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Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, is emerging as a top contender for the Army secretary role, multiple Trump administration officials and people familiar with the matter told Semafor.
Parnell doesn’t have the nod locked down yet, and it’s unclear when President Donald Trump will nominate a successor to Dan Driscoll, who resigned earlier this week. But many inside the administration are pushing for Parnell, who is close to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and has held his current job since the start of the president’s second term.
“Everyone in the media is saying there’s no stability in the Army with all of Hegseth’s leadership changes,” one administration official said. “Sean has been in the building since the beginning and understands the ins and outs of the Army. There would be no learning curve for him as Secretary of the Army, and that’s attractive to the White House.”
Another name is also in the mix to replace Driscoll, multiple sources told Semafor: Florida GOP Rep. Brian Mast, who holds a safe red seat and chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He recently met with Hegseth, which sources told Semafor was related to the Army secretary job — though Mast suggested it was a standard, unrelated sitdown.
“I’m glad that they’re thinking about me,” Mast said in a brief interview on Wednesday. “I’ve heard my name thrown out there.”
He’s got support from one top Republican, House Armed Services Chair Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., who said Mast could be a good secretary: “I’m a big fan of Brian’s.”
Parnell could face a tough confirmation given GOP hawks’ fondness for Driscoll and past domestic abuse allegations against him. But Mast would face his own problems if nominated: A faction of the president’s base is dubious of the Floridian’s public support for the Israeli government.
The administration official argued that Mast would “fracture the base, and the White House can’t afford that before the midterms.”
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Parnell, an Afghanistan veteran who mounted a failed Senate bid in 2021, has made a name for himself by sparring with the media. That’s an appealing quality for Hegseth, who wants Parnell for the job, a second administration official said — and his name has been mentioned for a while now, given that Driscoll’s departure by the end of the year was expected.
A third person familiar with the situation predicted that Parnell would ultimately get the nod.
Regarding the past domestic abuse claims, a Pentagon official told Semafor that the filing documenting them was denied by a judge, who found the complaints not sufficiently credible.
Driscoll’s exit was hastened by clashes with Hegseth over the military branch’s readiness and the ouster of multiple top officials, both of which he mentioned to Trump during a meeting this week, as The Atlantic first reported.
In a statement responding to various names being floated for the position, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said Trump “will announce a nominee for the next Secretary of the Army at a time and place of his choosing – statements from anonymous sources claiming to have insight into the President’s thinking should be treated as mere speculation.”
Kelly also praised Driscoll as being “highly effective in advancing” Trump’s agenda, saying that the Army “is more powerful than ever thanks to his work alongside” the president and Hegseth.
“Sean Parnell is 100% focused on the job he was appointed to by President Trump and Secretary Hegseth,” a senior Department of War official said in a statement.
Notable
- Parnell’s status as a potential successor before Driscoll resigned was first reported by The Hill.