August 23, 2026

Good morning! Today is Sunday, August 23rd 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll is set to exit the Pentagon by year's end amid a broader departure of Vance allies from the administration, fueling speculation about Hegseth's rising star and a possible Vance 2028 campaign. On Day 176 of the Iran War, Tehran declares a shift from defensive to offensive posture as Trump calls the Strait of Hormuz "American territory" and gas prices climb to $4.10 a gallon. Republican lawmakers and cattle producers revolt against Trump's temporary easing of beef import tariffs, with Nebraska's delegation warning the move betrays America's ranchers. and now for the details. We begin at the Pentagon, where Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll is poised to leave the Trump administration by the end of the year. Driscoll, a former Yale Law School student and longtime friend of Vice President J.D. Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance, had at one point been widely tipped as a possible successor to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The Hill has reported a months-long turf war between the two, though tensions had appeared to cool for much of this year. As Curt Mills reports for The American Conservative, Hegseth's standing has been bolstered by his frontline television appearances during the administration's operations against alleged narcoterrorists, the rendition of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and the ongoing Iran War. Chatter about a possible Hegseth presidential run has grown, with the secretary visiting Iowa this week. Mills notes that Driscoll's exit comes alongside a broader wave of departures among close Vance allies. Vance's longtime chief of staff Jacob Reses, national security advisor Andy Baker, and White House legislative affairs director James Braid have all left or are on their way out. Whether this reflects the early scaffolding of a Vance presidential campaign, an internal purge of Vance loyalists, or some combination of both, Mills writes, is not yet clear. Turning overseas, we are now on Day 176 of the Iran War, and Tehran says its military posture has formally shifted from defensive to offensive. Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia told Iranian state media that Iran will respond to any act of aggression immediately and on a broader scale than the aggression itself, though he clarified that Tehran does not intend to launch preemptive attacks. Akraminia described the Strait of Hormuz as a source of decisive geopolitical influence for the Islamic Republic. Iran effectively closed the waterway after the U.S. and Israel launched the current war in late February, though Tehran has now granted Iraq limited permission for some of its oil tankers to transit the strait. As Andrew Day reports for The American Conservative, President Trump described the Strait of Hormuz as, quote, "an American territory" during a campaign rally in South Carolina on Friday. Iran's deputy foreign minister dismissed the claim as delusions. The United States is maintaining a blockade against vessels entering and exiting Iranian ports, and this week Washington escalated threats of economic warfare against Tehran, opening what Day describes as a new phase of the war. Iran's armed forces chief of staff has warned of a devastating response. Meanwhile, at home, AAA reports the average American gasoline price at four dollars and ten cents per gallon on Saturday, up from two ninety-eight on the eve of the war. To the American heartland now, where Republican lawmakers and cattle industry groups are pushing back against President Trump's decision on Friday to temporarily ease tariffs on beef imports. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association said it was disappointed by the move, warning it would undercut America's beef industry. Meriwether Farms, an American beef company, responded on X with a single word: "Betrayal." Trump announced the policy on Truth Social, arguing it would lower food prices amid a shortage in America's beef herd. For the next 90 days, the U.S. will allow up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef to be imported without the out-of-quota tariff, which normally runs 26.4 percent. As Andrew Day reports, Americans are paying about 25 percent more for beef since Trump returned to the White House, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The backlash from GOP lawmakers has been sharp, especially from Nebraska's federal delegation. Senator Deb Fischer wrote that flooding the market with foreign beef hurts the domestic livestock industry and undermines the long-term solution, which is growing the U.S. cattle herd to meet demand. Nebraska, Day notes, is known as "the beef state" because of the industry's importance to its economy. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.