WASHINGTON, June 1, 2026 — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer blasted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Monday after the New York Times reported that Hegseth had personally blocked the promotions of nine Navy officers selected by a board of senior admirals — a move that disproportionately targeted women and Black officers and appears to violate Pentagon rules governing the merit-based promotion system.
“Pete Hegseth isn’t just making bad decisions about war,” Schumer wrote on X. “Now, he’s blocking promotions of women and minority officers who have been standout leaders and exceptional members of our military. This is noxious, corrosive to building our best military fighting force, and wrong.”
What the New York Times Found
The Times reported Monday, based on accounts from five current and former defense officials, that Hegseth removed nine Navy captains from a list of nominees to be one-star admirals — a list that had been assembled by a board of senior Navy admirals after a rigorous two-week review of hundreds of personnel files. Only about 5 percent of those eligible for promotion to one-star are selected, making it the most competitive board in the U.S. military.
Three of the nine officers Hegseth removed are women. Two are Black men. Four are white men. The net result is a slate of 22 one-star admiral nominees that includes no women — despite women comprising approximately 21 percent of the active-duty Navy — and only two nonwhite officers, despite racial minorities making up approximately 38 percent of active-duty sailors.
Under Pentagon rules, the defense secretary may remove officers from promotion lists only in limited circumstances — specifically when new information emerges that raises questions about an officer’s moral, mental, physical, or professional fitness to serve. Hegseth has declined to explain any of his removal decisions publicly. Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said only: “Military promotions are given to those who have earned them. The department will never consider the color of a service member’s skin or their gender as a factor in promotions.”
Officers Targeted by ‘Anti-Woke’ Website
Current and former Navy officials told the Times that the officers struck from the Navy list appear to have been targeted because they participated in diversity-related activities years or even decades earlier. One highly respected officer — a surface warfare officer who completed the Navy’s advanced nuclear power school and was selected as a top aide to a four-star admiral — was singled out after her name appeared on a website tracking officers deemed “woke.” The site noted she had served as a “diversity liaison officer” two decades ago, helping the Navy recruit and retain women and minorities.
A second female officer removed from the list is a Navy pilot and foreign area officer. The third is a physician who leads a major Navy medical command. The Times did not name the officers by request.
Hegseth Also Tried to Insert His Own Aide
In a separate breach of protocol, Hegseth urged senior Navy officials to place Capt. William Francis Jr. — a Navy SEAL who serves as Hegseth’s special assistant — on the one-star promotion list, current and former Navy officials told the Times. Capt. Francis lacked the command experience required under the board’s rules and was not selected. When Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., an Air Force veteran, asked Hegseth at a recent House Armed Services Committee hearing whether he had ordered the Navy to add a special operations officer who lacked the necessary command time to the promotion list, Hegseth replied: “I’m not aware of what you’re referring to.” The Times described his response as “at best, misleading.”
A Pattern Across All Four Branches
The Navy intervention is the latest in a series of promotion blocks Hegseth has made across all four military branches. Earlier this year, Hegseth removed four Army colonels — two Black men and two women — from the Army’s one-star general list over the explicit objections of Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, who said the officers had a long history of exemplary service and had done nothing wrong. Nine current and former officials told NBC News in April that Hegseth had blocked or delayed promotions for more than a dozen Black and female senior officers across the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines — some targeted because of their race, gender, or perceived affiliation with Biden administration officials.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in recent Senate testimony that nearly 60 percent of the senior officers Hegseth has fired are female or Black — even though women and minorities currently account for fewer than 20 percent of all generals and admirals. “You are hollowing out the military’s bench of experience and highest-performing senior officers, while making young officers wonder if they should continue to serve,” Reed told Hegseth at a recent hearing.
Among those previously dismissed were Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. — the second African American to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead the Navy. Hegseth has also removed Air Force Lt. Gen. Jennifer Short, who served as senior military assistant to the secretary of defense; Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, the sole female flag officer on NATO’s Military Committee; and relocated Vice Adm. Yvette Davids, the first female superintendent of the Naval Academy.
Bipartisan Frustration
Hegseth’s refusals to explain his decisions have exasperated lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. At an April House Armed Services Committee hearing, Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., pressed acting Army Chief of Staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve directly: “Did he pull four names from the list, as has been reported?” LaNeve replied that Scott would have to ask Hegseth. “Well, if I could get anybody over there to respond, I would,” Scott replied.
When Hegseth subsequently appeared before the committee, he acknowledged pulling names from the Army one-star list but declined to give specific reasons. “We don’t talk about that out of respect for those officers,” he said, speaking broadly instead about the need to correct “gender and demographic engineering” he asserted had blunted military effectiveness.
The Impact on Military Culture
The unpredictability of Hegseth’s interventions has created what military officials described to the Times as an atmosphere of anxiety and mistrust in the military’s top ranks. Jessica Ruttenber, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who flew refueling tankers in Iraq and Afghanistan, wrote in an essay after noticing the absence of any women on the Navy’s one-star list: “The military I left in 2021 feels very different from the one we are watching today. In some ways, it feels like we are watching hard-won progress move backward in real time. Because if I am honest, I now find myself wondering: Would I want my own children to enter a system like this?”