Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is stepping down after 18 months on the job, White House says

WASHINGTON (AP) — Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is stepping down after 18 months on the job, the White House said Monday, in the latest departure of a top military leader during the Trump administration.

No reason was given for the departure of Driscoll, who is a friend of Vice President JD Vance, but tensions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have been widely reported. It marks the latest in a series of shakeups of top military leadership, with the Army especially seeing major upheaval.

“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.

Hegseth suddenly ousted the service’s top uniformed leader, Gen. Randy George, in April, while the Army’s commander in Europe and Africa, Gen. Christopher Donahue, unexpectedly stepped down in June.

Gen. Christopher LaNeve, who has made a meteoric rise under Hegseth, took George’s place as the Army’s acting chief of staff. Under LaNeve, the service is pulling the plug on a drone modernization program that Driscoll had heralded. An Army unit based in Europe was building its own drones before LaNeve directed it to end its efforts and return to being a traditional infantry battalion, officials said this week.

Driscoll was a George ally and lamented his departure, along with both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. He told Congress in April that he and his family drove to George’s house following his resignation “and we all gave him a hug.”

“That being said, the civilian leadership, the design of our system, is that they get to pick the leaders that they want,” Driscoll added.

Driscoll is an Iraq war veteran, tech investor and former adviser to Vance, who Driscoll met at Yale Law School. When nominating Driscoll in 2024, President Donald Trump called him “as a disruptor and change agent.”

As Army secretary, Driscoll was tapped for the unusual role of playing a key negotiator to try to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. He was also 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.

The Senate had confirmed him in February 2025, voting 66-28, following an Armed Services Committee hearing was largely unconfrontational and focused on how the Army could modernize its systems, improve recruiting and beef up the military industrial base.

Driscoll noted that his father and grandfather served in the Army and he vowed to be a secretary focused on the needs of soldiers. According to the Army, Driscoll served as an armor officer from August 2007 to March 2011, deploying to Iraq from October 2009 to July 2010.

He also ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for a North Carolina congressional seat in 2020, getting about 8% of the vote in a crowded field of candidates.

His departure comes after Hegseth ousted several other generals and admirals, including the head of the Navy.

The Pentagon abruptly announced in April that Navy Secretary John Phelan was leaving the job, becoming the first head of a military service to depart during Trump’s second term.