The move marks the latest effort by the Trump administration to exert more control over faculty at service academies.
Page A2From§Eachthe matinee edition — 30 September 2026
Senator says fire Hegseth; he responds by cutting a fifth of general and admiral posts.
As it ran on the front
Here is the calendar entry: three distinct weeks, three men with three different remedies for one Secretary of Defense, and each week he ends up holding more of the building than he started with.
Week one starts Tuesday, September 1. The same paper, on its own, calls Driscoll the latest in a line of officials pushed out under Hegseth; that count belongs to the Examiner, not to a chorus. One day later, Wednesday, September 2, still the same week on any calendar: Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican who sat on Armed Services, tells the President to fire Hegseth over what Tillis calls "inept management." A resignation and a fire-him request, one day apart, one week.…
…(cont) Week two opens two Tuesdays later, September 15. Representative Thomas Massie files articles of impeachment against Hegseth on the floor of the House, citing the Pentagon's strikes on Iran as a war Congress never voted to authorize. A second branch, a second remedy, the same name at the bottom of the filing.
Week three is today, Wednesday, September 30. Hegseth bars the service academies from hiring civilian professors for tenure, the Washington Post reports — taking the hiring pen away from faculties that used to hold it.
Lay the three weeks end to end and the arithmetic does the arguing: every week someone with standing to remove him tries, and every week he adds one more lever instead — the Army's civilian secretary gone, then the professors' hiring authority, then the officer corps itself, a fifth of it, cut on his own signature. A senator can ask. A representative can file. Removal takes a House majority, a two-thirds Senate, or a president who signs the order — and in the same month both requests landed, the man they were filed against used his own microphone to announce he was taking more, not less, of what neither of them controls.
The paperwork asking him to leave keeps arriving. The memo he signs the same week it arrives keeps winning.
“The guy holding the demotion list is also the guy holding the promotion pen, and that's not a management style, that's leverage. Every time somebody with a vote finds the door, he's already moved a wall in front of it — first the Army secretary's job, then the professors' hiring, now a fifth of the generals, all by his own signature. Watch the academies next; the classroom was the last room in the building he didn't already own.”
“Look, cutting the flag officer corps by 20 percent is just fiscal discipline, streamlining, the Secretary's trimming fat the building's carried for years — and restricting tenure at the academies, that's just making sure civilian faculty answer to somebody, which is, okay, that's a Secretary of Defense deciding who teaches cadets, which does sound like more control, not less. Did I say less? That's not what I meant to say.”
Earlier in this story
- Oil named a gift, a grab and a theft in three days; the number stays unnamed. By Ruth · the coffee break edition, 30 September 2026
- States launch emergency measures after a 30-minute operation's 65 billion barrels failed to lower record diesel prices. By Ruth · the early bird edition, 29 September 2026
- Trump brings Venezuelan gold ashore; refiners refuse it as a security threat his own government named. By Ruth · the supper edition, 28 September 2026
- Administration cuts new cars' mileage target by nearly a third, calls it a $138 billion savings for drivers. By Ruth · the matinee edition, 28 September 2026
- Refiners refuse Venezuelan gold from company Washington's own list calls a security threat By Ruth · the coffee break edition, 28 September 2026
- Washington partners with a mining firm it lists as a security threat; gangs already take their cut. By Ruth · the sunrise edition, 28 September 2026
The receipts
The Pentagon has failed its audit eight years running - the only major federal agency never to pass one Military Times, 19 December 2025
Watch live: Hegseth to lay out Pentagon shake-up in State of the Force addressDefense Secretary Pete Hegseth will lay out his priorities for the U.S. military Wednesday during the annual State of the Force address. The speech comes as Hegseth pushes a major shake-up at the Pentagon.
