Army Secretary Dan Driscoll submitted his resignation and Trump accepted it on the evening of August 31, 2026. Axios reported two reasons: Driscoll believed his Army modernization initiatives were being blocked, and he objected to the chaos from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's firing of senior generals, specifically that Hegseth had removed the generals responsible for carrying those initiatives out. Driscoll raised his concerns with Trump directly before leaving.
The structural consequence is the story. Hegseth fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George in the spring, and the Army's commander in Europe and Africa, Gen. Christopher Donahue, stepped down unexpectedly in June. With Driscoll gone, the largest service in the U.S. military has no Senate-confirmed leadership, civilian or uniformed, while the country is six months into a war with Iran.
The scale of the removals was documented the next day. The New York Times reported on September 1 that Hegseth had blocked the promotions of seven Army officers selected for two-star rank, and that he has fired or blocked the promotions of more than 80 generals and admirals during his tenure, according to current and former military officials. The Times reported the actions are dividing the Pentagon and alienating members of Congress, and that Hegseth has refused to explain the reasoning behind the decisions.
The reported motive for the friction with Driscoll was personal rather than performance-based. U.S. officials told Axios that Hegseth was “suspicious and paranoid” toward Driscoll, partly because of Driscoll's close relationship with Vice President JD Vance, a Yale Law classmate. Driscoll, nicknamed “drone guy” for his modernization work, had been described as a rising star in the administration.
The timing places this beside the other documented objection from senior military leadership: two days earlier, reporting revealed that three geographic combatant commanders and the Chief of Naval Operations had formally entered “nonconcurs” against extending the Iran war in the August 14 Secretary of Defense Orders Book (see Three Combatant Commanders and the Navy's Top Admiral Formally Objected to Extending the Iran War. Trump Called It 'a Relatively Little War', Hegseth Fires the Army Chief of Staff During an Active War for Questioning the Iran Campaign's Strategic Goals and Hegseth Ordered Cuts to the Military's Generals and Admirals in May 2025, Amid a Wave of Firings of Senior Officers).