Army Secretary Dan Driscoll affirmed on Tuesday that he has no intention of resigning or departing from his position despite purported tension between himself and War Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Driscoll’s new assertion that he intends to stay in his role comes the week after Hegseth pushed Army chief of staff General Randy George to retire more than a year before his tenure was set to end. George became the latest member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to be pushed out early as Hegseth looks to reshape the military’s senior leadership.
“Serving under President Trump has been the honor of a lifetime, and I remain laser focused on providing America with the strongest land fighting force the world has ever seen,” Driscoll said in his statement to the Washington Post. “I have no plans to depart or resign as the Secretary of the Army.”
In addition to removing George, Hegseth also fired Gen. David M. Hodne, the head of the Army’s Transformation and Training Command, and Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., the Army’s top chaplain. The personnel decisions came as a surprise to Driscoll’s office, a U.S. official told the Washington Examiner.
The Pentagon has not explained what prompted Hegseth to push for their departures, though top spokesman Sean Parnell thanked George for his years of service. Should Driscoll get fired, one name that has been floated as a possible replacement is Parnell, himself, according to the New York Post.
Driscoll and Hegseth have clashed about personnel and promotions of senior military officers.
In February, Hegseth directed Driscoll to fire Col. Dave Butler, the chief of Army Public Affairs, while the New York Times reported in late March that Hegseth was blocking the promotion of four Army officers to be one-star generals, two of whom are women and two of whom are black.
Driscoll and George traveled to Ukraine in November, and Driscoll was involved in the stalled Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations. His inclusion in the talks raised eyebrows, given his position as the Secretary of the Army.
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Driscoll is a law school friend of Vice President JD Vance, which gives him a major supporter in the executive office, even as President Donald Trump touts Hegseth’s restructuring of the military through his first year on the job.
Trump has stood by Hegseth despite multiple incidents that raised questions about his fitness for the role, including his role in sending military plans on platforms not approved for such sensitive discussions.
Trump has “effectively restored a focus on readiness and lethality across our military with the help of leaders like Secretary Driscoll,” Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, told the outlet. “The extraordinary talent of the United States Army is on full display as our warfighters meet or exceed all of their benchmarks under Operation Epic Fury and Iran’s military capabilities diminish more every day.”
