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.
Page B1From§Eachthe sunrise edition — 1 September 2026
Army secretary resigns amid tensions with Hegseth, leaving the Army without confirmed leadership during two wars.
As it ran on the front
OBITUARY. Civilian occupancy of the office of Army Secretary, specifically as held by Daniel Driscoll, died this week after a short and public disagreement with the Secretary of Defense. He was in the role long enough to see two wars going at once and no confirmed successor waiting in the wings.
He is survived by an Army with two active theaters and an empty chair at the desk that is supposed to answer for it. He is preceded in death by whatever quieter understanding existed between the civilian and uniformed sides of the Pentagon before this week's departure made the arrangement public.…
…(cont) The Daily Caller's notice put it plainly: the Army is now without confirmed leadership. NPR simply noted that the White House confirmed the resignation. ABC pointed to the tension with Hegseth as the proximate cause. The New York Times, thorough as always, flagged the timing — two wars underway, one resignation, no successor named. Read the four notices together and you get the whole shape of it: friction at the top, then a gap where a secretary used to sit.
This is not a comment on Driscoll the man; he is not dead, and neither is anyone else in this notice. What died is the plain expectation that the civilian seat overseeing the Army stays filled, especially with the Army doing business abroad. That is not hogwash, that is just bookkeeping — the chair is empty and the wars are not.
An institution can survive one vacancy. What it cannot survive indefinitely is a pattern where the person meant to answer for the Army to its elected government keeps not being there, for one shit reason or another, while the actual fighting continues on schedule without pause for the paperwork to catch up. That is the whole obituary. No malarkey required.
In lieu of flowers, the Senate might consider confirming a successor before the two wars currently underway conclude on their own, without one.
“You lose a fight with the Defense Secretary, you lose your seat, and the wars don't pause to wait for a replacement. That's not a personnel story, that's the machine running on autopilot while nobody with a confirmation hearing is signing off on anything.”
“Leadership transitions happen, this is normal turnover in any large organization — well, this is the guy overseeing the Army during two active wars and there's nobody confirmed to replace him, so maybe 'normal' isn't the word, let me rephrase that.”
The receipts
Driscoll has submitted his resignation to President Donald Trump amid growing tension between him and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, sources told ABC News.
“highly effective”
The resignation of Daniel P. Driscoll, the secretary of the Army, had been expected but comes at a tumultuous time for the service.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.