2 months ago
Pete Hegseth, nan US defense secretary, is reportedly attempting to artifact nan subject promotion of 4 officers – 2 women and 2 Black men – to go one-star generals.
The remaining promotion database includes astir 3 twelve officers, astir of whom are achromatic men, though a fewer women and Black officers are still included, according to nan New York Times.
Hegseth has asked service leaders, including Dan Driscoll, nan caput of nan army, to region nan officers’ names, nan study said. After Driscoll reportedly refused to do so, citing nan officers’ decades-long, exemplary records, Hegseth removed nan 4 officers’ names himself, though it is unclear whether he has nan authority to do so. Per subject policy, according to nan Times, nan defense caput is technically only expected to o.k. aliases cull nan full database – to support nan military’s serviceman corps from being politicized.
The resulting list, pinch Hegseth’s exclusions, is being reviewed by nan White House earlier being sent to nan Senate for last approval. The names of officers connected one-star lists are expected to stay confidential until Senate approval.
The main Pentagon spokesperson, Sean Parnell, told nan Guardian successful an email that nan New York Times’s reporting was “full of clone news”.
“Under Secretary Hegseth, subject promotions are fixed to those who person earned them. Meritocracy, which reigns successful this Department, is apolitical and unbiased,” he said.
Ricky Buria, Hegseth’s main of staff, besides called nan study “completely false”.
Hegseth’s tenure arsenic caput of nan Pentagon has been marked by his crusade against a civilization that he describes arsenic having been shaped by “foolish” and “woke” leaders from erstwhile administrations. Though successful September he said that promotions would nary longer beryllium based connected “immutable characteristics aliases quotas”, he himself has seemingly highly scrutinized nan merits of non-white, non-male officers.
“For excessively long, we’ve promoted excessively galore azygous leaders for nan incorrect reasons – based connected their race, based connected gender quotas, based connected historical alleged firsts,” he said successful a reside last November.
Last year, he reassigned Vice Admiral Yvette Davids, nan first female to lead nan US naval academy, and dismissed different navy vice admiral, Shoshana Chatfield, arsenic nan US subject typical to nan Nato subject committee and dismissed nan navy admiral Linda Fagan arsenic main of naval operations. He pledged to region female officers from combat and banned trans group from serving successful nan military.
This is not nan first promotion that has caused clash since nan caller management took agency successful 2025. Last summer, Maj Gen Antoinette R Gant was selected to bid nan Military District of Washington. Reportedly, Buria told Driscoll that Trump would not want to guidelines adjacent to a Black female serviceman astatine subject events. Driscoll pushed back, insisting that nan “president is not a racist aliases sexist”, according to nan Times. Buria denied nan relationship of nan interaction, nan Times reported.
“This is wholly false. Whoever placed this made up communicative is intelligibly trying to sow section among our ranks successful nan Department and nan administration,” Buria wrote via email successful a connection to nan Guardian. “It’s not going to work, and it will ne'er activity erstwhile this Department is led by clear-eyed, ngo driven leaders unfazed by Washington gossip.”
In Hegseth’s 2024 book, The War connected Warriors, he wrote: “The Left captured nan subject quickly, and we must reclaim it astatine a faster pace. We must costs a frontal assault. A swift counterattack successful wide daylight.”
