Tangle - The Army secretary resigns.

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

On Monday, August 31, The Wall Street Journal reported that Army Secretary Dan Driscoll had resigned amid protracted disagreements with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; Driscoll’s last workday was September 2. Several other military leaders have been fired or resigned under Hegseth, who has sought to reduce the size of military leadership. President Donald Trump appointed Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle to serve as acting secretary and did not give a timeline for nominating a replacement.Ad-free podcasts are here!Get 20% off your first year of ad-free episodes, exclusive interviews, and deep dives with Tangle’s podcast membership!Should billionaires exist?In Friday’s members-only post, Isaac explored the question of whether billionaires should exist — and dove into generalizations about them all being evil. The piece has already garnered over 600 comments, a strong indication that you have your own opinions. You can read it (and join the conversation) here. You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠ and today’s “Under the radar” story ⁠here⁠ and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Take the survey: How do you feel about the United States’s overall military preparedness? Let us know. Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.This podcast written by: Isaac Saul and audio engineered and edited by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Audrey Moorehead, and Carina Pacheco. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening and welcome to the Tangle podcast, a place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and I'm currently packing up some warm clothes and hiking shoes for our Tangle team retreat in Midcoast, Maine. our team is spread out across the country and I'm thrilled when we can get together as a group especially in such a beautiful part of the country and looking forward to chopping it up

with some of the editorial and business staff and laying the groundwork for the months and I think probably years ahead. So I'm getting it together here right after this podcast gets out and hopping on a plane. But before I do, we are going to dive in to the Army Secretary's

resignation, Dan Driscoll, stepping down. And I'm going to focus a bit on Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth in my take, because I think he is pretty central to everything we've seen happening. We also answer a reader question about artificial intelligence, affecting constituent letters, and discuss a rather surprising election result in Germany. It's a great episode, and before you jump in, if you haven't yet, I encourage you to go check out Friday's episode where I explore the question of whether billionaires should exist. It's one of our members-only Friday podcasts. And it drove over 600 comments on the website

already. So definitely struck a nerve. And yeah, a lot of people have their own opinions, which I found fascinating. I was reading through the comments and tons of super interesting and compelling pushback, criticism, some support. It was a great. comment section on this piece. That episode came out Friday again. You can scroll back in your feed to find it. All right, with that, I'm going to pass it over to senior editor Will Kaye back. He's joining me today and I'll be back for my take. Thanks, Isaac. Okay, here are today's quick hits. Five people were killed and five others hospitalized when an Amazon cargo plane crashed at Miami International Airport after the plane appeared to overrun the airport's runway. The Federal Aviation

administration is investigating the crash. Number two, a man allegedly assaulted multiple people at a fair in Ohio while attempting to move toward Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton. Law enforcement stopped the man, who was carrying a taser and two pistols, before he reached the candidate. Three, the Supreme Court temporarily paused a lower court ruling that restricted preferential rates in political advertising to only candidates, allowing political parties and joint fundraising committees to also receive the favorable rates. Justice Kintanji Brown Jackson dissented. Four, Russia and North Korea opened the first road bridge across their border, which will allow up to 300 vehicles per day to cross over between the countries. Russia said the connection

highlights its deepening economic and cultural alliance with North Korea. Separately, Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky said that U.S. negotiators are exploring a plan to de-escalate Ukraine's and Russia's military operations. this winter as part of a step toward a peace plan. And five, an immigration and customs enforcement officer turned himself into federal authorities. The officer was charged with lying to investigators about the shooting of a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis, Minnesota in January. The White House has confirmed that Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is resigning.

