Hegseth Directs Army Secretary To Fire Public Affairs Chief
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has directed Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to remove Col. Dave Butler from his position as chief of Army public affairs and senior adviser to the Army secretary, according to a report by Fox News.
Driscoll is currently in Geneva as part of a U.S. negotiating team working on efforts related to the war in Ukraine, Fox News reported.
Butler previously served as head of public affairs for the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the tenure of Army Gen. Mark Milley as chairman. He had been slated for promotion to brigadier general and appeared for two consecutive years on an Army list of 34 officers selected for advancement.
The promotion list has reportedly been delayed for nearly four months after Hegseth raised concerns about several officers included by the Army selection board. Under federal law, the defense secretary cannot unilaterally remove individual names from a promotion list once it has been submitted.
According to an Army official cited in the report, Butler offered to voluntarily withdraw his name from consideration in an effort to allow the broader list of promotions to move forward.
Driscoll, an Army veteran and a close ally of Vice President JD Vance—who attended Yale Law School with Vance—had resisted Hegseth’s ongoing pressure to fire Butler for months due to Butler’s significant contributions to the transformation of the Army.
“We greatly appreciate COL Dave Butler’s lifetime of service in America’s Army and to our nation,” Driscoll said in a statement. “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.”
Butler accompanied Driscoll to Ukraine to help start peace negotiations in November 2025, Fox stated, adding that Hegseth’s firing demand came late last week.
In 2025, Hegseth took charge at the Pentagon and quickly began to dismiss high-ranking officers or push them into early retirement, often without providing reasons or justifications. Among those affected were Adm. Lisa Franchetti, then chief of naval operations; Gen. CQ Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Gen. James Mingus, who held the position of vice chief of the Army; Gen. Douglas A. Sims, director of the Joint Staff; Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin; Gen. James Slife, vice chief of the Air Force; and Gen. Timothy Haugh, director of the National Security Agency, among others.
Butler, recognized as one of the Army’s top communicators, played a vital role alongside elite special operations units during numerous missions overseas while attached to the Army’s Delta Force from 2010 to 2014.
Dems Plan Pathetic Stunts To Counter Trump’s SOTU Address
Several House Democrats have said they will bring guests to President Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address who are connected to important national issues. This is because of political tensions around the release of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and immigration enforcement, lawmakers said on Monday.
California Democrats Ro Khanna and Robert Garcia both said they would be at the speech with guests who say Epstein abused them or who want the federal government to be more open about releasing related records.
Khanna said he would bring Haley Robson, a woman who has discussed her experience publicly. Garcia said he would bring Annie Farmer, another survivor who is pushing for more files to be made public, the Daily Caller reported.
The Daily Caller says that some Democrats will bring people who say they were detained by ICE during the protests and riots in Minnesota that broke out after Renee Nicole Good died.
Other House Democrats are also doing similar things.
They have invited family members of the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre and other survivors to talk about their worries about how the Justice Department is handling the release of millions of pages of documents under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Congress passed – and Trump readily signed – the act late last year, and some 3.5 million documents related to multiple Epstein investigations have been released. Democrats had no interest in the files during Joe Biden’s presidency. Also, Trump campaigned on releasing the files.
Democrat Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar announced she is bringing four guests to President Donald Trump’s SOTU speech Tuesday night.
She claims three were detained by ICE in Minnesota — including Aliya Rahman, who appeared in a viral video showing federal agents pulling her from her vehicle, the New York Post reported.
Omar will be taking Rahman, Mary Granlund, Mubashir Hussen and Gerardo Orozco Guzman.
“The stories of these four Minnesotans reflect how ICE’s reckless actions in Minnesota through ‘Operation Metro Surge’ have devastated Minnesotans’ safety and economic security,” her press release stated.
The invitations come ahead of Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday evening, where he is expected to outline policy priorities on issues including economic growth, national security and immigration. Democratic lawmakers have said the guest selections aim to draw attention to the ongoing debate over transparency and accountability in the Epstein case and to spotlight the impact of federal immigration enforcement actions.
In September, Robson joined Khanna and Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, along with several alleged survivors of Epstein, outside the U.S. Capitol. She urged the administration to release the Epstein files and ensure accountability.
“Haley’s courageous fight is proof that this isn’t about politics, it’s about exposing America’s two-tiered system of justice and bringing accountability to the Epstein class involved in the horrific abuse of young girls,” said Khanna in a statement. “She and her fellow survivors’ bravery was the catalyst for changing a rotten system and finally standing up for humanity and American values.”
Separately, the guest list also includes individuals invited by Republican leaders, such as Olympic athletes and families of law-enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, illustrating the broad range of issues members of both parties intend to emphasize during the high-profile annual address.
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Democrat Virginia Representative James Walkinshaw announced on Saturday that he plans to invite Jess Michaels, who alleged that Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused her in 1991 when she was 22 years old, according to WUSA9 News.
Additionally, Walkinshaw’s fellow Democratic representatives, Suhas Subramanyan of Virginia and Jamie Raskin of Maryland, stated that they intend to bring family members of the late Virginia Giuffre as their guests. Giuffre was a prominent accuser of Epstein and tragically died by suicide in 2025.
