Defense Department
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll submits resignation after 18 months
2D AGO · Mon. 6:20 p.m. EDT
Administration officials said Driscoll handed President Trump his resignation on Monday. ABC News reports he had repeatedly warned the White House and chief of staff Susie Wiles about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s firings of senior officers. He had been Army secretary for 18 months. The Army has had no Senate-confirmed chief of staff since April and now also lacks a confirmed secretary amid the Iran war.
The Pentagon · file
Center-left view
The New York Times, The Atlantic, and ABC say Driscoll told the president Hegseth’s removal of senior officers and blocked promotions is stalling Army modernization while the U.S. is in a live Iran fight and still supporting Ukraine. Those accounts say the largest service is without a confirmed secretary, chief of staff, or Europe commander at the same time.
Sources: New York Times · The Atlantic · ABC / Pentagon pool report
Center-right view
Hegseth has told House appropriators that a department “destroyed by the wrong perspectives” cannot be changed with the same officers who ran it. The White House statement did not describe Driscoll’s exit as a rebuke of the secretary. POLITICO and the BBC quote officials who cast the personnel moves as execution of the president’s agenda in wartime.
Sources: White House statement via BBC · POLITICO · Hegseth testimony to House appropriators, quoted in the Pentagon pool report