There have been months of friction between him and Defense Secretary Pete Higgs. As CBS News reported last week, Driscoll was considering stepping down by the end of the year. obviously he is resigning now. In the statement to CBS News, a White House spokesperson said Secretary Driscoll has been highly effective in advancing President Trump's agenda. The United States Army is more powerful than ever, thanks to his work alongside the commander-in-chief and what the White House calls the Secretary of War. On Monday, August 31st, the Wall Street Journal reported that Army Secretary Dan Driscoll

had resigned amid protracted disagreements with Defense Secretary Pete Heggsef. Driscoll officially resigned on September 3rd. Several other military leaders have been fired or resigned under Hexsef, who has sought to reduce the size of military leadership. President Donald Trump appointed Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Tell to serve as acting secretary and has not given a timeline for nominating a replacement. Driscoll served in the Army and deployed to Iraq in 2009, then attended Yale Law School, where he met Vice President J.D. Vance. Before his confirmation as Army Secretary, Driscoll served in the Army. served as a senior advisor to Vance and worked as an investment banker.

He led modernization initiatives for the army during his 18-month tenure as secretary, including its drone development program. In April, the Hill reported on clashes between Hegsef and Driscoll after President Trump tapped the latter to lead negotiations with Ukrainian officials over a peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Driscoll and Hegsef also reportedly disagreed on Hegsef's efforts to block a list of Army officers from being promoted to one-star generals. Several military and civilian leaders have departed their roles or were fired under Secretary Hexeth, and with Driscoll's resignation, both the Army and Navy's top civilian leaders have resigned

in the past five months. Additionally, the Army does not have a top Senate-confirmed civilian or military leader. Driscoll gave no official reason for his departure, but he reportedly spoke with President Trump about the state of the Army before submitting his resignation. In a post on X on September 1st, Driscoll said, quote, It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as the Secretary of the Army under President Trump and Secretary Hegsseth, adding, quote, we could not have made the progress we did without the support of Secretary Heg Seth, end quote. Some Republicans and Democrats praised Driscoll's performance as Army Secretary. Representative Steve Womack, a Republican from Arkansas, wrote, quote, Dan Driscoll is a transformative leader who brought common sense and discipline to the Department of the Army.

Army, end quote. And Representative Jason Crowe, a Democrat from Colorado, said, quote, it was actually nice, I will say, having someone who was smart that knew the policy that wanted to do the work that had a background in these issues, end quote. Others, including Senator Tom Tillis and Senator Jack Reed, criticized Hegseff for purportedly forcing Driscoll out. Today you'll hear views from the right and left on Driscoll's resignation, Hegseff, and the latest at the Pentagon, followed by executive editor Isaac Saul's take. We'll be right back after this quick break. Here's what the right is saying.

Many on the right expressed concern about Driscoll's departure, calling him a competent and valuable military leader. Some suggest the coming months could make or break Hegsef. Others say Hegsef is undermining key facets of military leadership. In the free press, Eli Lake wrote, The Army needs good leaders. Why is Hegsef firing them? Driscoll was perceived by many in Congress in the White House as a quiet check on the erratic moves of the Secretary of Defense.

And at a moment when the U.S. is relaunching strikes against Iran, Driscoll's role was as important as ever. In recent months, Hegsef has conducted a purge of sorts. The highest profile example was Hegset's sudden termination in April of General Randy George, the Army Chief of Staff. That same month, John Fellon, the Secretary of the Navy, was pushed out of his post by Hegson. As for the purges, they have been defended by Hexsef and his supporters as a necessary corrective to the woke radicalization of the military. In practice, however, this has meant that the traditional, non-political, merit-based process for evaluating promotions of senior officers has been overturned. Driscoll's departure and George's firing have left the army without a civilian and military leader

at a time when the army is doing the bulk of the fighting against Iran. Hegsef may wish to defend these moves as part of his strategy to drive wokeness out of the military or to remove disloyal leakers from the Pentagon's senior ranks, but these are just excuses. In the spectator, Sarah Beth Spragans asked, is Pete Hegseff running for

president or getting fired? Hegsetth sought a serious restructuring of the U.S. military. His allies praised his eagerness to cut, quote, dead wood, but inside the American war apparatus, opinions of him differ. Younger GIs tend to

to like him because he's plain spoken, a guy you'd talk to at a bar. Officers are less sure of Hexeth because of his casual approach to military operations and his sloganeering. Some believe he undermines military professionalism. The top brass worry about Hexseth interfering in military discipline for partisan and personal reasons, or just because he wants to show off. When Trump proposed attacking Iran, many members of his cabinet cautioned against it, including former director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Hegseth did not. There are rumors that Hegseth wanted to get on board with Vance if he runs, but given Driscoll's friendship with the vice president and Vance's view of the

