Hegseth struck two Black men and two women from Army one-star general promotion list
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unilaterally struck four Army colonels — two Black men and two women — from a roughly three-dozen-name list recommended for promotion to brigadier general, removals revealed March 27, 2026 by the New York Times; the majority of the remaining names are white men. Army leadership, including Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, had refused Hegseth's requests for months before he crossed the names off himself earlier in March, and it is unclear he has legal authority to do so. Neither the Pentagon nor the White House has offered any performance-based rationale for the removals.
Actors
- Pete Hegseth
- U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Secretary
An Army promotion board recommended roughly three dozen colonels for promotion to brigadier general. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pressed Army leadership for months to remove four of them — two Black men and two women — and was repeatedly refused, including by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll. Earlier in March 2026, Hegseth crossed the four names off the list himself while it sat in White House review before transmission to the Senate; the removals became public on March 27, 2026 through New York Times reporting, which NPR independently confirmed. Ordinarily a defense secretary accepts or rejects a promotion list in full, and senior officials told reporters it is not clear Hegseth has legal authority to remove individual names himself.
Neither the Defense Department nor the White House has offered any explanation grounded in the officers' performance or records. Among those struck were a Black armor officer singled out for having written a paper about Black officers' choices of branch, and a woman removed because she served during the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal. The majority of the roughly three dozen names remaining on the list are white men. NPR further reported that two additional colonels from a different branch — one Black and one female — were also taken off the promotion list. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell called the reporting "fake news," saying promotions under Hegseth are earned and "apolitical and unbiased."
The intervention fits a documented pattern of demographic line-drawing in the officer corps under Hegseth, who has said the military promoted "too many uniform leaders for the wrong reasons — based on their race, based on gender quotas." The administration previously fired Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. CQ Brown and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy's first female top officer, and Hegseth went on to strike nine officers — including all three women — from the Navy's one-star admiral list in May 2026. A board-vetted, service-endorsed promotion slate altered by the secretary along race and gender lines, over the service's objection and with no stated cause, treats the military's merit-based promotion system as an instrument of political and demographic preference.
Why we recorded this
Federal law vests military promotion authority in service boards that evaluate officers on merit; the Secretary of Defense accepts or rejects a slate in full, not individual names. NPR and the New York Times reported the four removed officers were two Black men and two women, with no performance rationale offered. The Pentagon disputed this, calling the promotions "apolitical and unbiased." Hegseth has publicly stated he opposes promotions "based on their race, based on gender quotas," and the removals followed that stated agenda. A secretary who overrules a merit board over the Army's objection, striking officers whose documented distinguishing characteristics are their race and sex, has used the appointment power to discriminate — a claim the Pentagon contests.
Sources
- Hegseth blocked 2 Black and 2 female soldiers from promotions — NPR primary accessed June 7, 2026
- Hegseth stopped promotions of Black and female soldiers — NPR primary accessed June 7, 2026
- Hegseth reportedly removes 2 Black, 2 female Army officers from 1-star promotion list — Military Times secondary accessed June 7, 2026
- Hegseth has intervened in military promotions for more than a dozen senior officers — NBC News secondary accessed June 7, 2026
See also
- Hegseth strikes nine officers, including all three women, from Navy one-star admiral promotion list
- ICE stationed at Parris Island gates to screen Marine recruits' families during graduation week
- Hegseth cancels 93 military fellowships at elite universities, bars officers from attending
- JTF Southern Spear killed six aboard suspected narcotics vessel in eastern Pacific; 45th strike, ~157 campaign deaths
- Hegseth launches task force to ideologically review the military's senior service colleges