Trump appointed Assistant Secretary of the Army as acting Secretary instead of Deputy Secretary

Mr. Trump chose the Assistant Secretary to be the acting Secretary of the US Army, instead of appointing the second highest-ranking civilian official of the military service.

"I am pleased to announce that Mr. Adam Telle, currently the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, will become acting Secretary of the US Army, effective immediately. He is a great patriot and is respected by everyone," President Donald Trump wrote on social networks on September 3.

Mr. Telle replaces the position of former Secretary Dan Driscoll, who received many compliments for his efforts to modernize the US Army but was said to be in conflict with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the future of the service. Mr. Driscoll announced his resignation earlier this week, after months of speculation that he would leave the Pentagon.

Politico newspaper identified this as an unusual appointment by President Trump, because normally the second highest-ranking civilian official of the US Army, in this case Deputy Secretary Michael Obadal, will assume the position of acting Secretary.

In April, US Deputy Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao was also appointed acting Secretary after his predecessor John Phelan was dismissed.

Minister Hegseth quickly praised the decision to appoint Telle and described him as a "strong, extremely intelligent man". It is unclear who President Trump will nominate to serve as Secretary of the Army in the long term.

Mr. Telle was confirmed by the US Senate as the official in charge of the US Army's civil works sector in August 2025. He is a familiar face on Capitol Hill having spent many years as a Republican staffer in the Senate, most recently as Chief of Staff to Senator Bill Hagerty.

Telle was a long-time staff member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and assistant to former committee chairman Thad Cochran. He also worked on the White House legislative affairs team during President Trump's first term.

Driscoll is the latest in a series of officials at the Pentagon, both military and civilian, to resign or be fired in recent times. Among them is General Randy George, who had to leave his post as army commander in April.

Within a year and a half since Mr. Hegseth took office as Secretary of Defense, at least 20 senior officials have left, causing great turmoil in the Pentagon's leadership apparatus.

Senator Jack Reed, the highest-ranking Democratic member of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, criticized Mr. Hegseth for "creating a culture in which disagreement is punished, and competence is placed behind personal loyalty."

Meanwhile, some parliamentarians believe that personnel changes at the Ministry of Defense are not a worrying sign. Congressman Brian Mast, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, defended Mr. Hegseth, saying that the US Secretary of Defense has the right to choose the most suitable people for the leadership team.