US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has blocked the promotions of two black men and two women nominated for the rank of general, The New York Times reported.
According to the newspaper, these officers were on a list of candidates being considered for the rank of brigadier general (major general). Some Pentagon sources attributed Hegseth's decision to the race and gender of the candidates, rather than their professional merits. They note that the Secretary of Defense has been pushing for months to remove the names of these officers from the promotion list, including to the so-called Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll, but Driscoll has refused.
The publication added that the list of officers nominated for the rank of general includes approximately three dozen names, most of whom are white men. The Pentagon declined to comment on Hegseth’s decision to remove the four individuals from that list.
In early 2025, Hegseth formed an internal task force to dismantle the military’s minority support system, which was in place under President Joe Biden. The group was created to eliminate quotas for positions based on gender, race or ethnicity within the department and to eliminate affirmative action policies that sometimes give white people fewer chances of being hired than members of a particular minority group.