Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigns amid Hegseth feud

A major military resignation as Trump renews strikes against Iran. Tonight, the Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has just submitted his resignation to President Trump. This is happening in just the past moment. It comes after months of butting heads with the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Driscoll, of course, in a crucial position, the Secretary of the Army overseeing the operations of nearly one million American soldiers. And his sudden departure leaves the Army without any Senate-confirmed civilian or military leaders in the middle of a war. And this is the United States military, the greatest military in the world. This is a stunning situation to be in. Now, it's no secret that Driscoll disagreed with Hegseth. Back in April, he praised the Army Chief General Randy George. Now, why is that controversial? Well, it's controversial because George had been fired by Hegseth. Driscoll's resignation, which is obviously now just coming tonight, also comes a few months after the Navy Secretary John Felon was fired, also because of tensions with Pete Hegseth. And it was Hegseth who, in the midst of Trump's war, also pushed out top Army Commander Chris Donahue, someone who had been widely praised by Republicans, overwhelmingly respected. The military leaders still serving, meantime, are sending a strong warning to Hegseth about prolonging the operations against Iran. According to the Washington Post tonight, the military leaders of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and four-star commanders overseeing various operations around the world warned Hegseth that the war in Iran has been, quote, too much for too long. They added that it risks weakening the United States military's ability to confront threats elsewhere, including the U.S. homeland, incredibly significant. Now, Trump was asked about these concerns earlier today, prior to Driscoll's departure. Well, number one, we have nothing else in mind. Number two, we're very respected. Nobody else would be crazy enough to do it. Number three, we have so much ammunition and munitions, as they like to call it, all over the world that we can always take from if we want. And this is a relatively little war for us. OK. Relatively little war. I mean, let's just go through this for a few different ways, right? All of the THAAD missile defense systems in the Middle East, except for one, were taken out in the first few days of the war. Bases there have sustained massive damage. When he talks about taking munitions from other places in the world, where perhaps, but by the way, Admiral Papparo overseeing America's operations in the Pacific was one of the generals in the non-concur letter to Pete Hegseth. So he knows what the US is facing in the Asia threat. And perhaps that's the context for the fact that we know the Pentagon's munitions stockpile is dangerously low, the military exhausting nearly 80% of its interceptors for a key missile defense system. And now, on top of all of this, just to understand what this means on the ground, right? So the Army now, I just said, has no Senate-confirmed civilian or military leaders. Army secretary is gone after other commanders have left. And today, on the ground, an elite group of Army soldiers just found out that their tour was extended because of the war in Iran. The 82nd Airborne staying in the Middle East into next year, according to Stars and Stripes, which of course has just had some of its editorial leadership removed by Pete Hegseth. Kristen Holmes is out front at the White House to begin our coverage tonight. And Kristen, obviously, this resignation coming suddenly here just within the past hour. What more are you learning about this major resignation in the Army? Well, I've got to tell you, Erin, my colleague, Zach Cohen, and I have been reporting about this tension now for roughly a year. When we started the reporting, it was actually one-sided. It was coming from almost entirely the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth. He was distrustful of Driscoll. He didn't like the fact that Driscoll had his own relationship with the White House. One thing to keep in mind, Driscoll has a close personal relationship with J.D. Vance. He would talk to him privately. He also developed his own relationship with President Trump. And anyone who went around Hegseth, Hegseth was angry about. He felt like they were trying to undermine him. That's exactly why John Phelan, as you mentioned, was fired as secretary of the Navy. But it did seem as though Driscoll had a larger, longer shelf life, given his popularity, not just with J.D. Vance, but also with the White House as a whole. He was often considered part of the inner circle, or Vance's inner circle. This now we are told that these tensions had obviously grown to be not only two-sided, but boiled over to the point in which Driscoll was not going to be able to stay in this position, which is why he submitted his resignation. When all of this had begun percolating, these rumors that he was