Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unilaterally removed four Army officers from a promotion list to become one-star generals — two Black men and two women — from a list of approximately 36 officers, most of whom are white men. The New York Times reported the story on March 27, 2026, citing 11 current and former military and administration officials.
Hegseth had been pressing Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll for months to remove the officers' names. Driscoll repeatedly refused, citing the officers' “decades-long records of exemplary service.” Hegseth broke the impasse by striking the names himself before the list was sent to the White House — an action that appears to violate military regulations. Under Pentagon rules, the Defense Secretary can only accept or reject an entire promotion list. He cannot selectively remove individual names. This protocol exists specifically “to prevent discrimination and prejudice.” This appears to be the first time a Defense Secretary has attempted to remove individual officers.
One removed officer was a Black armor officer and combat veteran, targeted for writing a paper nearly 15 years ago analyzing why African American officers historically opted for support roles over combat positions. A female logistics officer was targeted because she served during the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal.
In a separate but related incident, Hegseth's chief of staff Ricky Buria told Army Secretary Driscoll that “President Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events” — attempting to block the promotion of Maj. Gen. Antoinette R. Gant. Driscoll pushed back, responding: “The president is not a racist or sexist.” Driscoll escalated to the White House, which agreed with him. Gant was ultimately promoted — and appeared alongside Trump at Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day. Buria denied making the statement, but 11 sources corroborated the account to the NYT.
Hegseth appointed retired Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata — previously blocked from Senate confirmation for Islamophobic comments and calling Obama a “terrorist leader” — to lead Pentagon personnel overhaul. Tata works with former Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, who pleaded guilty to six charges including dereliction of duty for criticizing military leaders over Afghanistan. These two reviewed the promotion lists.
Hegseth has been open about his views. At a September 2025 speech at Quantico, he told 800+ military leaders that too many generals were promoted “because of their race or sex” and called it “completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals.” Under his leadership, all service chiefs and nine of ten combatant commanders are now white men.
The pattern continued into the Navy. On June 1, 2026, HuffPost and the New York Times reported that Hegseth blocked the promotions of at least seven officers to the Navy's one-star admiral list. Of the 22 nominees who advanced, none were women and only two were not white. It echoed his March move against the Army officers, and the Wall Street Journal reported he had by then fired or blocked the promotions of at least two dozen admirals and generals. Hegseth has separately pushed to promote Capt. William Francis Jr., a Navy SEAL repeatedly passed over by prior boards. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), ranking member of Senate Armed Services, said the intervention “would run counter to the law, longstanding practice, and tradition that accessions and promotions within the military services be based on 'individual merit and demonstrated performance.'” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the department “will never consider the color of a service member's skin or their gender as a factor in promotions.”
Update (September 29, 2026): the NAACP, the National Women's Law Center and 31 other organizations wrote to Hegseth on September 16, in a letter released on September 28, that he has “reportedly blocked at least 40 senior officers—approximately half of whom were women or people of color—from promotions,” compiling reporting from the New York Times and The Hill across the Navy, Army, Marine Corps and Air Force. It cites Times reporting that women's share of high-ranking promotion nominations is at its lowest in more than two decades. “We call on you to comply with congressional requests for oversight,” the groups wrote, calling the reported interference “a grave abuse of power at the expense of women and officers of color.” The letter is a compilation of prior reporting, much of it from anonymous sources. Pentagon spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson: “This is a lie, and we have said so repeatedly.”
Related entries: The Army Secretary Resigned Mid-War Over Hegseth's Purge, Leaving the Largest Service With No Senate-Confirmed Leader, Civilian or Uniformed.