President Trump said on Thursday that he was appointing Adam R. Telle, the official overseeing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to take over as the acting Army secretary, following the resignation of Daniel P. Driscoll earlier this week.
Mr. Driscoll, formerly the civilian leader of the Army, resigned on Monday after clashing repeatedly with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the purge of top generals in the Army. Under the regular chain of command, Michael Obadal, the under secretary of the Army and principal deputy to Mr. Driscoll, would have become acting secretary in Mr. Driscoll’s place.
Mr. Trump has elevated Mr. Telle, the assistant secretary for civil works, which oversees the Army’s public engineering and construction projects. The Army Corps of Engineers is one of the principal agencies involved in building dams, sea walls and other structures meant to reduce flooding. Earlier in the summer, Army engineers erected miles of temporary barriers to protect Juneau, the capital of Alaska, from flooding.
Last year the Trump administration directed the Army Corps of Engineers to fast-track approval of fossil fuel projects like pipelines, mines and power plants as part of Mr. Trump’s demand to increase U.S. oil, gas and coal production.
Before his Army post, Mr. Telle was the chief of staff to Senator Bill Hagerty, Republican of Tennessee. In Mr. Trump’s first term, Mr. Telle served as the president’s chief liaison to the Senate as the head of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs’ Senate team.
