Sources told The Hill <\/a>the unnamed individuals had been set for the rank of two-star general until Hegseth intervened, the latest in a series of similar moves by the secretary this year as he seeks to reshape the Department of Defense<\/a>. <\/p>\n In August the same outlet reported Hegseth had obstructed four other officers from receiving one star promotions, and in March the secretary was said to have blocked four other Army officers<\/a> – two women and two Black men – in similar fashion. <\/p>\n Analysis by The New York Times on Monday found that<\/a> he has now fired or blocked the promotions of more than 80 generals and admirals, amounting to a purge of around 10 per cent of the military\u2019s top officers.<\/p>\n \u200bArmy Secretary Dan Driscoll became the latest high profile figure to announce their departure this week, stepping down after 18 months on the job. No reason was given but tensions with the Defense Secretary have been widely reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u200bHegseth has made no secret of his intentions to refashion the department in his own image since he was appointed by President Donald Trump. In a speech to military leaders at Quantico, Virginia last September he set out his vision for a Pentagon shaped by a \u201cwarrior ethos\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cWe became the woke department. Not any more. We\u2019re done with that s***,\u201d the former Fox and Friends Weekend host said at the time. <\/p>\n \u201cFor too long, we\u2019ve promoted too many uniformed leaders for the wrong reasons based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called firsts.<\/p>\n \u201cNo more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship, no more division, distraction or gender delusions. No more debris,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n \u201cPromotion recommendations sent to the Secretary of War have always been recommendations – never mandates,\u201d Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell told The Independent, noting that \u201cthe Secretary has the final statutory authority to review and approve these rosters.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs we have made clear, all senior military leaders serve at the pleasure of the President and Secretary,\u201d Parnell added. \u201cThe idea that these lists cannot be altered is ridiculous; every single Secretary has exercised this exact prerogative.\u201d<\/p>\n Regarding the August promotions, a spokesperson for the Department of Defense told NBC News earlier this week: \u200b\u201cMilitary promotions are decided by the Secretary of War, and every single Department of War employee – from senior military leaders to political appointees – serves at the pleasure of the President and the Secretary of War.\u201d<\/p>\n And in March, the Pentagon hit back at reports inT<\/a>he New York Times<\/a> that two women and two Black men<\/a> had been removed from a promotion list to become one-star generals.<\/p>\n \u200b\u201cThis story, like many others from the Failing New York Times, is full of fake news from anonymous sources who have no idea what they\u2019re talking about and are far removed from actual decision-makers within the Pentagon,\u201d \u200bspokesman Sean Parnell said. \u201cUnder Secretary Hegseth, military promotions are given to those who have earned them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[120],"tags":[36925,36667,94674,6931,948,7175,94670,94671,6934,94672,74859,94673,25482,383,464,34,1332,1023,18,6932,51,6938,33442,6936,438,185],"class_list":["post-211620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pete-hegseth","tag-2026-iran-conflict","tag-attending","tag-casualty","tag-color-image","tag-conflict","tag-daniel-driscoll","tag-decal","tag-delaware-us-state","tag-donald-trump-us-president","tag-dover-delaware","tag-dover-air-force-base","tag-exchanging","tag-full-length","tag-government","tag-horizontal","tag-iran","tag-military","tag-people","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-photography","tag-politics","tag-politics-and-government","tag-three-people","tag-us-president","tag-usa","tag-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117201902632388517","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Defense](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2273284297.jpeg\")
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has blocked the promotion of at least six more U.S. Army officers, according to reports (Getty)<\/p>\n![\"Secretary](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2293012597...jpeg\")
Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll (left) is the latest Army official to announce their departure (Getty)<\/p>\n