Iran war, it's hard to imagine he would have much influence. Some sources suggest that Trump is planning to fire Hegseth. That seems unlikely at the moment, but the president may need a loyal scapegoat if Iran is seen as the cause of Republican failure in the midterms. In the New York Times, David French called Hegseth a wrecking ball. Our military is still highly capable, and we've watched it successfully execute some extraordinarily difficult missions during Trump's second term. The capture of President Nicholas Maduro of Venezuela and the rescue of two downed American airmen from the heart of Iran were remarkable feats of skill and courage. It's comforting, I guess, to know that Pegsef can't undo the effects of generations-long commitments to excellence in just his 20 months. That's the end of the good news.

From the top down, Trump is replacing the highly imperfect meritocracy of American Public Service with an idiocracy, and his corrupt ideocrats are creating profound, short, medium, and long-term harms to American national security. Trump's critics aren't the only ones alarmed. I'd refer you to the recent resignation of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll. Driscoll was reportedly worried that Hexat's purges were hampering the ability of the army to transform itself. And this is just as the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are demonstrating that the world is in the midst of another revolution in military affairs and we are not prepared. The combination of corruption, stupidity, and sycophancy that pervades the Trump administration is now infecting the Pentagon at the moment that our most powerful enemies are becoming more aggressive. Now here's what the left is saying.

The left is also concerned by Driscoll's resignation and many believe Hegsef forced him out. Some say the military's leadership gaps are becoming dangerous. Others suggest Hegsef could soon be fired. In MS Now, Jeff McCoslund said Driscoll is the first Washington casualty of the Iran war. Driscoll was highly respected by the Army's uniformed leadership. He established strong working relationships with senior officers, and he was one of the few Trump cabinet officials who showed himself to be willing to work with congressional leaders from both parties.

But in his 18 months in the role, he repeatedly clashed with Defense Secretary Pete Hegsef and leaked reports indicate that he, along with a number of senior officers, had cautioned against extending the Iran conflict. The war with Iran that Hegsef strongly advocated for looks more and more like a strategic disaster, and Driscoll's departure is more evidence that the defense secretary is seeking to surround himself with loyalists. Trump frequently referred to Driscoll as his drone guy because of his advocacy for the military to rapidly embrace emerging battlefield technologies. Many of these initiatives, however, were rebuffed by Hegsef. It's telling that late last year, Trump sent Driscoll, not the defense secretary, to be his primary envoy for bilateral negotiations

with the Russians and subsequent talks with the Ukrainians. Hegsef at that time was in Washington, negotiating an end to the Pentagon's relationship with the Boy Scouts. That contrasts between Driscoll and Hegsef, and the news that it's Driscoll who's gone, should give every American concern. In Bloomberg, James Stavritus argued, Hegzeth has turned the army into a rudderless ship. Driscoll was widely admired and supported by the top army leadership. He had taken a leading role in efforts to modernize the service using the lessons learned on the battlefields of Ukraine. He is a decorated combat veteran who led a cavalry platoon in Iraq and is also a graduate of Yale Law School.

service secretaries are critical links in the basic functioning of the Pentagon. They are political appointees at the heart of the big decisions on the personnel, budgets, new technology, training, and the warfighting ethos. These are not simply ceremonial jobs. Hegsef may have individual reasons for the departures of so many senior leaders across the services, and he has sapped morale by denying the advancements of younger officers who had been selected for promotion to one-star admiral or general. But this latest damage to a major department in the middle of combat operations is stunning.

