Fox’s Jen Griffin Reports Pete Hegseth Ordered Sudden Firing of Top Army Officer — Adding to Climate of ‘Fear’ Among Military Brass

AP Photo/Kevin Wolf

There is a climate of “fear, uncertainty, and unwillingness to speak up” growing among military brass after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth forced out a top army officer, according to a report by Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin.

According to Griffin’s report, the ousted officer is Army Col. Dave Butler, who was serving as Chief of Army Public Affairs and chief advisor to Army Secretary Dan Driscoll.

Driscoll is currently in Geneva, Switzerland as part of the Ukraine negotiating team, and Hegseth demanded that he fire Butler last Thursday, Griffin reported. The Army Secretary is viewed as a “close ally” to Vice President JD Vance, having attended Yale Law School with him, and “resisted Hegseth’s pressure to fire Butler for months because of his ongoing contributions to the transformation of the Army,” Griffin wrote, reporting how Butler was actually on a list to be promoted, not fired:

Butler served as the head of public affairs for the Joint Chiefs when Gen. Mark Milley was chairman, and was slated to receive his first star. His name appeared for two years in a row on an Army list of 34 officers selected for promotion.

That list has been held up by Hegseth for nearly four months because he reportedly has concerns about four to five officers selected by the Army board, but by law he cannot remove them from the list. Butler volunteered to take his name off the promotion list if it would help unlock the other promotions, according to an Army official.

The report described in detail Butler’s experience as “[o]ne of the Army’s best communicators,” including serving “alongside the nation’s tiered special operations units on countless missions overseas attached to the Army’s Delta Force from 2010⁠– 2014;” as “the public affairs officer to Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina,  from 2015 to 2018”; “the public affairs officer for Gen. Scott Miller when he was Joint Special Operations Command commander from 2016 to 2018, and then, at Miller’s request, served in Afghanistan when Miller deployed there from 2018 to 2019;” and as “the chief spokesman and director of communications for all U.S. and NATO forces during that time that Miller served as the top 4-star general in Afghanistan.”

Butler also was singled out by name for praise from President Donald Trump for his work helping organize the parade in Washington, D.C. for the Army’s 250th birthday celebration last year.

Driscoll released a statement saying, “We greatly appreciate Col. Dave Butler’s lifetime of service in America’s Army and to our nation. 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.”

Griffin’s report included a list of other top officers whom Hegseth fired or forced into early retirement with no reason or cause given: “Adm. Lisa Franchetti, who was serving as Chief of Naval Operations, Gen. CQ Brown who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. James Mingus, who was serving as vice chief of the Army, Gen. Douglas A. Sims, director of the Joint Staff, Air Force Chief Gen. David Allvin, Gen. James Slife, vice chief of the Air Force, and Gen. Timothy Haugh, director of the National Security Agency, among others.

“The unexplained firings have led to fear, uncertainty and an unwillingness to speak up among senior military leaders,” Griffin wrote.

The Washington Post’s Dan Lamothe confirmed Griffin’s report with his own sources, writing that this “latest intervention” by Hegseth into the Army’s operations was part of the “long-simmering tension” between him and Driscoll, and that Hegseth’s order last week to fire Butler was “at least the second time since September” that he had pushed for Butler’s ouster.

Butler “had been nominated for promotion to brigadier general, but Hegseth took issue with that plan for reasons that remain unclear, officials said,” Lamothe wrote.

A “key factor” in Hegseth’s motivations in removing Butler may be his prior work as chief spokesman for Gen. Mark A. Milley, who previously served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lamothe added. Milley became a frequent target of attacks from both Trump and Hegseth after his clashes during the president’s first term and comments criticizing Trump as “a fascist to the core” after he retired.

A few days into Trump’s second term, Hegseth ordered Milley’s security detail to be pulled, despite multiple threats to his life, and had Milley’s portraits removed from Army halls.

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