President Donald Trump made a secret plea to his departing Army secretary, who clashed with self-styled “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth, according to insiders.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told Trump that he intended to step down, people familiar with the conversation told The Washington Post. Trump, 80, then urged him to stick around at least through the midterm elections, according to people familiar with the meeting.
Driscoll refused and reportedly used the same meeting to warn the president that Hegseth was damaging the Army, according to the insiders who spoke to the Post.
Driscoll formally submitted his resignation on Monday. As the Post and other outlets have previously reported, he had repeated disagreements with firebrand Hegseth, who has fired several of the Army’s generals, halted the advancement of other top officers and stymied some of Driscoll’s top Army modernization initiatives.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell declined to comment on whether Hegseth had pushed Driscoll out, dismissing any suggestion that the former Fox & Friends Weekend host was hampering modernization as “a total fabrication.”
“The premise that the Department is in disarray is completely baseless and an insult to every dedicated professional and warfighter in this building,” Parnell said. “This is what reform looks like.”
It remains unclear why Trump asked Driscoll to stay, or why Driscoll chose to leave now. The president has generally given Hegseth wide latitude to reshape military leadership and has backed his defense secretary through previous departures.
In a public statement posted to X, Driscoll credited Hegseth for his role in Army modernization and called serving as Army secretary “the honor of a lifetime.” The White House said his last day is Thursday.
Trump’s request that Driscoll remain reflected the Army secretary’s standing in the West Wing, according to people familiar with the matter, who told the Post that Driscoll was at one point floated as a possible replacement for Hegseth after the defense secretary’s rocky start alarmed some officials close to the president.
Driscoll has kept a direct line to the White House through his friendship with Vice President JD Vance, forged when the two Iraq War veterans crossed paths at Yale Law School. Two people familiar with the matter told the Post that Driscoll hopes to be involved in a future Vance presidential campaign.
His departure lands at a fraught moment for the Army, which has tens of thousands of troops deployed across the Middle East amid ongoing hostilities with Iran. Driscoll was frustrated that many of his modernization initiatives had been reassigned to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, two people familiar with the matter told the newspaper.
Hegseth, who served as an Army National Guard officer, has upended the military’s traditionally independent promotion process since taking office, halting the advancement of numerous officers and purging the ranks of those seen as at odds with the Trump administration. Many of those targeted have been women and minorities.
In recent weeks, Hegseth removed seven of the 18 Army one-star generals slated for promotion to major general, according to a U.S. official, as reported first by NBC News.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican whose home state of North Carolina hosts a large Army presence, torched Hegseth’s leadership in a social media post.
“I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country,” the retiring and increasingly outspoken Tillis said.
The senator actually cast the deciding vote to confirm Hegseth last year but has since said he regrets it, and urged Trump to name a new defense secretary.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly, in a statement earlier this week, credited Driscoll with “providing outstanding leadership during historic military operations” and “assisting with negotiations between Russia and Ukraine,” adding, “The United States Army is more powerful than ever thanks to his work alongside the Commander-in-Chief and Secretary of War.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House to request an updated statement.
