Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigns after clash with Hegseth

Daniel P. Driscoll has resigned as the 26th secretary of the Army after about 18 months in the job. He took his concerns about the service directly to President Donald Trump and then handed in his resignation. In a social media post on Tuesday evening he said Wednesday would be his last full day.

Driscoll is 41. He became the youngest Army secretary on record when Vice President JD Vance swore him in on 25 February 2025. He had served as an armor officer and cavalry scout with the 10th Mountain Division in Baghdad, later took a law degree at Yale, and worked in investment banking and venture capital. Trump once called him a disruptor. Inside the Pentagon he was known as the president's "drone guy" because he pushed cheaper uncrewed systems and a lighter force.

That programme ran into Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. Reporting by Politico, Axios, NPR and Defence One, drawing on officials granted anonymity, describes months of friction. Hegseth removed Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George in April without a public explanation. He also pushed out or sidelined Gen. David Hodne at Transformation and Training Command, Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Mingus, and Gen. Christopher Donahue at U.S. Army Europe and Africa. Those officers had been the uniformed partners for Driscoll's modernisation work.

Driscoll was on holiday in North Carolina when he learned George had been dismissed. He and his family drove to the general's house. In later congressional testimony he did not hide the surprise. People familiar with the resignation say he also objected to Hegseth blocking promotions of officers, including women and minority officers, who had Driscoll's support. Hegseth's public emphasis has been on grooming, fitness and cultural standards. Driscoll wanted fewer headquarters and more drones in the field.

The White House still praised him. Spokeswoman Anna Kelly said he had been "highly effective" in advancing the president's agenda, restoring readiness and helping with Russia-Ukraine talks. A White House official told Axios that Driscoll was asked to stay until after the midterm elections. He declined. Some officials described Hegseth as wary of Driscoll's friendship with Vance, a Yale Law classmate.

Navy Secretary John Phelan quit in April. Hegseth has also removed the chief of naval operations and the Air Force vice chief of staff, among more than a dozen senior officers. Sen. Jack Reed, the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Driscoll's record stood "in stark contrast" to Hegseth's tenure. Reed is a partisan voice. The factual point underneath the remark is simpler: the Army now lacks a Senate-confirmed civilian secretary and a Senate-confirmed chief of staff at the same time, during an active war with Iran and while U.S. forces continue to support Ukraine.

Army Undersecretary Michael Obadal is expected to take over as acting secretary. Some defence officials have floated Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell as a possible nominee. Neither appointment had been announced when Driscoll posted his farewell.

The Army is the largest U.S. service, with close to a million soldiers across the active force, Guard and Reserve, and more than 265,000 civilians. Its modernisation plan was built around shorter procurement cycles and uncrewed systems that could be lost in large numbers. That plan needed senior officers who would protect the budget lines. Once those officers were gone, Driscoll told people close to him, the job was no longer workable.

His departure does not by itself change deployments or drone production. It does change who sits in the room when Hegseth and Trump decide how the Army spends the next two budget years. The next secretary will inherit a force that has already lost several of the generals who wrote the current transformation plan. That is the concrete consequence of this resignation, and it will show up first in promotion lists and programme reviews, not in a press release.