Clearly, Hexeth needs to nominate a stable team of new army leaders, get them confirmed by Congress, and give them steady support. He simply cannot try to run the massive department himself. That is too heavy a lift for a Secretary of Defense, even in peacetime. In CNN, Aaron Blake suggested Hexeth's problems are getting harder to ignore. It increasingly seems that Hegsef could be a political problem for the Trump administration. Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina, who was a crucial vote to confirm the Defense Secretary last year, said he had, quote, never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country, end quote. Other Republicans haven't called for Hexeth's exit, but have raised concerns about what's happening at the Pentagon.

Those concerns have often come from high places, including chairman of both the Senate and Howell, House Armed Services Committees and other committees, the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and several senators who voted to confirm Hegsef. That's a lot, and it doesn't even include Hegset's sharing of highly sensitive information about impending military strikes on the unclassified app signal. Amid a series of controversies and an unpopular Iran war that doesn't look like it's ending anytime soon, Hegsaith is certainly trending toward and battled status. Okay, that is it for what the right and left are saying. So now I'm going to pass it over to Isaac for his take.

All right, that is it for the left and the right are saying, which brings us to my take. Dan Driscoll's resignation is the latest in a long, winding series of concerning stories coming out of the Pentagon. And they all come back to Defense Secretary Pete Hegsef. I've been candid about my feelings on Pete Hegsef. I don't dismiss him as merely a Fox News news. hosts. He served two tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has a bronze star and he earned a master of public policy from Harvard. Instead, I've argued that Hegsef is simply unremarkable. As I said during his nomination process, Hegseff represents the opposite of a meritocracy. He is only there because

the president liked how he comported himself in front of cameras. Hegsef tried to play up the dust on his boots from serving in combat as unique, as if nearly all of all of the president. his predecessors weren't also veterans and far more experienced and decorated. His managerial record is far more pertinent and insightful. After all, the DoD has 2.9 million employees and a trillion dollar budget. That record was abysmal before, and it's worse now. This man was never qualified to lead a department of this size or importance. If you don't agree, just look at what has happened since he has taken the job all leading up to Driscoll's resignation. In February 2025, shortly after assuming office, Hegsef and Trump began clearing house. The biggest early firing was Air Force General Charles

CQ Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff over what Hegseff described as Brown's support of DEI initiatives in the armed forces. Brown had been confirmed as the nation's highest ranking military officer and the principal military advisor to the president in an 83 to 11 Senate vote, just a year and a half before. Hegsteth then announced he would dismiss Admiral Lisa Franchetti, chief of U.S. naval operations, and General James Slife, the Air Force's vice chief of staff, as well as the judge-advocates general,

the military's top lawyers for the Army, Navy, and Air Force. In March, shortly before four U.S. soldiers went missing on a training mission, all four were later found dead. The signal controversy broke. National Security Advisor Mike Walts had accidentally added the Atlantic's editor-in-chief to a signal chat where top military officials, including Hegsef, were discussing forthcoming strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

Roughly two hours later, the first strikes killed 53 people, including civilians and children. An inspector general report later found that the signal situation put soldiers at risk, though Hegsef insisted he hadn't shared classified information. We'd find out even later that Heg-Seth was also sharing sensitive military information in a separate signal chat that included his wife. wife, brother, and personal lawyer. In April, three Pentagon Aides, Senior Advisor Dan Caldwell, Deputy Chief of Staff, Darren Selnick, and Colin Carroll, had been fired amid investigations into

unauthorized leaks from the department. The three issued a joint statement accusing unnamed officials of slandering them. Hegsef conceded that the investigation was ongoing when they were fired and admitted it may have exonerated them. Then, John Oliott, a die-hard Trump supporter and former top aide of Hegsef argued in a public op-ed that the president needed to fire Hegeset, writing that the Pentagon was in disarray under Hegsaith's leadership. This was particularly notable, given that Ulyat had once insisted Hegsaith was the right man for the job. Then, Hegset's term hit the 100-day mark. By June of 2025, we started dropping bombs on Iran, our first new conflict without all the leaders

