New York Post

WASHINGTON — Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has submitted his resignation to President Trump and will leave his post in the coming days after a growing rift with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

Driscoll’s resignation follows months of tension between him and Hegseth and Pentagon chief of staff Ricky Buria.

“Ricky and Pete made it so untenable for \[Driscoll\] that he felt it was best for not just him but for the people that he loved and respected in the Army to leave \[to protect them from being\] tormented because they were affiliated with him,” a Trump administration official told The Post.

US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has resigned from his post after months of tension with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Pentagon chief of staff Ricky Buria. Getty Images

Driscoll resigned after raising concerns with the White House about Hegseth’s firing of Army generals responsible for military transformation and readiness. REUTERS

Hegseth and Buria, who has been at the center of Pentagon drama, decided to “make Dan Driscoll’s life hell” — most recently floating an internal theory, viewed as spurious by The Post’s source, that Driscoll had leaked to the media reports of low munitions stockpiles.

“It was such an absurd accusation that nobody seriously investigated it or took it seriously,” the person said.

A second US official said Hegseth and Buria had long claimed — without providing evidence — that the Army secretary was a leaker.

Driscoll always saw his Army job as temporary but got out sooner than planned, the first source said.

“\[He\] always wanted to do the Army secretary job for a couple years, then leave and help his friend \[Vice President\] JD \[Vance\] run for president,” but he moved up his departure due to his toxic relationship with Hegseth, the source said.

A Pentagon official critical of the outgoing secretary, meanwhile, told The Post that “since day one, Dan Driscoll abdicated his responsibility to maintain effective civilian control of the Army.”

“Rather than aggressively implementing President Trump’s agenda, he was too cautious about disrupting the status quo and allowed himself to be sidelined by the generals, especially \[former Army chief of staff\] Randy George,” the official said.

Driscoll’s last day at the Pentagon could come as early as Sept. 4.

The secretary losing out in the power struggle is surprising in part because he is Vance’s close friend and former law school classmate.

Driscoll resigned after raising concerns with the White House about Hegseth’s firing of Army generals responsible for military transformation and readiness.

His departure comes about five months after Hegseth canned George — Driscoll’s top aide — in the middle of the Iran war for reasons that were not publicly stated.

Two other Army generals — Gen. David Hodne of the Army’s Transformation and Training Command and Maj. Gen. William Green of the Army’s Chaplain Corps — were dismissed in the purge, with the department only saying “it was time for a leadership change.”

In April, sources told The Post that Hegseth sought to fire Driscoll, but was told by the White House that he couldn’t.

Sources indicated that the war secretary had developed a “paranoia” about being replaced by Driscoll and moved to fire anyone seen as close to the now-departing Army secretary.

Hegseth’s top spokesman Sean Parnell is one of the leading internal candidates to replace Driscoll, whose resignation was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

“Secretary Driscoll has been highly effective in advancing President Trump’s agenda to Make America Strong Again at the Department of the Army by providing outstanding leadership during historic military operations, restoring an emphasis on readiness and lethality, assisting with negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, and more,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement.

“The United States Army is more powerful than ever thanks to his work alongside the Commander-in-Chief and Secretary of War,” she added.

For the time being, Driscoll’s departure will leave the Army without any Senate-confirmed civilian leaders.

An Iraq war veteran, Yale Law School graduate and tech investor, Driscoll was tapped by Trump to be “a disruptor and change agent.”

As Army secretary, Driscoll oversaw operations, modernization, and resource allocation for nearly one million active, guard, and reserve soldiers and more than 265,000 civilians.

He also served as a key negotiator in the Trump administration’s effort to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, and was a major force behind trying to cut the red tape for military contractors to quickly develop more drones and counter-drone capabilities as warfare rapidly changes around the world.

Driscoll was confirmed by the Senate in February 2025, in a 66-28, following a largely unconfrontational Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

When reached for comment, the Pentagon referred The Post to the Army, which did not immediately respond.

_With Post wires_