· Tillis urges Trump to fire Hegseth over 'inept management' of military from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· Driscoll’s resignation further intensifies questions surrounding Hegseth from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
· Massie launches effort to impeach Hegseth from the morgue, 15 Sep 2026
· Trump admin's list of US-designated 'foreign terrorist' groups in Latin America expands to 21 from the morgue, 11 Sep 2026
· Top Trump official reveals how 30-minute military op unlocked Venezuela oil windfall for US buyers from the morgue, 11 Sep 2026
· Ex-Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores seeks release from NYC jail, citing heart ailment from the morgue, 11 Sep 2026
· New York City protest once again demands release of Maduro and Flores from the morgue, 11 Sep 2026
· Trump Official Denies Stealing Venezuela's Oil One Hour After Boasting Country is 'Forced to Work' With US from the morgue, 6 Sep 2026
· 'Mobster Language': Trump Says Venezuelan Oil Will Replenish US Reserves from the morgue, 30 Aug 2026
· 'Yet Another Trump Grift': Congress Called to Stop US Takeover of Venezuelan Oil Fields from the morgue, 28 Aug 2026
· The Biggest Oil Deal or Theft at Gunpoint? U.S. Claims Majority Control of Venezuela's Oil Reserves from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
· Tehran threatens attacks after U.S. strikes Iranian tankers from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
· US forces take out 3 Iranian oil tankers in retaliation from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
· Oil prices up as Iran says it will expand control over Strait of Hormuz from the morgue, 8 Sep 2026
· Iran live updates: Trump speaks to MBS, says everything will 'work out fine' from the morgue, 13 Sep 2026
· Iran threatens retaliation against U.S. tanker strikes from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
· U.S. gas prices hit record high for Labor Day from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
· Ship tracking websites, including Kpler, MarineTraffic, and TankerTrackers, show that three Iranian oil tankers, including two from the National Iranian Tanker Company, have escaped the blockade that from the morgue, 17 Jun 2026
· Iranian state media reports that the United States Navy attempted to capture an Iranian oil tanker. The oil tanker was boarded, commandeered and then returned by Iranian NEDSA marines in a helicopter from the morgue, 3 Nov 2021
· US strikes Iranian rocket launchers in first attack since late July from the morgue, 30 Aug 2026
· An Iranian Navy commander claims on state television that the Iranian Navy forced a U.S. submarine to surface as it transited the Strait of Hormuz and that the submarine violated Iranian territorial w from the morgue, 20 Apr 2023
· Trump Threatens to Rename Strait of Hormuz for Himself as War Pushes Diesel Prices Toward Record High from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· Trump floats renaming Strait of Hormuz after himself from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· U.S. strikes targets in Iran near Strait of Hormuz as Iran says it is retaliating from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
· Trump Hammered Over Iran War That Drove Gas Prices Above $4 Per Gallon Every Day in August for First Time Ever from the morgue, 31 Aug 2026
· 'Trump Did It!': At $5.85 a Gallon, Diesel Price Hits All-Time High in US Thanks to War on Iran from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
· Price of diesel in U.S. hits record as Vance downplays Iran war impact from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
· Diesel prices hit record high as wars disrupt supply from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
· Trump vows response to Iran's retaliatory strikes: 'We're going to hit them hard' from the morgue, 31 Aug 2026
· Trump threatens Iran against retaliation for latest U.S. strikes from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
· Live updates: US, Iran ramp up strikes; incumbents hold on in Massachusetts from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· Trump calls Iran conflict "small potatoes" from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
· Labor Day gas prices are highest ever for holiday from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
· How ‘Hypermilers’ Are Trying to Beat High Gas Prices from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
· Fuel prices at record Labor Day high in US thanks to Iran War and refinery issues from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
· Oil Prices Rise Slightly After U.S. and Iran Trade Strikes from the morgue, 6 Sep 2026
· USS Lincoln heads home as war with Iran escalates from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
· Lawler disagrees with Trump on Iran war: 'It is certainly not small potatoes' from the morgue, 6 Sep 2026
· OPEC Plus to Keep Oil Production Steady from the morgue, 6 Sep 2026
· Iran War Has Cost the Average American More Than $1,200 Over Six Months, Economist Estimates from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
· Trump says military conflict in Iran is 'small potatoes for us' from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
· Wright: US has 'a lot of leverage' in Venezuela after oil deal reached from the morgue, 6 Sep 2026
· White House unveils new details of Venezuela agreement from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
· Chris Wright explains how Venezuelan crude will ‘fill’ the Strategic Petroleum Reserve from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
· Energy Secretary Wright says Venezuela oil deal will bring down gas prices in a year or two from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
· Chevron to expand in Venezuela, days after the U.S. and Venezuela strike oil deal from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· Venezuelan oil flows will lower gas prices in 12-24 months, Wright says in Caracas from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· Trump says Venezuelan oil will replenish Strategic Petroleum Reserves from the morgue, 31 Aug 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.