Driscoll Resigns as Army Secretary After Hegseth Clash
Daniel Driscoll, Secretary of the Army, submitted his resignation to Trump on August 31, after months of conflict with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The reshuffle at the top of the Pentagon now underway in Washington is not just an internal matter for the US administration. Daniel Driscoll, Secretary of the Army, took a direct hand in negotiations to end Russia’s war against Ukraine and in the plan to cut the number of US troops stationed in Germany, two questions that shape Europe’s security landscape and, with it, the position of Serbia and the wider region caught between east and west. His departure from the top of the Army, coming in the middle of a US war with Iran, leaves the institution without a confirmed civilian head at a moment when Washington is running two foreign policy fronts at once that matter directly to Europe.
Driscoll resigned to President Donald Trump on Monday, August 31, 2026. According to officials, the secretary discussed the current state of the Army with the president and handed in his resignation during that conversation. The White House confirmed the departure the same day. White House press secretary Anna Kelly said Driscoll had “been extremely effective in carrying out President Trump’s agenda,” pointing to his role in military operations, readiness efforts and the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
Driscoll is an Iraq War veteran and a former adviser to Vice President JD Vance. The Senate confirmed him to lead the Army in February 2025. His tenure included the Delta Force operation that captured former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, and he personally met with Ukrainian and Russian officials as part of Trump’s push to end the war.
Where the clash with Hegseth began
The resignation followed months of strained relations with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The breaking point came with the retirement of General Randy George, the Army’s chief of staff and one of Driscoll’s closest allies, which Hegseth pushed through in April 2026. Hegseth never publicly explained why George was forced out.
Part of the dispute centered on a list of officers up for promotion to brigadier general. The list ran to dozens of names, mostly white men, but also included four officers, two Black men and two women, whose promotions Hegseth personally struck from the list in March after Driscoll refused to do so himself. Driscoll spent months declining to remove those names, citing their official performance evaluations. In February, Hegseth also forced out Driscoll’s adviser, Colonel David Butler. The Army subsequently shut down a drone battalion that George and Driscoll had championed, modeled on lessons drawn from the war in Ukraine.
Testifying before Congress after George’s retirement, Driscoll spoke of his colleague in terms that left no room for ambiguity: “There is no man I have more respect for than General George.” At the time, he stopped short of directly criticizing Hegseth, saying civilian leadership picks people at its own discretion and the military carries out those decisions.
Who is running the Army now
General Christopher LaNeve currently serves as acting chief of staff of the Army, a role he has held since George’s retirement. Driscoll’s successor at the civilian top of the institution has not yet been named. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell is being mentioned as Hegseth’s favored pick for the post. Dave Fitzgerald, deputy under secretary of the Army, is also expected to resign this week.
Driscoll’s departure leaves the Army without a single Senate-confirmed leader, civilian or in uniform, at a time when the United States is fighting an armed conflict with Iran. For allies in Europe, including countries in the region that track every shift in US military policy toward the continent, the open question is who will lead the negotiations and decisions over the American troop presence once the dust settles on the shakeup at the top of the Pentagon.
