Former Army Secretary Dan Driscoll gave his first interview since resigning from the Pentagon in August, telling Rolling Stone that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed him out over clashing visions for modernizing the military.
Driscoll didn’t go into detail on every disagreement, but he didn’t pretend they’d gotten along smoothly either. “Once he makes a decision, there’s nothing I can do about it. I don’t have to like it,” he said of Hegseth. He pushed back, though, on the idea that the relationship had been entirely toxic. “I think it’s unfair to describe our relationship so flatly, that every interaction was bad, or that we disagreed on everything,” he said. “If you polled us, we probably agreed on more than 50 percent of things. What’s been reported is all the things we disagree on.”
He described his own approach to the job. “I’ll never talk about our private conversations, but we were both very passionate about our positions, and I would advocate as strongly as I possibly could, knowing I’m talking to my boss, and the final decision-maker,” Driscoll said, adding that his role had been “to advocate as hard as I could for leaders who I thought were good.”
The two men split sharply on what the Army’s priorities should be. Driscoll, an Iraq War veteran, tech investor, and Yale Law classmate of Vice President JD Vance, pushed hard for modernization, building a 600-soldier “drones-first” Unmanned Assault Battalion that worked alongside Ukrainian advisers.
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Watching Ukraine innovate on a fraction of the Pentagon’s budget left a real mark on him. “In some ways, it was humiliating seeing how quickly a nation could change when it needed to,” he told Rolling Stone. “When you would see what Ukraine’s budget was and how small it was relative to ours, and how, despite that, they had better weapons of war, it was a wake-up call.”
Dan Driscoll, former US Army Secretary: Ukraine’s budget was small relative to ours, and despite that, they had better weapons of war. It was a wake-up call.
In some ways, it was humiliating seeing how quickly a nation could change when it needed to — Rolling Stone. 1/ https://t.co/rWPIvjpxbr
— Tymofiy Mylovanov (@Mylovanov) October 5, 2026
He still spoke with pride about operations carried out under his watch, pointing specifically to one strike. “If you look at the Venezuela raid, it is incredible what occurred there,” he said.
Tension between the two reportedly traces back to an early misstep. Driscoll offered what he considered a goodwill gesture, his friendship with Vance, as a way to help the Pentagon move faster with the White House. According to Rolling Stone, Hegseth responded by blowing up at him, insisting all White House contact run through his office first. Things only got worse after that, as Hegseth dismissed a string of top generals, including Gen. Randy George and Gen. Christopher Donahue, both allies in Driscoll’s modernization push.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell rejected the entire account when The Independent asked for comment, calling Rolling Stone “a fake news rag regurgitating months-old false narratives” and claiming the piece was “riddled with made-up claims regarding Secretary Hegseth’s historic achievements and transformative leadership.” He added that “Secretary Hegseth has been a generational Secretary for the Pentagon.
Featured image via X screengrab
