WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has blocked or delayed promotions for more than a dozen senior officers — including multiple Black and female officers — across the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, according to nine U.S. officials familiar with the process. Some officials say those officers appear to have been targeted because of their race, gender or perceived alignment with Biden-era policies or officials.
Promotion boards within each service are designed to advance the most qualified candidates. Hegseth’s interventions have alarmed leaders inside the services and at the White House, the officials said. “There is not a single service that has been immune to this level of involvement by Hegseth,” one official said.
Two officials said there is particular concern that Hegseth is blocking or stalling officers from reaching general and flag ranks because of opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Officials also said Hegseth may be singling out officers he views as aligned with Biden administration policies or certain senior officers, such as former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley.
On Thursday, Hegseth fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, whose expected four-year term would have run through September 2027. George had sought a meeting with Hegseth to discuss the blocking of promotions for some Army officers — reportedly focused on women and Black men — but Hegseth declined to meet, two additional officials said.
Hegseth, who last year declared an end to “woke” culture at the Defense Department and has criticized DEI initiatives, has publicly accused the military of prioritizing diversity over merit. Officials said not all promotions for women or minority officers have been blocked during his tenure, but several have been.
The military branches either did not comment or referred questions to the Pentagon. A Defense Department spokesperson and the White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this article.
Officials said Hegseth has cited attributes such as past support for COVID-19 vaccine or mask mandates, ties to DEI programs, or perceived affiliation with the Biden administration as reasons for heightened scrutiny. An officer’s association with Milley can also make them susceptible to review by Hegseth’s office, officials said. “I think there is not consistency being applied to the standards,” one official said.
In recent weeks, Hegseth blocked three Marine officers expected to be promoted or appointed — two women and a Black man — despite Marine Corps leaders recommending them and no internal investigations that would justify removal, five officials said. A list of Navy officers selected for promotion to one-star admiral has sat on Hegseth’s desk for more than a month, three officials said; some worry names on the list could be removed because of race or gender. Hegseth has also blocked promotions for several senior naval officers, and pulled names from Air Force promotion lists, officials said. Some of those affected are women or members of racial minority groups.
Normally, each service convenes a board to select candidates for promotion; lists for one- and two-star ranks are then sent to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the defense secretary’s office, the White House and ultimately the Senate. Three- and four-star promotions are typically processed individually through the same chain. Defense secretaries traditionally do not remove officers from promotion lists or reject service recommendations, officials said.
By law, the president has the primary authority to block promotions. If a promotion is pulled before being transmitted to the White House, a reason must be provided — such as an open investigation or misconduct allegation. Officials said those removed from promotion lists in these cases did not have open investigations.
This year the Army’s list of roughly 30 officers slated for one-star promotion reached the White House in mid-March and went to the Senate on Monday only after Hegseth struck four names from it, five officials said. Hegseth removed two women and two Black officers; the list that moved forward still included some women and minority officers. “If there are no open allegations or investigations, what was the reason they were removed from the list?” one official asked. “They have all deployed and done their jobs, and all are combat-tested.”
Defense Department data from 2024 show 80% of active-duty service members are male; overall, 67% are white and 18% are Black. About 80% of active-duty officers are male; 74% of officers are white and 9% are Black.
During Hegseth’s tenure, several top officers have been removed, including former Joint Chiefs Chairman CQ Brown Jr., a Black man, and former Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti, a white woman. From Hegseth’s perspective, officials said, they were not aligned with the Trump administration’s priorities.
A retired senior officer described the promotion process as rigorous and warned that secretarial meddling without explanation could erode trust. “Our officer corps trusts our promotion process,” the retired officer said, adding that unexplained intervention “will certainly cast a shadow across our officer corps that everything they have said, done and written about during their careers could be politicized in a career-ending manner with the stroke of a pen.”