Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Is Blocking Promotions For Black And Women Navy Officers, Too

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been trying his best to make the title “Secretary of War” catch on, but perhaps he’d have better luck calling himself the Secretary of Military Racism and Misogyny, as that descriptor would better apply to what he is and all he has done since becoming a member of President Donald Trump’s white nationalist administration.

Last month, we reported on how he was systematically blocking Black and female service members in the U.S. Army from being promoted, and how he fired the Army’s chief of staff just for calling him out on it. Well, unsurprisingly, Hegseth is playing those same white supremacist patriarchy games with the U.S. Navy.

According to the New York Times, Hegseth recently blocked the promotions of at least seven Navy officers who had been selected by a board of senior Navy admirals. Now, to be fair, three of the service members he removed are white men, but that doesn’t matter much since we all know white men tend to take up the lion’s share of who is being considered for promotion in the first place. But Hegseth also removed at least two women from the list, along with two Black men, leaving the list of 22 nominees to be one-star admirals just as white and male as one would expect.

From the Times:

Mr. Hegseth’s actions, which appear to violate the rules governing a promotion system that is supposed to be apolitical and merit-based, were described by four current and former defense officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters.

No female officers were included on the new one-star list, which was released publicly in late May, despite the fact that women make up about 21 percent of the active-duty Navy. The list appears to include only two nonwhite officers, even though sailors who identify as racial minorities make up about 38 percent of the active-duty Navy.

Mr. Hegseth’s removal of the officers from the one-star list is highly unusual, said the current and former defense officials. According to Pentagon rules, the defense secretary is only supposed to pull officers from the list for moral, mental, physical or professional failings that raise questions about the officers’ fitness to lead.

And there it is…

When Hegseth began arbitrarily blocking Black and female Army veterans from being promoted, I noted that “it is not the Secretary of Defense’s job to be part of the military promotions process,” and that even if it were, “Hegseth had no reason to remove any of his Black and female targets from consideration.” So, why does he keep doing it?

The Times noted that since Hegseth has taken office, he “has fired or sidelined nearly three dozen senior military officers as part of a broader campaign designed to purge the Pentagon of leaders he has disparaged as ‘foolish,’ ‘reckless’ and ‘woke,’” but he hasn’t bothered to get any more elaborate than that in explaining why he’s taking these actions. Indeed, Hegseth has made it his mission to de-woke the U.S. military, but, so far, it seems all that really entails is making white supremacist history great again by restoring Confederate names to military bases as well as the honors for U.S. soldiers who committed the massacre at  Wounded Knee, and ensuring that white men continue to be overrepresented in top military command. And, ironically, he claims anything less would be DEI, while being the least qualified defense secretary we’ve ever had, after President Donald Trump tapped him to replace  Lloyd Austin, the nation’s first Black defense secretary.

As I noted previously, Austin is a four-star general who, during his 41-year military career, also served as director of the Joint Staff, was commanding general of U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, and headed U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). Hegseth is a former Fox News pundit who was in the Army National Guard for a while.

It’s also worth mentioning that Sen. Jack Reed,  the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, recently testified before the Senate that nearly 60 percent of the senior officers Mr. Hegseth has fired are female or Black, according to the Times.

So, you know, maybe he’s just a racist and misogynist, and, as usual, all his talk about DEI and wokeness is just code to cover up his bigotry. Just a thought.

SEE ALSO:

Pete Hegseth Fired US Army Chief Of Staff So He Can Be Racist In Peace

Pete Hegseth Is Getting Ripped On Social Media By A Trump Official