WASHINGTON ? Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan decided not to pursue confirmation as the permanent Pentagon chief amid scrutiny of his tumultuous family relationships, officials said.

Shanahan has done “a wonderful job” as acting secretary of defense, President Trump tweeted Tuesday, but has “decided not to go forward with his confirmation process so that he can devote more time to his family.” Later, in remarks to reporters, Trump said he didn’t ask Shanahan to withdraw.

Secretary of the Army Mark Esper, who is next in the line of succession, will be named acting secretary of defense, Trump said.

Support on Capitol Hill and within the administration for Shanahan was considered to be thin, multiple officials said, and Trump hadn’t formally nominated Shanahan.

The longtime former Boeing Co. senior executive had faced questions about his ability to manage the Pentagon at a critical time, since he had no formal foreign-policy or national-security experience.

Shanahan’s role in an incident involving the USS John McCain and a White House attempt to hide the ship from Trump during a visit to Japan last month had invited concerns from some senators, officials said.

But it was a series of events in his personal life that directly triggered his decision to step down, Shanahan said. Those incidents included a 2010 physical altercation between him and his then-wife, and the 2011 assault against her by one of their sons when he was a teenager.

The Wall Street Journal in recent weeks had inquired about these events and posed questions to the participants in an effort to determine the possible effect on Shanahan’s nomination and potential leadership of the Defense Department.

In a statement, Shanahan said: It is “unfortunate that a painful and deeply personal family situation from long ago is being dredged up and painted in an incomplete and therefore misleading way.” He said that continuing the process would “force my three children to relive a traumatic chapter in our family’s life and reopen wounds we have worked years to heal.”

Shanahan visited the White House on Tuesday and informed Trump of his decision to withdraw his nomination, according to a senior White House official.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited the U.S. Central Command on Tuesday without Shanahan, reinforcing the view that Shanahan was either weak or on his way out, officials said. Central Command oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East.

His departure comes as the U.S. is facing rising tensions with Iran, a standoff with North Korea over its nuclear-weapons program, unsettled plans in Afghanistan and Syria, and continuing tensions with Russia and China.

Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee had been told to save the date of June 17 for his confirmation hearing. But late last week, the committee notified members that the hearing had tentatively been rescheduled for July 11 because the Federal Bureau of Investigation was continuing its background investigation. That background check included looking into details of his divorce.

Senate Armed Services Chairman James Inhofe (R., Okla.) said Trump called him to tell him Shanahan was pulling out. “He said, ‘I wanted you to be the first to know that we’ve come to a decision between us that it would be best for all parties’ ” if he withdrew, Inhofe recounted.

Inhofe said he has urged Trump repeatedly to nominate a new permanent defense secretary, rather than just naming a new acting chief. “When you have the word ‘acting’ after your name, you’re not it. You’re perceived by other countries as being not the person in charge,” he said.

Congressional aides said administration officials had provided a number of briefings to lawmakers about incidents in Shanahan’s personal life.

That included an incident in 2010 in which his then-wife, now Kimberley Jordinson, alleged that he hit her in the stomach during an altercation in their Seattle-area home one evening, according to court documents.

Shanahan, in the divorce documents, denied hitting her and said she assaulted him. Jordinson was the one arrested in the incident, while Shanahan wasn’t charged. The charges against her were later dropped at the request of Shanahan.

The contentious divorce and other personal matters were outlined in hundreds of pages of court documents. Those issues had been briefed to lawmakers, and as recently as last week it wasn’t clear that the contentious divorce would have an effect on lawmakers’ views of Shanahan.

Shanahan was confirmed as deputy secretary of defense in 2017 and named acting secretary after the abrupt departure of then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Dec. 31 over policy differences with Trump. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted earlier this month that Trump expected to nominate Shanahan as defense secretary, but no nomination occurred.

The staffers of key senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee received briefings from officials on the incidents in advance of the nomination because of their sensitive nature and the administration’s desire to ensure that those conducting the confirmation hearings understood the full context of the incidents and Shanahan’s view of them.

Other senators on the committee also were aware of the incidents and the public records that detail them, according to people familiar with the matter.

The FBI last month began the routine process of conducting a background check on Shanahan as the expected nominee, according to U.S. officials. Candidates for defense secretary require a greater degree of vetting than other posts within the Pentagon due to the sensitive nature of the responsibilities and authorities that individual possesses, officials have said.

Statements from Shanahan’s ex-wife included in their divorce record show that Shanahan and she were on the verge of separating in August 2010, when they got into a dispute over a piece of luggage that Shanahan was attempting to retrieve from their Seattle home.

“Pat slugged me in the stomach,” she told the court, according to her affidavit filed in Kings County Superior Court in Washington. “I stood up and he tried to hit me in the stomach twice more but the briefcase was in the way.”

Jordinson allegedly struck Shanahan several times in the face, according to an arrest record from the Seattle Police Department reviewed by the Journal. The police had responded to a domestic dispute call from Jordinson. The police, after questioning the couple and one of their sons, arrested her and charged her with assault; Shanahan wasn’t charged and denied he hit her, the records show. Shanahan filed for divorce a few days later.

Attempts to reach Jordinson or her lawyer were unsuccessful.

In the divorce proceeding, Shanahan stated that “she assaulted me, bloodying my nose. I did not assault her. She called the police, who arrested her.”

In another family incident in 2011 in Sarasota, Fla., the couple’s oldest son pleaded guilty to a felony charge related to an assault on  Jordinson. Under a deal with prosecutors, he was required to live at a rehabilitation home for minors and then serve probation.

According to Shanahan’s version of events, provided by Defense Department officials, when he heard about the assault from his son, he flew to Sarasota and hired a lawyer for his son. The Sarasota police report stated that Shanahan helped his son turn himself in to police four days after the assault.

Nancy A. Youssef and Brody Mullins contributed to this article.