Secretary of Culture War: How Hegseth wields power at the Pentagon

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll had only been in the job for a matter of days before he angered his new boss, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth .

Driscoll, an Army veteran and longtime personal friend of Vice President JD Vance, had been floating ideas to get Vance and President Donald Trump to visit the Pentagon — an event he believed would boost morale given the pomp and circumstance that accompanies any presidential visit. Trump expressed interest in the idea, two people with knowledge of the episode told CNN.

Hegseth, however, viewed Driscoll’s overtures to the White House in the spring as insubordination, the sources said. Trump was his boss, and Driscoll shouldn’t have gone around him and made him look bad, Hegseth told the Army secretary upon learning of the plans. Driscoll replie