Heg-Seth had fired or forced out. Then we started striking alleged Venezuelan drug boats in the Caribbean, which have since extrajudicially killed dozens of supposed drug traffickers. A recent report from the Drug Enforcement Agency showed the supply of cocaine to the U.S. has not been impacted. Then we had the Pentagon Anthropic blowup in which a leading AI company refused to give the DoD unfettered access to its systems. In response, Trump directed every federal agency to cease their use of anthropic products,

and Hegsef designated Anthropica supply chain risk, which could have destroyed the company, had a federal judge, not struck it down on First Amendment grounds. Speaking of the First Amendment, Hegsef has also imposed a series of escalating restrictions on Pentagon reporters. He's designated the Defense Department press office as a classified space off limits to journalists,

required reporters to sign a pledge not to report unauthorized information, and threatened to revoke the credentials of those who didn't comply. Major media outlets refused, used to sign the pledge, but many sycophantic news influencers stayed aboard. The New York Times sued, and a federal judge ruled parts of the policy unconstitutional. Just recently, the Pentagon fired three journalists from the federally funded but notoriously independent military news site stars and stripes after the journalists spoke out about the

editorial independence of the paper being threatened. Heg Seth has reportedly allowed his wife, a former Fox News producer, to sit in on sensitive meetings with foreign military officials. His brother was hired to a senior advisory position. Meanwhile, Hegsef has taken extraordinary effort to demote or pause the promotions of dozens of service members. At least 20 generals, admirals, and civilian defense leaders have left their jobs, the most recent of whom was Driscoll.

After Driscoll's resignation, Senator Tom Tillis, the Republican from North Carolina, who previously chaired the Personnel and Readiness Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services, criticize Hegsaith's management. I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country, Tillis said. He is intimidated by competence and retreats to ginning up culture war instead of soberly attending the vital work of our national defense

and the health and well-being of our fighting force. Tillis, by the way, voted to confirm Hegsev for the job in 2025. The trade-off for all of this chaos was supposed to be a new era for our military, a singular focus on lethality, a fighting force that wins. We were told that by getting rid of dusty old bureaucratic leaders, military lawyers, DEI, and anything woke, we'd unleash the full force of America's military might. And yet, the single most consequential military engagement the Trump administration has waded into hasn't evoked might. Maybe it's too much to say we're losing the war in Iran, but we are certainly not winning. By June of this year, Trump had claimed the

war with Iran was nearly over. at least 37 times. 18 service members have now died since the war started. Thousands of Iranians have been killed and American airstrikes have now hit a girl's school and a wedding. The old Iranian regime has been replaced, but the newer one isn't much better. The Pentagon eventually articulated its core four goals of the war. Destroy Iran's missile capabilities, annihilate its navy, prevent nuclear weapons, and stop regional proxies, all of which are incomplete. Gas prices hit a Labor Day record, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz continues to be restricted, and reporting from all across the media suggests our weapon stockpiles are depleting to concerning lows,

so much so that we'd have trouble confronting China or Russia in the event of a sudden conflict. This is Hegstaff's high testosterone anti-woke military, and it's the one Driscoll objected to. Driscoll, for his part, is leaving at a time that the U.S. Army is fending off some of the most serious missile attacks from Iran on its Middle East basis yet. Meanwhile, both the Army and Navy are without a Senate-confirmed civilian leader, since Hegsetth fired Naval Secretary John Feelein in April. In January 2025, when considering whether Hegseth could help fix what ails the Pentagon,

I said this, quote, I don't see any reason to believe Hegset, who as a leader of several smaller, less complicated organizations, has been followed by allegations of poor leadership, disorganization, sexual misconduct, poor financial management, and drunkenness, is the right person to solve these issues, end quote. I didn't want to be proven right, but I have been. And this isn't an issue I only care about under Trump.

