Army Secretary Dan Driscoll‘s resignation makes him the latest in a long line of senior military and civilian leaders who have been pushed out of their jobs during Secretary of War Pete Hegseth‘s tenure.
Driscoll submitted his resignation on Monday, an Army official confirmed to the Washington Examiner. It comes as the military is still engaged in the Iran war, which has continued long beyond what the president said at its outset, and without a Senate-confirmed Army chief of staff, which is the highest-ranking Army officer because Hegseth pushed that general out in April.
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A Pentagon official told the Washington Examiner that his departure was “a long time coming.”
The continued churn of leaders at the Pentagon — both civilian and military personnel — has raised questions about the department especially at a time of war as it seeks a $1.5 trillion budget.
“The job of secretary of defense is not one you grow into,” Robert Wilkie, a former senior Pentagon leader during the first Trump administration, told the Washington Examiner. “It is the most complicated and thankless job in government, and just the complexities of just the headquarters bill are staggering. You cannot come to the office of the secretary of defense from the perspective of a small unit company officer, meaning a captain in the National Guard. It just doesn’t work that way.”
In early April, Hegseth fired Gen. Randy George, the Army’s chief of staff; 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. Driscoll, Hodne, and George were all heavily involved and promoted the Army’s evolution into thinking more about the future of warfare.
He also pushed Gen. Chris Donahue, commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, into retirement earlier this summer. Donahue may be best known for being the last American soldier on the ground in Afghanistan.
Referencing Hegseth’s emphasis on physical standards, Wilkie, who has served as secretary of veterans affairs, said, “It’s wonderful to talk about restoring physical fitness standards and all that. I grew up in the military. I was born in khaki diapers. I can tell you that that’s the kind of thing you do in the first week. The military salutes and says yes, sir. It’s the hard things. It’s how do we adjust to the modern battlefield? And the notion that you just took down the battalion that had been tasked with lessons learned and adapting the Army to the drone and AI battlefield just because Gen. Donahue and Gen. George supported it is cutting off your nose to spite your face.”
Cmdr. Guy Snodgrass, a top aide to former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis during President Donald Trump‘s first term and a decorated F/A-18 Hornet pilot, told the Washington Examiner that Trump isn’t “well served by the churn and loyalty firings.”
Several members of Congress, including Republicans, expressed their support for George in particular during the first time Driscoll appeared in front of Congress after George’s retirement.
“I adore them, and he was an amazing, transformational leader,” Driscoll said of George and his family during a hearing in front of the House defense appropriations subcommittee in April. “I, too, loved Gen. George.”
Driscoll also went to law school with Vice President JD Vance. Their close relationship made him a rumored pick to replace Hegseth if Trump decided to replace him during his difficult start, which included a tough confirmation process and the Signal leak that cost Mike Waltz his job as national security adviser.
A top White House national security official from the first Trump administration said he does not expect Driscoll’s departure to affect the war in Iran because Trump “has been making all the calls himself on military strikes since,” the official told the Washington Examiner. “Driscoll’s departure does nothing to change that. It has nothing to do with Vance disassociating himself from the war effort. This was Driscoll finally pulling the plug on trying to work with Hegseth.”
Several Republican lawmakers praised Driscoll in the aftermath of his resignation but stopped short of questioning Hegseth’s remaking of the department.
“Sec. Driscoll did a great job transforming the U.S. Army, and he deserves our gratitude for it. During his time at the Pentagon, he proved himself as a strong leader and an innovative thinker who exceeded recruitment goals and prepared our soldiers to win — both today and in the future,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the Washington Examiner.
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) told the Washington Examiner he is “grateful to Secretary Dan Driscoll for his dedicated service to the U.S. Army and nation. His leaderhsip helped overcome recruiting challenges, strengthened readiness, and ensured that our soldiers are prepared to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing battlefield.”
White House principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told the Washington Examiner that Driscoll was “highly effective” in advancing Trump’s agenda by “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, and the entire military is well-equipped to execute all of the president’s strategic goals and beyond.”
Driscoll’s replacement?
The person who has been most closely linked to a potential successor to Driscoll is top Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, and the rumors predate the secretary’s resignation this week.
Parnell has served as the top spokesman since the start of the administration and has become a senior adviser to Hegseth.
A second Pentagon official called Parnell the “clear choice” to be the next secretary of the Army, telling the Washington Examiner, “He understands the Army from the platoon level, and he understands how the Pentagon works from the secretary’s level. That’s a pretty rare combination. He’s proven he can lead people, build teams, make decisions, and execute. In a lot of ways, his experience has purpose-built him for this job.”
Parnell is also leading the department’s review of the Afghanistan withdrawal. Last week, on the anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing, he gave an update on the investigation, announcing that, “Recently, my team recovered highly relevant classified documents — material that should have been disclosed — stashed and hidden away in safes where they would not be found.”
He is a combat veteran whose conduct during his deployment to Afghanistan earned him two Bronze Stars (one for valor) and the Purple Heart.
Parnell unsuccessfully ran for a House seat in Pennsylvania as a Republican and lost to the Democratic incumbent in 2020. He ran again, this time for the Pennsylvania Senate, in the 2022 midterm elections but dropped out following allegations of abuse from his estranged wife. He has denied the allegations.
The allegations, while not new, could become a point of concern for possible Senate confirmation. Driscoll was easily confirmed back in February 2025 in a 66-28 vote.
Hegseth had a difficult confirmation process and was forced to answer questions about his marriage infidelity, an old allegation of sexual violence, and his alcohol use. He was confirmed in a 51-50 vote that required Vance to break the deadlock.
The first Pentagon official said without Senate-confirmed leaders, officials serving in an acting capacity “largely are just empowered to keep the lights on and not really make change.”
