What happened
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to fire senior military adviser and chief public affairs official Col. David Butler, news organizations reported yesterday. Driscoll yesterday thanked Butler for his “lifetime of service in America’s Army and to our nation” but did not address the reason for his “upcoming retirement.” Separately, Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin yesterday said she was resigning after a year tenaciously defending President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpopular immigration crackdown. 

Who said what
Butler was “one of the Army’s best communicators,” Fox News said, and Driscoll “had resisted Hegseth’s pressure to fire” him for months. It is “unusual for a defense secretary to weigh in on the firing of an Army spokesman,” The New York Times said. Hegseth blamed Butler for “news articles late last year that compared him unfavorably” to Driscoll, a close friend of Vice President JD Vance, but the defense secretary has also “made no secret of his hatred” for Butler’s former boss, Gen. Mark Milley. 

Butler’s “previous work as the senior spokesman” for Milley “appears to be a factor in his removal,” The Washington Post said, citing inside sources. But Hegseth also “takes issue with Driscoll’s rising profile and increasing responsibilities within the Trump administration,” and the firing is part of their “latest clash.” Hegseth had blocked dozens of Army promotions for months, and Butler, nominated for brigadier general, “elected to submit his retirement paperwork rather than hold up his colleagues’ promotions,” the Post said. “Current and former defense officials expressed astonishment at Butler’s ouster.”

What next?
McLaughlin is “leaving DHS next week,” Politico said, and will be replaced by her deputy, Lauren Bis, and new hire Katie Zacharia, a frequent Fox News guest.

What happened
President Donald Trump’s two main envoys, his friend Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, yesterday held back-to-back negotiations in Geneva aimed at securing a nuclear deal with Iran and an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine. The indirect talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, mediated by Oman, were “more constructive” than previous talks and made “good progress” toward a “clear path ahead,” Araghchi told Iranian TV.

Who said what
Sending Witkoff and Kushner to solve two entrenched conflicts “in a single day in Geneva” has “raised questions not only about whether they are overstretched and outmatched, but about their serious prospects for resolving either of the twin crises,” Reuters said. Trump’s “diplomacy without diplomats” gambit, The New York Times said, was a “stark example” of his “conviction that the State Department and the National Security Council, the two institutions that have coordinated negotiations over global crises for nearly 80 years, are best left on the sidelines.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who heads both organizations, was not involved in yesterday’s shuttle diplomacy. 

“Some countries really welcome this informal structure” of transactional deal-making, said Asli Aydintasbas of the Brookings Institution. But “I have not seen anyone hugely impressed with the diplomatic skills of the current team.” Having “Witkoff and Kushner tasked with resolving all the world’s problems is, frankly, a shocking reality,” Mohanad Hajj-Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut told Reuters. 

What next?
The U.S.-Russian-Ukrainian talks are continuing for a second day, but “expectations were low for a breakthrough,” Reuters said. Today’s talks, the Times said, “were expected to focus on the fate of Ukrainian-held territory” that “Moscow wants under its control as the price for ending the war.”