The top civilian who oversees the Army Corps of Engineers was named the Acting Secretary of the Army following the sudden resignation of Dan Driscoll’s from the top Army post Monday.
President Donald Trump posted to social media Thursday that Adam Telle would be elevated to the position as the Army’s top leader until a permanent replacement is found. In naming Telle, whose position as Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) is a relatively minor role in the Army hierarchy, Trump passed over Driscoll’s second-in-command, Under Secretary of the Army Michael Obadal.
“I am pleased to announce that Adam Telle, the current Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, will become Acting Secretary of the Army, effective immediately,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Shake-up in Army leadership
Driscoll, an Army veteran, has given no public reason for his departure. In a statement this week on X, Driscoll said that “it has been an honor of a lifetime to serve as the Secretary of the Army.” Multiple outlets have reported long-standing tensions between Driscoll and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. While serving as the secretary, Driscoll pushed for overhauling the service’s structure, including widespread adoption of drones.
The Trump administration has not formally nominated a replacement for Driscoll, who Driscoll is the second service secretary to depart this year. John Phelan was fired as Secretary of the Navy in the spring.
Driscoll’s resignation comes amid a wider shakeup of Army leadership. In April, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George was asked to step down. Gen. David Hodne, head of the Army’s Transformation and Training Command, as well as the Chief of Chaplains of the Army, Maj. Gen. William Green, were also relieved. In June, Gen. Christopher Donahue, who led the Army in Europe and Africa, also announced his departure. This week, several Army officers had their names removed from a list of promotions. Multiple officers had their promotions to one-star ranks blocked this summer, for ties to George and Donahue, according to The Hill.
Telle took interest in the firing of an Army engineer colonel
Before being appointed to his role at the Pentagon, Telle spent two decades working as a staffer for Republican members of Congress and with the White House Office of Legislative Affairs in the first Trump administration.
His official biography does not list any military experience.
Telle has served as the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) since August 2025, a position that focuses on civil works projects inside the U.S. that are owned or overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers, including dams, lakes, and public waterways. The role’s “responsibilities include commercial navigation, flood and storm damage reduction, and permitting of activities under the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act,” according to his official biography.
Telle’s name appeared in an unusual press release in January that announced the command relief of a Corps of Engineers district commander. Col. Patrick Caukin, who led the Little Rock District in Arkansas, was dismissed in January for what a Corps press release said was a “loss of confidence in his ability to command.”
But the announcement of Caukin’s relief was, unusually, issued in both Telle’s name and that of Caukin’s commander, and included a quote from Telle declaring that Caukin had been “dealt with.”
The Army release did not detail why Caukin had been fired, but two Republican members of Congress released their own statement, tying Caukin’s dismissal to ongoing property disputes between Corps officials and private owners of waterfront properties around Corps-managed Table Rock Lake, a popular recreation and vacation reservoir outside Branson, Missouri, in the Ozark Mountains. The statement said Trump officials had dismissed Caukin to “rein in Corps enforcement at Table Rock Lake.”
