Army Secretary Dan Driscoll Resigns After Hegseth Feud

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll formally submitted his resignation Monday, ending his run as the service's top civilian official roughly 18 months after taking the post, Fox News reported. A senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News that the resignation letter went to President Donald Trump, and that the White House had not yet accepted it as of the initial reports.

The departure followed a prolonged conflict with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Officials told Axios that Driscoll stepped down over blocked modernization initiatives and what they described as chaos created by Hegseth. The Hill characterized the resignation as the end of a months-long turf war between the two men at the Pentagon.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Driscoll is expected to leave the building in the coming days, according to Fox News. His exit means the Army has no Senate-confirmed secretary at a moment when the United States is engaged in an active war with Iran. Driscoll was the youngest person ever to hold the Army secretary job. Neither the White House nor the Pentagon's response to the resignation was detailed in the initial reporting, and the reasons cited so far come from unnamed officials speaking to Axios and other outlets.

The context

Tension between Driscoll and Hegseth had been building for months before Monday's resignation, according to The Hill, which described the relationship as a sustained turf war inside the Pentagon. The specific flashpoints, per officials who spoke to Axios, centered on Army modernization initiatives that Driscoll wanted to pursue and that were blocked, along with broader disorder those officials attributed to Hegseth's management.

Driscoll took over the Army about a year and a half ago and set a record as the youngest secretary in the service's history. His resignation is the latest in a series of senior military departures amid turmoil at the Pentagon, and it comes while the department is managing an active war with Iran. The full sequence of disputes that led to Monday's letter, and whether any effort was made to resolve them before Driscoll resigned, has not been detailed in the available reporting.

Why it matters

The Army now lacks a Senate-confirmed civilian leader during wartime, a gap that lands on top of a string of senior departures at the Pentagon. Driscoll's exit also raises questions about how Hegseth is managing civilian-military relationships across the department, given that officials cited his conduct as a factor in the resignation. If modernization initiatives were in fact stalled, as officials told Axios, the leadership vacuum could further slow decisions on Army programs at a moment when the service is supporting an active conflict with Iran.

What’s next

The White House had not accepted the resignation as of the initial Fox News report, though the Wall Street Journal said Driscoll is expected to leave within days. Key open questions: who will lead the Army on an acting basis, whom Trump will nominate as a permanent replacement, and whether the White House or Hegseth will publicly address the reported dispute. Any successor would require Senate confirmation.