What happened
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll submitted his resignation to President Donald Trump on Monday, leaving the Army with no Senate-confirmed top leadership as it battles Iran and other challenges. Driscoll had “clashed repeatedly with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the ouster of key combat-tested Army leaders,” The New York Times said. Hegseth’s string of “firings and feuds” has “left the Army essentially rudderless.” He ousted Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, a Driscoll ally, in April.
Who said what
Driscoll “brought up concerns” with Trump about “Army transformation and readiness and Hegseth’s blocking those efforts specifically by firing the generals who were responsible,” a source told CNN and The Atlantic. Driscoll was a “major force behind trying to cut the red tape for military contractors to quickly develop more drones and counter-drone capabilities,” The Associated Press said. Gen. Christopher LaNeve, whose “meteoric rise under Hegseth” led to his role as acting Army chief of staff, is “pulling the plug on a drone modernization program” championed by Driscoll.
Driscoll “was until recently seen as a potential candidate to replace” Hegseth if he resigned or “fell out of favor” with Trump, the Times said. Hegseth may have “banished another enemy, Driscoll,” said The Atlantic. But his prize is that “more than ever,” he “now owns every aspect of the Pentagon’s dysfunction.”
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What next?
Driscoll is “expected to leave the Pentagon in coming days,” The Wall Street Journal said. Senior administration officials said Hegseth’s choice to replace him, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, “likely would struggle to be confirmed” by the Senate, the Times said.
