Hegseth Faces GOP Revolt as Army Secretary Resigns and Officer Purge Tops 80

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll walked out of the Pentagon this week, and his departure has accelerated public criticism from within Republican ranks that Pete Hegseth may not be suited for the job.

Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who voted to confirm Hegseth last year, didn't hold back. "I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country," Tillis said, according to CNN and Al Jazeera. He added that Hegseth was "intimidated by competence." Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska told CNN's "AC360" that Hegseth had "not been a very good leader in many ways."

These aren't Democrats scoring points. Tillis and Bacon are Republicans, and both are retiring, which means they have less to lose by saying it.

Hegseth has fired more than two dozen senior officers and blocked at least 45 promotions since taking office in January 2025, according to the Washington Post. The Daily Beast puts the broader total at roughly 80 top military leaders either removed or blocked from promotion, including seven officers recently denied two-star rank after a military selection board had already picked them.

House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers, a Republican, said he was "tired of all the churn" at the Pentagon and wants "some stability over there," according to CNN. House Defense Appropriations Chairman Ken Calvert made a similar complaint about "a number of disruptions in the department."

Driscoll's resignation left the Army without both a top civilian and a uniformed chief at the same time, since Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George was pushed out in April, a year and a half before his term would normally have ended. A person described to the Financial Times as close to Driscoll said he feared Hegseth's leadership could cause "generational damage" and that Hegseth "wasn't willing to listen to the facts." Driscoll's own resignation statement on X credited Hegseth's support for helping modernize the Army.

Hegseth's troubles didn't start this month. In March 2025, he shared details about the timing of strikes on Yemen in a Signal chat that accidentally included Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, according to Al Jazeera. An inspector general's report later found the episode could have jeopardized the Yemen mission and put U.S. troops at risk, CNN reported. Hegseth has maintained no "war plans" were shared.

Meanwhile, the U.S. conflict with Iran has run well past its original timeline. Trump initially projected it would last four to five weeks, but the Daily Beast reports it has stretched past six months, straining munitions stockpiles. The Associated Press reported the fight has used around 65 percent of the country's Patriot interceptor missiles, a figure the Center for Strategic and International Studies has flagged as a concern for future readiness.

The Pentagon has defended Hegseth's record, telling CNN he is ushering in a "new era" at the president's direction. His supporters argue the officer purge is a deliberate correction, not chaos: stripping out a promotion pipeline they believe rewarded identity markers over battlefield performance, and imposing fitness standards without waivers for the sake of consistency.

The New Republic published an opinion column by Brynn Tannehill citing a ProPublica report alleging Hegseth overrode military advisers to kill the Civilian Harm Mitigation Response program, and linking that decision to civilian deaths in strikes on Iran and Yemen.

What is clear: two Republican lawmakers who confirmed Hegseth are now saying he should go, the Army has no permanent civilian or uniformed leader at the same time, and polling from Quinnipiac University and Marquette Law School has him roughly 20 points underwater with registered voters, per CNN. Whether Trump moves on any of it, or whether Hegseth's overhaul survives long enough to be judged on results rather than turmoil, remains to be seen.