RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Two key reasons led to Army Secretary Dan Driscoll's resignation, announced Monday : the feeling that his modernization initiatives were being blocked, and the chaos created by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's firing of senior generals.
Why it matters: Driscoll's wartime resignation, on top of Hegseth's firing of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George this spring, leaves the military's largest service without Senate-confirmed leadership, civilian or uniformed.
Behind the scenes: Driscoll recently spoke with President Trump and expressed his concerns about the state of the Army. Another person described the situation to Axios simply: "Sad."
A White House official said Driscoll was asked to stay longer, until after midterms. But Driscoll told the White House he felt like it was time for him to go.
Driscoll is expected to leave the Pentagon in the coming days, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported his resignation.
The intrigue: Driscoll was a rising star in the Trump administration but had an icy relationship with Hegseth. Some U.S. officials say the defense secretary "was suspicious and paranoid" toward Driscoll, partly because of Driscoll's close relationship with Vice President JD Vance, a classmate at Yale Law.
Driscoll and George were advocates of the Army Transformation Initiative, which sought to combine two commands — the Futures Command and the Training and Doctrine Command — and cut big-name weaponry, including the AH-64D Apache, M10 Booker and Gray Eagle drone.
The big picture: Driscoll, nicknamed "drone guy" for his work on military modernization, had a meteoric rise in the Trump administration after the president nominated him to be Army secretary.
Driscoll's juice was boosted partly by his willingness to engage media outside the Pentagon's preferred conservative press pool and an expansive travel circuit. He garnered some Democratic support during his confirmation process, with 16 Democrats backing him.
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