During the Biden administration, I called for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to be fired after he underwent surgery for prostate cancer, hid the operation from the administration, and spent three days AWOL in the hospital. As I said then, this position is too important to accept deception or mediocrity. Drisco's resignation is only the latest warning shot about the issues facing our military. The only question now is how long it'll take before the commander-in-chief does something about it. We'll be right back after this quick break. All right, that is it for my take, which brings us to your questions answered.

This one's from Tyler in London, England. Hello, Tyler, from London. Tyler said, I recently used AI to research prior legislation and draft a well-informed letter to my MP about cage-free, enriched-cage-hen welfare standards. It let me sound like I actually knew the policy landscape and I received a response. But I can also see AI enabling mass-produced form letters that flood MPs or members of Congress's inboxes with low-effort noise. Where do you land?

Does AI raise the average quality of constituent engagement and lower the bar for writing a letter, or does it just increase volume until it drowns out signal? Okay, so concern about technology obliterate. a democratic process, including contacting congressional representatives, is nothing new. In the late 90s, some senators were concerned that email would make it hard to connect with constituents. Senator Phil Graham's press secretary lamented in 1998 that their office didn't have a mechanism for dealing with the potential volume of email correspondence. Those concerns proved present, as email would radically change senators' communication with constituents.

In 1995, congressional staffers reported their offices received 50 million pieces of correspondence a year. By 2004, that exploded to 200 million, about 90% of which was email, and staffs adjusted by employing templates to respond to emails in bulk. AI is likely to change the way staffs interact with constituents again, but that impact will likely be much smaller than the paradigm shift provided by the Internet. So far, generative AI has not measurably changed how congressional staff corresponds with constituents, either quantitatively or qualitatively. They still receive a lot of correspondence, batch it so members of Congress can understand the breadth of concern on a topic, then choose some missives that warrant a response. Maybe you'll be more likely to garner a response

if you use AI to help you draft a thoughtful letter, but uses like that probably won't transform constituent correspondence much. Instead, AI is likely to have a larger impact on Congress's legislation drafting process. As Gizmodo recently reported, the Office of Legislative Council, or OLC, which helps draft legislation, receive 72% more drafting requests over the first 60 days of this Congress than it had over the same period two years prior, citing AI as a driver of the increase. OLC staffers said requests were low quality and riddled with errors. All right, that is it for your questions answered. I'm going to send it back to Will for the rest of the pod and I'll see you guys tomorrow. Have a good one. Peace.

Thanks, Isaac. Here is today's under the radar story. On Sunday, the far right alternative for Germany AFD party won 44% of the vote in the German state of Saxony-Anholz elections, its highest vote share ever in a state election. AFD did not win enough parliamentary seats for a majority, but it could surpass the threshold through a coalition with another party. German politics have widely condemned Ulrich Siegmund, AFD's lead candidate for the state's premiership, over his rhetoric about the Nazis and the Holocaust, while AFD, as an organization,

has called for mass deportations and greater government control over educational and media institutions. Axios has more on the election results, and we'll drop a link in the show notes. Finally, here's today's Habanice Day story. In the early 2000s, vulture populations and the future, South Asia dropped precipitously due to a then-unknown cause. Eventually, it was discovered that the

culprit was a new drug that farmers were giving their cattle, and a vulture-safe alternative was created. Due to the new drug, as well as sustained effort from India, Pakistan, and Nepal, the vulture population has stabilized. Going forward, organizations like saving Asia's vultures from extinction hope to continue the work and allow for the recovery of vulture populations. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has this story, and we'll drop a link to it in today's show notes. That's all from us today. Thanks as always for being with us, and we're excited to talk to you more tomorrow. Until then, have a great day. And...

Peace! Our executive editor and founder is me. Isaac Saul, and our executive producer is John Wall. Today's episode was edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Our editorial staff is led by managing editor Ari Weitzman with senior. editor Will Kback and associate editors Audrey Moorehead and Bailey Saul. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. To learn more about Tangle and to sign up for a membership,

please visit our website at retangle.com.