Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is expected to step down by the end of the year, and possibly sooner, due to months of purported tension with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to reports.
The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the discussions, reported Friday that Driscoll’s departure has been under consideration for some time. Military.com could not independently verify the report.
Driscoll’s exit would leave the Army without a Senate-confirmed civilian leader at a time when the service is stretched by ongoing operations overseas.
One sign of a planned departure has already surfaced. Driscoll and his family moved out of the official Army secretary’s residence at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall this summer, according to the Journal.
Neither Driscoll nor Hegseth has publicly addressed the report.
The Army and the Office of the Secretary of Defense did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Military.com.
Growing Gap in Leadership
Driscoll’s expected exit would deepen an already existing vacancy at the top of the Army.
Hegseth fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George in April without offering a public explanation. President Donald Trump has not nominated a permanent replacement.
Gen. Christopher LaNeve, who previously served as a senior military aide to Hegseth, is serving as acting chief of staff.
If Driscoll leaves before a successor is confirmed, the Army would head into next year without a Senate-confirmed leader in either its top civilian post or its top military post. That would come as U.S. forces remain engaged in the war against Iran, now nearly six months old.
Beyond the Army, the Pentagon has now seen the departures of the chief of naval operations and the vice chief of staff of the Air Force in recent months. All part of a broader reshaping of the military’s senior ranks under Hegseth.
Conflicting Reports
Driscoll, a former Army Ranger who served in Iraq, came into the role as one of the administration’s rising stars.
He is a longtime friend of Vice President JD Vance. His standing had fueled speculation, reported in several outlets, that he could one day be a candidate to replace Hegseth.
This speculation has been linked to the reported friction between Driscoll and Hegseth. Any specific reasoning for the tensions remains unconfirmed. Neither man has spoken publicly about their working relationship.
Accounts of what drove the rift have varied. The Journal’s reporting described months of strain without pinning it to a single cause.
Driscoll has also taken on assignments other than the Army during his tenure, including a role in national security matters that took him outside the service’s traditional portfolio. It’s an apparent sign of the trust the administration had placed in him even as the reported tensions grew.
No change in the service’s leadership has been announced, and no formal timeline for a departure has been made public.
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