{"id":185179,"date":"2026-04-04T05:04:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T05:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/185179\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T05:04:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T05:04:27","slug":"hegseths-paranoia-over-being-replaced-explains-purge-of-top-general-as-ally-emerges-for-army-secretarys-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/185179\/","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth’s ‘paranoia’ over being replaced explains purge of top general \u2014 as ally emerges for Army secretary’s role"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Secretary of War Pete Hegseth<\/a>\u2019s \u201cparanoia\u201d about Army Secretary Dan Driscoll <\/a>taking his job fueled the firing of the Army\u2019s top general, current and former administration officials tell The Post \u2014 as a top contender emerges to replace Driscoll if he\u2019s canned next.<\/p>\n

Hegseth on Thursday demanded the resignation of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George <\/a>\u2014 Driscoll\u2019s top aide \u2014 in the middle of the Iran war for reasons that were not publicly stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is all driven by the insecurity and paranoia that Pete has developed since Signalgate. Unfortunately, it is stoked by some of his closest aides who should be trying to calm the waters,\u201d an official said, referring to Hegseth\u2019s March 2025 group chat with national security officials that inadvertently included a reporter.<\/p>\n

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is looking over his shoulder and concerned Army Secretary Dan Driscoll could take his job, sources said. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Driscoll is a close friend and former classmate of Vice President JD Vance. AP<\/p>\n

Two other Army generals \u2014 Gen. David Hodne of the Army\u2019s Transformation and Training Command and Maj. Gen. William Green of the Army\u2019s Chaplain Corps \u2014 \u00a0were dismissed in the purge, with the department only saying \u201cit was time for a leadership change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[Hegseth] has got a big conflict with Driscoll. And he\u2019s been told by the White House he can\u2019t fire Driscoll, at least for the moment,\u201d a source close to the Trump administration said.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Hegseth] is very concerned about being fired and he knows that Driscoll is one of the top contenders, or a natural contender, to succeed him. So what Pete has been doing is taking anyone he perceives to be close with Driscoll and going after them. And this is the latest and most spectacular [example] of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Driscoll is a close friend of Vice President JD Vance, with whom he attended Yale Law School after both men served in the Iraq War. His name was floated as a possible Hegseth successor last summer and the Pentagon boss\u2019s suspicions deepened last fall when Driscoll served as a Ukraine war negotiator.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not just one of those things where Pete is focused on DEI. That\u2019s not what this is about. He keeps going after the Army in particular,\u201d the second person said.<\/p>\n

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George was asked to resign Thursday for reasons not publicly stated. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Tensions have mounted for months between Hegseth and Driscoll. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cEssentially Hegseth has frozen him out and tried to sideline him behind the scenes. Hegseth wants to fire him, but Vance has his back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The paranoia isn\u2019t entirely without merit \u2014 with President Trump publicly praising Driscoll\u2019s performance last year. The Army secretary role served as a springboard during Trump\u2019s first term when Mark Esper vaulted from the service branch to replace fired James Mattis as defense secretary.<\/p>\n

John Ullyot, a Marine Corps veteran who served in national security roles in both of Trump\u2019s administrations, told The Post that Driscoll \u201cis the real deal, and Hegseth can\u2019t stand when Army generals show Driscoll the respect he has earned through his service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegseth spox could replace Driscoll<\/p>\n

An administration official said that Hegseth\u2019s top spokesman Sean Parnell is \u201cpushing himself\u201d to be Army secretary if Driscoll is ultimately fired.<\/p>\n

Parnell was awarded the Bronze Star and a\u00a0Purple Heart for his service in Afghanistan and two Pentagon colleagues said he would be an obvious option if a vacancy emerges.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wouldn\u2019t be out of line to speculate that Sean would be considered as a successor as he is one of the highest profile Army veterans serving at the top of [the] department right now,\u201d one Pentagon official said.<\/p>\n

However, the official added: \u201cAnyone claiming Sean\u2019s pushing himself to be secretary of the Army is an obvious outsider spewing nonsense. Every senior leader in the department knows Sean is laser-focused on his current role.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sean Parnell, assistant to the secretary of war for public affairs, is considered a possible successor to Driscoll. AP<\/p>\n

An Army official added to The Post that \u201cit\u2019s very normal to think that Sean Parnell has a shot to be the successor to Driscoll if Driscoll were to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSean Parnell is humble. He\u2019s a humble leader,\u201d this official said.<\/p>\n

Parnell did not specifically address his own future, but claimed that Hegseth has an \u201cexcellent\u201d relationship with Driscoll.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecretary Hegseth maintains excellent working relationships with the secretaries of every military service branch, including Army Secretary Dan Driscoll,\u201d Parnell told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u2018Under Hegseth\u2019s skin\u2019 <\/p>\n

There\u2019s no indication that Trump is prepared to immediately dismiss either Hegseth or Driscoll, but the clash heightens the stakes for each.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s recent cabinet shuffles \u2014 including firing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last month and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday \u2014 has amplified the jockeying, with insiders saying it couldn\u2019t come at a worse time as Trump tries to project strength to end the Iran war.<\/p>\n

The Iranian government trolled the US on social media Friday, writing<\/a>, \u201cThe regime change happened successfully\u201d with X marks over images of military brass who had been fired.<\/p>\n

President Trump used a Wednesday night primetime speech to outline his vision for swiftly ending the Iran war. Sources say in-fighting in the military couldn\u2019t come at a worse time. POOL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The second source said that Driscoll\u2019s fleeting role in Ukraine negotiations in November was an important inflection point. <\/p>\n

\u201cPete got very paranoid about Driscoll talking behind his back to others in the military. The final straw for Pete was when Vance got Driscoll to go over to Ukraine to be the chief negotiator for that one meeting,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really gotten under Hegseth\u2019s skin. He\u2019s trying to make everyone around [Driscoll] suffer for no reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

This person noted \u201cthe optics of firing the Army\u2019s top general the day after the president spoke to a skeptical public\u201d about the Iran war.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis undermines completely the tone and the message that the president wants to send that the war is going well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Secretary of War Pete Hegseth\u2019s \u201cparanoia\u201d about Army Secretary Dan Driscoll taking his job fueled the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14670,9,11,10,1351,87,30305,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-185179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-iran","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-pete-hegseth","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-the-pentagon","15":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}