Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has blocked the promotions of four Army officers — two Black men and two women — to the rank of brigadier general, the New York Times reported Friday.
Hegseth’s actions are in line with the broader Trump administration’s attacks on efforts across the federal government to support and promote the concerns of minority populations — what President Donald Trump and Hegseth have derided as “DEI,” which stands for diversity, equity and inclusion.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell disputed the Times’ reporting, telling the Guardian, “Under Secretary Hegseth, military promotions are given to those who have earned them. Meritocracy, which reigns in this Department, is apolitical and unbiased.”
Neither the Defense Department nor the White House has offered an explanation based on the officers’ performance or record for Hegseth’s decision. About three dozen officers remain on the promotion list, according to the Times; the majority are white men.
“This moment should not be separated from a broader, documented pattern,” Jose Vasquez, executive director of Common Defense and an Army veteran, said in a statement. “Since taking office, Hegseth has fired generals, renamed ships, and systematically targeted women and people of color in uniform. He is not making our military more lethal. He is making it more loyal to him and that is the true threat to national security and military readiness.”
The names of the four officers have not yet been released, but they include a Black armor officer who was singled out for having written a paper about Black officers’ choices to serve in support roles rather than front-line combat, according to the Times. One of the women targeted for exclusion from the promotion list was struck because she served during the U.S. military’s chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, the outlet reported. It is not clear why the other two officers were removed from the list.
Under retired four-star Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, the first Black defense secretary, the Department of Defense made efforts to promote women and minorities into visible positions of power. Austin’s tenure during the Biden administration saw the elevation of Navy Adm. Lisa Franchetti to chief of naval operations, the first woman to serve as the Navy’s top officer and the first to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Air Force Gen. CQ Brown to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the second Black man to hold that position.
Brown and Franchetti, among other top military officers, were fired by Trump in February 2025.That decision left no women in the top ranks of military leadership. In July, Hegseth reassigned Vice Adm. Yvette Davids, the first female head of the U.S. Naval Academy, and fired Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield from her position as the U.S. military’s envoy to NATO’s military committee last April, according to the Guardian. He also dismissed Air Force Lt. Gen. Jennifer Short from her job as senior military assistant to the defense secretary in early 2025.
“The depth of Secretary Hegseth’s prejudice is only overshadowed by the breadth of his incompetence,” said Richard Brookshire, co-founder and co-CEO of the Black Veterans Project. “The Trump administration is intent on instituting a caste system across our military, whereby anyone who isn’t white, male, straight and Christian is deemed less capable and deserving of leading our troops. Americans must all reject his bigoted, nonsensical and dangerous beliefs.”
It’s unclear whether Hegseth overstepped his authority by removing the names of the four from the promotion list himself, according to the Times. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and other Army leadership reportedly refused to remove the names when Hegseth requested they do so. Ordinarily, promotion lists are either accepted or denied in full by the defense secretary, then sent to the president for review before heading to the Senate for confirmation, according to the Times.
