A top aide to Pete Hegseth informed a senior Army official that President Donald Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events, according to a report.
Ricky Buria, chief of staff to the defense secretary, made the shocking remark to Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll last summer while blasting the promotion of Maj. Gen. Antoinette Gant to lead the Military District of Washington, sources told The New York Times.
In the role, Gant—who is Black—would perform ceremonial duties in Washington, D.C., including appearing alongside Trump at Arlington National Cemetery.
Driscoll was taken aback by Buria’s suggestion that Trump would rather not stand beside a Black female officer. “The president is not a racist or sexist,” he told Hegseth’s aide, according to the Times.
Despite pushback from some in the Pentagon, Gant was handed command of the Military District of Washington in July 2025 and was promoted to two-star rank earlier last month.
Gant also appeared alongside Trump at a wreath-laying ceremony at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery to mark Veterans Day on Nov. 11.
Buria, a Biden administration holdover who was appointed as Hegseth’s chief of staff in December after the White House blocked him from the position for months over his past criticism of Donald Trump and JD Vance, described the claims about what he told Driscoll as “completely false.”
“Whoever placed this made-up story is clearly trying to sow division among our ranks in the department and the administration,” he told the Daily Beast.
“It’s not going to work, and it will never work when this department is led by clear-eyed, mission-driven leaders unfazed by fake Washington gossip.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not address the alleged remarks when approached for comment.
“The president is proud to serve as Commander in Chief of the most powerful military in the world, and he is incredibly proud of the Americans from all walks of life who selflessly choose to serve our country in uniform,” Leavitt told the Daily Beast. “Secretary Hegseth is doing a tremendous job restoring meritocracy throughout the ranks at the Pentagon.”
The claims about Buria’s remarks appeared in a wider Times report suggesting Hegseth took the unusual step of blocking the promotion of four Army officers to one-star general because they are either Black or women.
It is unclear why Hegseth ordered Driscoll to remove the four officers from the list of generals in line for promotion. Military officials told the Times that one of the female officers had served during the chaotic 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan under the Biden administration.
Hegseth has previously blasted the withdrawal of U.S. troops, which left 13 U.S. service members dead, as “disastrous and embarrassing,” and vowed to hold officers he deemed responsible to account.
The former Fox & Friends Weekend host has also waged a campaign against what he sees as the “woke” decay of the U.S. military and pushed directives targeting everyone from transgender service members to those who cannot meet “male-level” physical fitness standards.
“No more identity months, DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] offices, dudes in dresses,” Hegseth said during a September 2025 speech in front of several hundred officers at Marine Corps Base Quantico. “No more climate change worship, no more division, distraction, or gender delusions. No more debris.
“As I’ve said before, and will say again, we are done with that s--t.”
As noted by the Times, during his tenure as defense secretary Hegseth has also fired or sidelined senior Black military officials. In the current Trump administration, the chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all five service chiefs, and nine of the military’s 10 combatant commanders are white men.
“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,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.
“Under Secretary Hegseth, military promotions are given to those who have earned them. Meritocracy, which reigns in this Department, is apolitical and unbiased.”
