Dan Driscoll’s Parting Shot
The Atlantic · LC · trust 69/100
The Army secretary told Trump about problems in the Army and his friction with Hegseth, then resigned.
Andrew Harnik / Getty August 31, 2026, 9:24 PM ET Share Save D uring a White House meeting last week , Army Secretary Dan Driscoll brought his concerns about the future of the Army under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directly to President Trump—a sign of how far tensions between the two Pentagon leaders had escalated, and of the dysfunction inside the building, four people familiar with the conversation told us.
Trump was surprised when Driscoll told him how many generals and other top officers had been fired, pushed out, or passed over for promotion under Hegseth, one of the people said. Driscoll argued that the Army could not transform itself the way it needs to, because of the departure of so many leaders, this person said, adding that Trump expressed concern about the deep cuts to the Army’s senior leadership. Driscoll informed the president of his intention to resign—and by today, Driscoll was on his way out.
Hegseth’s purge of the military has been so dramatic that with Driscoll gone, the military’s largest service is left without a top civilian leader, a Senate-confirmed top general, a confirmed Army general in charge of operations, or a confirmed commander of Army troops in Europe. Because of all the firings across the service over the past year, the Army, with more than 450,000 active-duty soldiers positioned across the globe, has fewer generals than at any point in recent history. Driscoll’s personal appeal to Trump just days before his exit was the most direct articulation of high-level concerns among Pentagon leaders about the strains facing the force—including Hegseth’s intervention in Army personnel decisions and the mounting demands of the Iran war.
The White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said that Driscoll had been “highly effective” in improving soldier readiness and advancing other administration priorities. “The United States Army is more powerful than ever thanks to his work alongside the Commander-in-Chief and Secretary of War,” Kelly wrote in a statement, using the administration’s preferred term for the Department of Defense.
Driscoll’s spokesperson declined to comment, and Driscoll did not respond to a call seeking comment. But a person familiar with his resignation told us that Driscoll had “brought up concerns with the administration surrounding Army transformation and readiness and Hegseth’s blocking those efforts specifically by firing the Generals who were responsible.” Hegseth did not have an immediate response to Driscoll’s departure.
Since his arrival at the Pentagon early last year, Hegseth—a former Fox News host who appealed to Trump loyalists by deriding a “woke” military and advocating for leniency for troops charged with war crimes—has sought to reshape the Army. He has placed like-minded generals in positions of influence, intervened to stymie the promotions of lower ranking-officers, and gutted diversity initiatives. The result was an Army depleted of leaders, and an Army secretary and a Pentagon chief at constant odds. Hegseth has ended dozens of Army careers, all without any clear explanation. He now has driven out the secretary of the Army.
Driscoll’s departure puts the Pentagon even more firmly under the control of Hegseth and his MAGA agenda. Driscoll is a confidant of Vice President Vance, a relationship that gave him access to the West Wing, and at times Driscoll served as a counterweight to Hegseth’s impulses, but only up to a point. Some current and former defense officials told us they believe Driscoll’s enmity toward Hegseth actually had the unintended consequence of broadening the purge of the uniformed ranks. And yet Driscoll’s departure, which had been expected for months, and the prospect that he will be replaced by someone more politically aligned with Hegseth are already raising fears inside the Army. “What happens then? Generational damage,” a defense official told us.
D riscoll arrived at the Pentagon in February 2025, a third-generation Army soldier who shared several things in common with Hegseth, his new boss. Like Hegseth, Driscoll joined the military in the most muscular years of Washington’s post-9/11 wars. Both men served in Iraq in a company-grade role. (Hegseth, a National Guardsman, also deployed to Afghanistan.) Both returned with sharp criticisms of America’s overseas adventures and the military’s hidebound ways. Both attended Ivy League schools: Hegseth, Princeton and Harvard; Driscoll, Yale Law, where he befriended the fellow veteran Vance. Both Driscoll and Hegseth have made unsuccessful runs for political office. Both have also eyed a return to politics. As Army secretary, Driscoll frequently reminded people that he had a direct line to the vice president, people familiar with the matter said, and told others that he had ambition to someday run for president himself—an ambition that Hegseth is also said to harbor.
But the two men differed starkly in temperament and style. Hegseth, who required an unprecedented tie-breaking Senate-confirmation vote from Vance after failing to win any Democratic support, is one of Trump’s most reliable MAGA warriors. He has publicly boasted about firing “woke” generals, dared military dissenters to quit, and demonized the mainstream media. Driscoll also supported administration policies but has done so in a more genial way that appealed to many lawmakers more than Hegseth’s combative approach before Congress. And unlike Navy Secretary Hung Cao, who has echoed Hegseth’s scornful and partisan tone on social media, Driscoll has steered clear of endorsing Hegseth’s most controversial actions or most of his culture-war priorities. Unlike Hegseth, Driscoll is friendly with the press, cultivated ties with lawmakers of both parties, and courted technology leaders as he promoted the Army’s sprint to transform how it wages war. That served him well in the administration, earning…
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