Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed nine Navy officers from a promotion list last month, eliminating all women and several Black service members from consideration for advancement to one-star admiral positions. The intervention left a final slate of 22 nominees that is entirely male and overwhelmingly white.
The original list contained three women and two Black officers. After Hegseth's removal of nine names, only two Black officers remained among the nominees being sent to the Senate for confirmation. Navy officials had expressed confidence in all the candidates on the initial promotion list, according to sources familiar with the matter, and Hegseth provided no explanation for the deletions.
The action represents an unusual assertion of power by the defense secretary. Senior military officials typically conduct an up-and-down vote on promotion lists rather than removing individual names, and Hegseth's intervention stripped autonomy from Navy leadership. One former military official described the approach as "meddling on an individual basis" in a process meant to operate independently.
A government source characterized Hegseth's methodology bluntly, saying he "went through the list and scrubbed a few names" based on "his favorite MOS's, and then gender and race." The Pentagon has denied that removals were based on demographic factors, with chief spokesman Sean Parnell stating that "military promotions are given to those who have earned them" and that the department will not consider race or gender in advancement decisions.
The Navy promotion action echoes a similar intervention in March involving Army promotion candidates, in which Hegseth directed Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to remove two women and two Black officers from a slate of nominees for one-star general positions. Both moves align with the Trump administration's stated goal of eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the military.
Hegseth has repeatedly criticized diversity initiatives in the armed forces. Speaking to military commanders in Virginia last September, he stated that the military has "promoted too many uniform leaders for the wrong reasons based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called firsts." He framed merit-based advancement as central to his leadership approach.
The composition of the final Navy promotion list bears little resemblance to the force the new admirals will oversee. Current Navy personnel include more than 21 percent women and nearly 40 percent who identify as members of racial minority groups, according to 2024 government data. The all-male, predominantly white slate of nominees sharply diverges from those demographics.
Among those remaining on the promotion list is Captain Sean Barbabella, who serves as President Donald Trump's White House physician. Barbabella declared Trump in "excellent health" despite recent photographs showing the president with visible swelling in his ankles and bruising on his hands.
Hegseth's personnel actions extend well beyond promotion list modifications. Since his confirmation as defense secretary, he has fired or sidelined nearly three dozen senior military officers. Most prominently, he dismissed Admiral Lisa Franchetti as chief of naval operations and reassigned Vice Admiral Yvette Davids, the first woman to lead the U.S. Naval Academy, and Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield from her role as U.S. military representative to the NATO military committee. The Guardian reported that approximately 60 percent of the officers Hegseth has removed or reassigned are women or Black.
Coast Guard Commandant Linda Fagan, who served for 37 years, was dismissed on January 20, 2025, the first day of Trump's second term, four days before Hegseth's Senate confirmation vote.
These moves are part of a broader Trump administration initiative to reshape the military, which has included efforts to restrict women from combat roles and block transgender service members from serving. A federal appeals court in Washington delivered a significant setback to these efforts on Monday, ruling that the government acted illegally in attempting to dismiss transgender service members. That decision is expected to reach the Supreme Court.
Author James Rodriguez: "Hegseth is running promotions like a political patronage system, and the Navy's leadership is being hollowed out to match an ideology, not merit."
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