to his work alongside the Commander-in-Chief and Secretary of War."
The use of "Secretary of War", a title the Defense Department formally retired in 1947, in the official White House statement was striking. Whether the phrasing signals a formal title change or is simply rhetorical, it drew attention from multiple outlets covering the resignation.
Driscoll himself offered no public statement. No word has come from the White House on who will serve as acting Army Secretary, or whether Trump has accepted the resignation. Fox News reported that as of its publication, the resignation had not yet been formally accepted.
Whatever one makes of the internal politics, Driscoll's tenure coincided with some of the most consequential military operations of the Trump presidency. The Delta Force operation that captured Nicolás Maduro. Active engagement in Trump's diplomatic push to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Planning for a restructured U.S. force posture in Europe.
The warnings from top military leaders about unsustainable Iran deployments add further weight to the question of whether the Pentagon's civilian leadership has been focused on the right priorities. Driscoll's concerns about readiness and transformation were not abstract complaints, they were tied to specific programs, specific units, and specific generals with operational track records.
And yet those generals are gone, the drone battalion they championed is being phased out, and the Army secretary who raised the alarm is now walking out the door.
The broader turbulence at the Pentagon has also touched internal press operations. The firing of Stars and Stripes staff over alleged insubordination and the departure of the former Joint Chiefs chairman, who has since publicly criticized military domestic deployments, paint a picture of an institution under unusual strain from within.
Several questions remain unanswered. What happens to the Army Transformation Initiative now that both its civilian and military sponsors are gone? Who fills the leadership vacuum at the top of the Army? And did the White House know the full scope of the internal dysfunction before it reached this point?
When the people responsible for making the Army stronger keep getting shown the door, the country deserves a clear answer about who benefits, and whether it is the troops.