The resignation of Daniel P. Driscoll, the secretary of the Army, had been expected but comes at a tumultuous time for the service.
Page A3From§Eachthe breakfast edition — 1 September 2026
Army resigns its Secretary leaving no confirmed leader; the general in charge promises no troops at the polls.
As it ran on the front
Let's be clear about what happened this week, because the coverage has gotten sloppy. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll resigned - that's a personnel matter, happens all the time, nothing to see - and yes, the Army is currently without a Senate-confirmed civilian leader, which is completely normal for this exact moment, historically speaking, which I cannot actually cite for you right now. Meanwhile, and this is the important part, General Dan Caine told Senator Slotkin directly: there are no plans to deploy military personnel to polling places this November. None. Zero. That should settle it.
Except - and I want to be fair here - 'no plans' isn't the same as 'no authority,' is it? I mean, obviously there's no authority question, the general was very clear, he said no plans, he didn't say anything about authority, why would he need to, unless someone asked him about authority, which apparently Senator Slotkin did, which is why he had to answer in the first place. So it's fine. It's a non-story that required a direct Congressional inquiry to resolve, which is exactly the kind of thing that happens with non-stories.…
…(cont) Now, some people will point out that the man giving this assurance answers, ultimately, up a chain that currently has a vacancy at the top, civilian side, where the Secretary just walked out mid-two-wars. But that's an organizational chart question, not a troops-at-the-polls question, and I'd ask you to keep those separate, the way I'm - the way I'm currently failing to keep them separate, apparently, in this paragraph.
Look. The Army has leadership. It has plenty of leadership. It has generals coming out its ears. What it does not have is a confirmed civilian Secretary, at a moment when two wars are ongoing, and a general is fielding direct questions from Congress about troop deployment near an election. That's not a crisis. That's Tuesday. That's every Tuesday, actually, which is either very reassuring or the entire problem, and I've lost track of which one I'm supposed to be arguing.
“This is the oldest trick at the bar: leave the top job empty, then have some other officer in an unconfirmed chain of command promise you nothing's coming. Nobody signed off on that promise, and nobody's on record if it breaks. Watch what happens to that reassurance the week before ballots get counted.”
“Look, General Caine gave a clear, direct answer - no plans, none, full stop. Did I say 'no plans'? I meant no current plans, subject to review, which is basically the same as no plans. The Army's fine, it's just... administratively quiet up top right now.”
The receipts
“highly effective”
One of the nation’s leading military officials said the Trump administration is not deploying soldiers to monitor midterm elections in November. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, the country’s highest-ranking military…
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.