Secret Vetting and Blocked Promotions: Inside Hegseth’s War on Diversity; The New York Times, June 19, 2026

Greg Jaffe and Kate Kelly, The New York Times ; Secret Vetting and Blocked Promotions: Inside Hegseth’s War on Diversity

A Black admiral fixed one of the Navy’s worst messes. Mr. Hegseth blocked his promotion anyway.

"In books and speeches, Mr. Hegseth has maintained that the Pentagon’s push over the past decade to build a more diverse force had elevated women and minority officers to senior jobs that they had not earned.

“When I think about my career in uniform, in almost every instance where there has been poor leadership or people in positions they’re not qualified for, it was based on either the reality or the perception of a ‘diversity hire,’” Mr. Hegseth, a former major in the Army National Guard, wrote in his 2024 book “The War on Warriors.”

As defense secretary, he has promised to install a new promotion system that will be “ruthlessly meritocratic” and “focused squarely” on “warfighting ability.”

In practice, though, his approach has made it harder for Black and female officers to get promoted to senior ranks, even when their records are exemplary."