Pete Hegseth is accused of setting the military up for potential disaster as the fallout of his ego-driven overhaul of top leadership spills into public view.
The 46-year-old former Fox News host has masterminded a massive purge within the Defense Department that saw Army Secretary Dan Driscoll walk out on Monday, raising fears about a lack of experienced leadership at the top of the military.
It comes as the Pentagon burns through resources—both material and human—in its fight with Iran, which has now dragged on for over six months despite President Trump initially projecting it to last four to five weeks.
The fight is thought to be exacting a heavy toll on the nation’s weapons and munitions stockpiles, which the Center for Strategic and International Studies says will last for the war in Iran, but which pose a threat to the U.S.’s ability to fight future wars. The Associated Press, however, reports that the war has used around 65 percent of Patriot interceptor missiles.
Driscoll said he feared that Hegseth’s leadership of the Defense Department could cause “generational damage,” a person familiar with the close JD Vance ally told the Financial Times.
He “had tried so many different ways and so many different times, but it was just clear that... Hegseth wasn’t willing to listen to the facts or the truth, or the reason, or any of that, because of his personal animosity,” they said.
Reflecting on his exit, Brookings Institution senior fellow Tom Wright told the FT that it was a “revelatory moment, and I think it illustrates that the Pentagon is in disarray.”
Hegseth’s latest act is to block the progression of seven officers tapped by a military committee to become two-star generals, amid a wider crusade that has seen 80 top military leaders either shown the door or have their promotions blocked. Two of the seven were Black, and two were female.
Driscoll reportedly feared that Hegseth’s reimagining of the Defense Department in his image was removing vital experience and harming both morale and the military’s effort to modernize, The New York Times reported.
More than half of Hegseth’s firings have been of Black or female officers, The New York Times reports
Driscoll’s exit follows the ouster of Army chief Gen. Randy George, who served as chief of staff of the United States Army from 2023 to 2026, but who Hegseth showed the door to in April, a year and a half before the typical four-year term would have ended.
The departure of both men means the Army currently has neither a top civilian nor a uniformed boss.
Announcing his departure, Driscoll wrote in a statement on X that, “I had the privilege of working… to modernize and accelerate how the Army mans, trains, and equips the most lethal fighting force on the face of the earth.
“We could not have made the progress we did without the support of Secretary Hegseth.”
To make Hegseth’s headache worse, his acting Army chief of staff, Gen. Christopher LaNeve, is not on track to get the required vote to pass his Senate confirmation hearing, if he were to be officially nominated.
Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Sen. Roger Wicker said in May that he had become aware of “some opposition within the committee” to LaNeve’s appointment, Politico reported at the time.
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported that Sen. Joni Ernst is among a group of Republican senators who don’t think LaNeve has enough experience as a four-star general to take over the role if he gets the appointment.
“The opposition... is not about LaNeve himself. It’s about Hegseth, and the anger that is very much still alive on Capitol Hill over General George’s exit and Hegseth running roughshod over the army,” a congressional aide told the FT.
Now concerns have been raised about the two top positions, both empty and in need of the Senate approval process at a time when the Army is engaged in direct operations—particularly in air defense—in the conflict with Iran.
Hegseth’s war is also taking a toll on the Pentagon’s human resources. Sailors and Marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln were only last week relieved from their deployment in the Middle East after over 250 days at sea.
They fought in the war from the very beginning in February, amid reports of deteriorating conditions onboard. The Military Times even reported that some sailors had attempted to go overboard.
The war has cost 18 service members their lives and left more than 750 wounded.
It is also feared that the war may have a long term impact on the U.S. presence in the Middle East. The Washington Post cited eight sources who said that the U.S. was considering a diminished presence once the fighting was over, with two saying many of its bases had taken a brutal beating at the hands of Iranian missiles and drones.
Hegseth faces a headache with the Navy too, after Navy Secretary John Phelan stepped down in April.
Trump on Tuesday tapped Acting Navy Secretary and two-time failed congressional candidate Hung Cao to take over the role, pending Senate approval.
“It is unimaginable that Secretary Hegseth is purging the ranks of top military officials at the same time that the U.S. is in an ongoing conflict and as security challenges mount,” said ranking armed services committee member Jeanne Shaheen, according to the FT.
“The premise that the Department is in disarray is completely baseless and an insult to every dedicated professional and warfighter in this building who comes to work every day to defend this nation,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told Axios.
He also said that the U.S. “maintains a deep, ready arsenal.”
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly denied that there was any shortage of munitions and said Trump has “complete trust” in Hegseth.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, she also blamed the previous administration for Hegseth’s overhaul of the military, saying: “After Joe Biden’s Pentagon prioritized DEI and woke ideology, President Trump and Secretary Hegseth quickly reversed course and restored a Department of War that is focused on readiness, lethality, and supporting our warfighters.”