talking about potentially resigning, looking to leave the Department of Defense, I spoke to a number of administration officials who were very hopeful that that would drag out, that he wouldn't do it immediately because of this ongoing war in Iran. Obviously now, again, this seems to have come to a point in which he felt as though he needed to submit his resignation. A lot of these tensions were about the gutting of key military officials that Hegseth was doing that Driscoll didn't agree with. But it also seems as though there was a larger underlying point with Hegseth just being distrustful overall of anyone who has a relationship with this White House that isn't going through him. This again puts the Department of Defense, puts the entire military at seemingly a disadvantage, now not having a secretary of Navy, not having a secretary of Army in the middle of this war, which, Erin, seems like there's no end in sight. I cannot remember a time in my history lessons that we have had this many vacancies for this many key positions in the middle of a hot war that just got hotter yesterday. Yeah, I mean, it is obviously deeply unsettling. And so many of these people are, it appears, reaching a point where they can be pushed no farther. In that context, The Washington Post, Senator, as you know, is reporting that there are multiple four-star generals who are warning the defense secretary, Hegseth, that prolonging these large-scale operations against Iran is unsustainable and it's coming at cost to American security around the world, the ability to defend itself, as well as defend the homeland. Is there anything that Congress can do here to ensure that Trump listens to this warning? Or is this just sort of a leak that, you know, raises all sorts of five-alarm fires but no one can do anything about? Yeah, well, look, I mean, I think some of the leaks that are coming out of the Defense Department right now are pretty unprecedented. You know, I was at the Defense Department for many years. Some of these very sensitive conversations are leaking. And frankly, when the uniformed military is leaking things, it's because they're desperate. It's because they're not able to engage up and down the chain of command. They're not being heard for their best military advice. So I've been struck by how much has been coming out of the Pentagon, quite frankly. Yeah, I mean, the Armed Services Committee, the Homeland Security Committee, Veterans Affairs. All of these committees oversee major defense and homeland security issues in our country. And their chairman could easily make the decision that, just as our founding fathers intended, they're going to put a check and balance on this administration. We did it in the long wars of Iraq and Afghanistan. You know, people got hauled up, and they testified, and it shaped the conversation nationally. But my Republican colleagues have to have a spine and understand that there's something bigger than just doing, again, the bidding of Donald Trump. Now there's other things that we can do, but look, they're tough. I mean, the conversation around funding the war. You know, many of us voted against more funding for this war, but no one wants to leave our troops vulnerable in the middle of a war. So it really is, it's kind of astounding and breathtaking, the lack of leadership from Pete Hegseth in the middle of a war. Yeah, and I mean, just think about, you know, members of the 82nd Airborne finding out overnight, right, that their tour has been extended because of this war. The men and women who are on the literal front lines. You talk about the committee's role. I know you sent a letter to the Defense Secretary Hegseth and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Kaine, and you asked them to confirm that they won't send troops to polls in November. This is out of concerns you had that the possibility that Trump could use military to interfere with the election, given use of the National Guard troops in places like Washington, D.C. Now, I know you received a response from General Kaine. Have you heard back from Secretary Hegseth? We have not. We wrote both Kaine and Hegseth a letter at the same time, same, essentially same letter, and said, just please confirm a very simple fact that you're not going to send uniform military into police polls, to surround polling locations, to collect ballots, voting machines. Any of this stuff that in normal times would sound a bit nutty, but in this administration with this president repeating over and over that he won the 2020 election, that he's trying to change the outcome in November, it had to be asked. And I've been focused on this for a year and a half now. These would be illegal orders. So I just wanted them to very clearly articulate that, no, if I'm asked to send uniform military into a place like Detroit to collect voting machines, ballots, surround, I'm not, I'm going to say no. I'm going to stand up. And we have heard nothing from Hegseth. I hope we do. But again, in the spirit of having a customer of one, he cares about what one guy thinks of him and not the rest of the country.