Pete Hegseth’s block on promotions for senior female and Black officers is just the tip of the iceberg of Pentagon discrimination, sources have told the Daily Beast.
The secretary of defense has embarked on a demotion rampage targeting women and Black men while touting his “warrior ethos” makeover of the military.
The demotions result from the purge of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from the DOD, in compliance with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in March last year.
The president blasted the Pentagon as “too woke,” and agencies across the department were ordered to cull DEI material.
But Hegseth apparently took it upon himself to block and, in some cases, demote key personnel as a part of his DEI “whitewashing.”
“Females and people of color have been targeted,” one insider told the Daily Beast. “They have lost jobs, had promotions denied, and been demoted. Most feel unjustly treated.”
As well as demoting minority and female service members deemed to have been promoted wrongly as a result of DEI, sources told NBC that Hegseth had blocked or delayed promotions for over 12 Black and women senior officers in the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, and the Marines.
Some whose advancement has been blocked were linked to the Pentagon’s policies under the Biden administration.
Senior officers are said to be furious over reports that the Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Randy George, was fired on Thursday because he had tackled Hegseth on his moves to block the promotions of some officers on grounds of gender or race.
The DEI material removed last year—including photos of baseball legend Jackie Robinson, the Tuskegee Airmen, and the Navajo Code Talkers—was later replaced after Pentagon officials conceded they had gone too far.
But sources told the Daily Beast that demotions of women and Black men have continued.
U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, former U.S. military representative to the NATO Military Committee, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to serve as the highest-ranking officer of the U.S. Navy, and Adm. Linda Fagan, the first woman to lead the U.S. Coast Guard, and Gen. Charles Brown Jr., the first Black chief of staff of the Air Force and the second Black general to serve as chairman, were all axed last year.
The Pentagon’s first-ever Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer under Joe Biden, Rep. Gil Cisneros, told Congress last August: “As a person of color, or as a woman, you have to perform twice as good as your counterparts.
“Women outperform their counterparts in the junior ranks, but do not rise up to the more senior ranks. People of color, especially Latinos and Asians in the officer ranks, as the promotions go up, their group becomes less and less and less, while it goes up for white officers. You know, 95 percent of our flag and general officer corps is still 95 percent white men. Why are our senior officer ranks not representative of our nation, as our junior ranks are?”
Asked for comment, the DOD referred the Daily Beast to a statement from chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, who said: “This story, like many others from the Failing New York Times, is full of fake news from anonymous sources who have no idea what they’re talking about and are far removed from actual decision-makers within the Pentagon. Under Secretary Hegseth, military promotions are given to those who have earned them. Meritocracy, which reigns in this Department, is apolitical and unbiased.“
The Pentagon added a statement from “Department of War” Chief of Staff Ricky Buria, who said: “This is completely false. Whoever placed this made up story is clearly trying to sow division among our ranks in the Department and the administration. It’s not going to work, and it will never work when this Department is led by clear-eyed, mission driven leaders unfazed by Washington gossip.”
Hegseth, 45, served in the National Guard, reaching the rank of major before leaving active drilling status. He spent almost a decade at Fox News, where he was a frequent cheerleader for Trump before the president picked him to be the nation’s defense secretary.
While his leadership of the Pentagon has been plagued by scandals like Signalgate and widely criticized for perceived ineptitude, his overhaul of the department has won praise from some Trump-friendly figures.
“I don’t think the thinning has gone far enough,” Blackwater founder and GOP donor Erik Prince said of the 20 percent reduction Hegseth ordered in the number of four-star officers.
“We have about the same level of flag officers today that we did in World War Two, but we have 10 percent of the troops. So in an era of digital instantaneous communications, you have an extremely bloated top end organization.”
Force Recon Marine Chad Robichaux agreed, telling a conference last week: “It doesn’t matter what equipment, what technology we have. If we don’t have the right men and women, the best and brightest of our nation, raising the hand to serve, then we’re not ready.”
