Army secretary discussing exit by year’s end, reports say

After months of reported friction with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Army’s top civilian discussed stepping down from his position by year’s end, according to several media reports citing anonymous sources familiar with the discussions.

The expected departure of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, which The Wall Street Journal was the first to report Friday, could leave the service without a Senate-confirmed leader. Hegseth ousted Gen. Randy George as the Army’s chief of staff in April and a successor has not been named.

The Army secretary had mulled leaving as soon as Labor Day, NBC News reported. And unidentified sources told several outlets that he and his family have already moved out of their official residence on Fort Myer, Va., near Arlington National Cemetery.

Stars and Stripes could not independently verify the reports. The Pentagon referred questions about the news to the Army, but service spokeswoman Heather Hagan said Wednesday that “the Army does not speculate on future personnel assignments or leadership changes.”

NBC News reported that Hegseth’s firing of people close to Driscoll and overruling some of his decisions are part of why he may be eyeing the exits. But administration officials want him to stay through December, the outlet reported.

Driscoll has not publicly commented on his plans.

Vice President JD Vance, a longtime friend of Driscoll and fellow Yale Law School alumnus, was already speaking of his tenure as Army secretary in the past tense in a statement to the network, said NBC News reporter Jonathan Allen in a post on X.

Driscoll reportedly upset Hegseth early on when he offered to organize a visit for Vance and President Donald Trump to meet soldiers and discuss Army reforms.

A former Ranger-qualified Army officer, Driscoll also worked closely with George during his tenure as the two pushed to prepare the service for the future of warfare, in part by adapting lessons from the war in Ukraine.

Driscoll and George traveled together to Kyiv in November to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about peace talks with Russia. They also met with drone operators.

The pair was accompanied by Gen. Christopher Donahue, then-commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, and later believed to be Driscoll’s top choice to replace George.

A former Ranger and Delta Force commander, Donahue is one of three senior officers seen as George’s potential successors whom Hegseth forced out, The New York Times reported this week.

There are no signs the defense secretary is close to filling the Army’s top officer position as Driscoll now looks to exit, current and former officials told the Times, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters.

Since Hegseth relieved George earlier this year without publicly citing a reason, the role has been filled in an acting capacity by Army vice chief of staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve, a combat veteran and former senior military aide to Hegseth, who received his fourth star earlier this year.

Gen. Christopher C. LaNeve, vice chief of staff of the Army, testifies on May 19, 2026, in Washington, D.C., during a Senate appropriations committee hearing on the 2027 budget request for the Army. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)

LaNeve is widely expected to be Hegseth’s choice for Army chief of staff. Media reports earlier this month suggested that LaNeve may face stiff resistance in Congress, including among Republicans.

He has also reportedly clashed with Driscoll, an Iraq war veteran and former venture capitalist. The Wall Street Journal reported that the two men had different views on LaNeve’s decision to drop an exemption to the Army’s new body composition standard for soldiers who perform well on the service’s fitness test.

Under LaNeve, the Army has also begun phasing out an effort championed by George to draw lessons from Ukraine and develop new ways of fighting with tactical drones and robots.

That move would see a battalion of the Italy-based 173rd Mobile Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) wrap up an effort to prototype drone assault tactics after it returns from a major exercise in Germany that ends next month.

The unit is then expected to return to “core warfighting tasks as an airborne infantry battalion,” said an Army official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans.