US Army’s top civilian leader resigns as it grapples with two wars

New York: US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, the service’s top civilian leader, who has clashed repeatedly with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth over the removal of key combat-tested army leaders, has handed in his resignation to President Donald Trump, administration officials say.

Driscoll’s resignation on Monday was expected, but it comes at a tumultuous time, as the military’s largest service faces its busiest period since the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Army air defence soldiers are playing the leading role in defending American troops in the Middle East from increasingly sophisticated Iranian missile attacks.

The army’s command in Europe is also providing critical intelligence and other support to Ukraine as it fights to hold off a larger Russian force.

In the meantime, Hegseth has initiated a series of firings and feuds that have left the army essentially rudderless as it struggles to deal with the threat posed by cheap, deadly drones and missiles that have pounded US bases in the Middle East.

Driscoll met Trump in person to hand in his resignation and discuss the current state of the army, said one official, who, like others in this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel issues.

The army has not had a chief of staff, the service’s top officer, since Hegseth fired General Randy George without explanation in April, and there are no signs that he is close to filling the position, officials said.

Hegseth has forced out at least three senior officers who had been viewed as potential successors to George.

Now, the army will also be without a civilian leader, at least until Trump appoints a new army secretary. The resignation of Driscoll, first reported by The Wall Street Journal , comes as the midterms approach, and it may be difficult to get a replacement confirmed soon.

Hegseth has indicated that he would like to see Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, in the job.

Parnell served as an officer in Afghanistan, but his tenure as the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson has been buffeted by controversy. Parnell recently fired three journalists at Stars and Stripes, a federally funded but independent news organisation.

The journalists sued the government last week, claiming that the Pentagon had fired them in retaliation for writing about the worsening conditions on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln , which was recently deployed in the Middle East.

Parnell also led an effort to restrict reporters’ access within the Pentagon. The moves prompted The New York Times to sue the Pentagon on the grounds that the policy violated the First Amendment.

Parnell withdrew from a Senate race in November 2021 after a judge ruled that his estranged wife should have primary custody of their three children in a case in which she accused him of spousal and child abuse. The order was later vacated, and Parnell has shared custody with his wife for several years, a Pentagon official said.

Parnell, who spoke at the 2024 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Trump was nearly assassinated , had a strong relationship with the president, officials said.