The resignation from Army Secretary Dan Driscoll sent shockwaves through the government and the military as Driscoll made it clear to President Donald Trump that things were not going well in the Department of Defense.
CNN reported on Wednesday that sources said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is doing damage to the Army’s effort to adapt as a new era of warfare evolves. Those in the armed forces believe that they must “adapt to the modern battlefield,” but Hegseth is too busy focusing on far-right culture war issues.
“It’s conflicting because yeah, he put out a memo saying this is important, but … he’s talking about muscles, dudes in dresses, testosterone,” an official said. “We don’t see a change at that level.”
The sources said that Hegseth is more interested in creating his own personal image of “the American warfighter.” Anyone who doesn’t match that vision is being shoved out, eliminating expertise and creating a brain drain.
Another source said that Driscoll brought up “concerns with the administration surrounding Army transformation and readiness and Hegseth’s blocking those efforts specifically by firing the generals who were responsible.”
Many top leaders in the military agreed with Driscoll and the concerns he raised, the report said.
“It’s critical that you have key leaders [who] understand technology and have the temperament to deal with industry and turn that into the formation,” said one former senior Army official when speaking to CNN. “When you fire these guys for arbitrary reasons, it creates confusion and a void … the Army is enduring turbulence right now.”
Rather than focusing on the military, senior officials are privately saying that they’re being plagued by “political pressure” under Hegseth.
One defense official in Europe said that Hegseth may talk a good game about technology reform, but in practice, the leadership is more focused on the culture war.
“It’s conflicting because yeah he put out a memo saying this is important, but … he’s talking about muscles, dudes in dresses, testosterone,” the official said. “We don’t see a change at that level.”
In a statement, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said that all of the statements were a “total fabrication to claim that Secretary Hegseth is not focused on modernization” and that the “entire Department is unified” behind his vision.
“Secretary Hegseth has been a transformative leader for the Department of War and, at President Trump’s Direction, has ushered in a new era of Peace Through Strength,” Parnell said. “Standards and merit are back, our arsenal is stronger than ever before, and morale and recruitment across every service are at all time highs. Secretary Hegseth has slashed bureaucracy, unleashed innovation, and delivered for our warfighters every step of the way.”
Hegseth said that he sought to reduce the number of four-star generals and admirals in the military, but that doesn’t seem to be the strategy behind the firings. As a result of Driscoll, the Army will not have a chief of staff or Secretary at a time when the U.S. is at war with Iran.
“He’s so obsessed with these false vendettas and battles,” said Mike O’Hanlon, the Philip H. Knight Chair in Defense and Strategy at the Brookings Institution,. “If anything I think he’s pretty good on transformation, but because he wants to engage on culture wars he distracts from the real priorities.”