WASHINGTON — War Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the removal of the Army’s top spokesman as part of a sweeping overhaul of Pentagon leadership under President Trump.
Hegseth directed Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to oust Col. Dave Butler from his role as chief of Army public affairs and senior adviser, Fox News reported Tuesday.
Driscoll, who Fox reported initially resisted Hegseth’s demands, confirmed Butler will retire after 28 years of service while praising his “lifetime of service.
“We greatly appreciate COL Dave Butler’s lifetime of service in America’s Army and to our nation,” Driscoll said in a statement, according to Fox. “Dave has been an integral part of the Army’s transformation efforts and I sincerely wish him tremendous success in his upcoming retirement after 28 years of service.”
The demand from Hegseth to oust Butler came last week while Driscoll was overseas in Geneva working on negotiations aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, according to Fox.
Butler had previously traveled with Driscoll to Ukraine in late 2025 as part of diplomatic efforts to jump-start talks.
The move is part of a broader shake-up that began when Hegseth took over the Pentagon in 2025 and quickly pushed out or forced into retirement several top military leaders — including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and multiple service chiefs — often without publicly stated reasons.
Hegseth has framed the changes as an effort to bring new leadership and refocus the military, though critics familiar with the ouster say Butler’s removal has more to do with internal administration politics over ridding the Pentagon of the last holdouts from the Biden administration.
The Pentagon directed Post questions to the Department of the Army, which did not respond to a request for comment.