Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has submitted his resignation to President Donald Trump after months of friction with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. An ally of Vice President JD Vance, he will leave the administration in the next few days, in a new reshuffle at the top of the Pentagon while the war with Iran remains ongoing.
US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has resigned to President Donald Trump following months of tensions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The decision, anticipated by the Wall Street Journal, paves the way for his farewell to the administration in the coming days and represents the latest in a series of changes at the top of the Pentagon, while the United States remains engaged in the war with Iran, with thousands of soldiers deployed in the Middle East. The White House, as reported by NBC, has already accepted the resignation.
The clash with Hegseth
In office since February 2025, Driscoll has overseen the push to make the military more modern and agile, with a leading role in defending against the proliferation of cheap and lethal drones. The conflicts with Hegseth took place precisely on these issues. According to a source close to the matter cited by Reuters, in his resignation Driscoll raised "concerns about the Army's transformation and readiness and that Hegseth was hindering those efforts, in particular by firing the generals who were responsible for them." A US official, again speaking to Reuters, explained that the Pentagon chief considered Driscoll a threat within the military bureaucracy and had long wanted to remove him, but his ties to Vice President JD Vance made the operation difficult.
The feud at the top of the Pentagon
The resignations are part of a long trail of forced exits under the Hegseth management. In April, the defense secretary fired Army Chief of Staff General Randy George, a close associate of Driscoll: a departure that, according to Reuters, took the Army secretary by surprise and fueled his frustration. In front of parliamentarians in April, Driscoll said that after his dismissal his family had driven to the former general's house to hug him. In June Hegseth then ousted the commander of US Army forces in Europe and personally blocked the promotion of senior officers. The departure of Secretary of the Navy John Phelan at the beginning of the year also falls in the same vein.
The diplomatic role and relations with Vance
Considered close to Vance, Driscoll had also gained visibility outside the Pentagon when Trump assigned him to participate in talks with Moscow and Kiev to end the war in Ukraine, an unusual diplomatic task for an Army secretary. On the armaments front, he had pushed for faster and cheaper acquisitions, criticizing the large defense manufacturers. “The defense industrial base in general, and large contractors in particular, have deceived the American people, the Pentagon and the Army,” he said last year.
The reactions
The White House praised the outgoing secretary's work. “Driscoll has been extremely effective in advancing President Trump's agenda at the Department of the Army, providing exceptional leadership during historic military operations, bringing the focus back to readiness and lethality, and contributing to negotiations between Russia and Ukraine,” spokeswoman Anna Kelly said. Words of appreciation also from Republican Congressman Pat Harrigan: «Driscoll has brought a sense of urgency to an institution that cannot afford inertia. His service to the country is far from over." The exit of Dave Fitzgerald, deputy undersecretary of the Army involved in innovation, is also expected in the next few days.
