'Gutter racist': Outrage swamps Hegseth as news that he snubbed Black colonel spreads
Brett Wilkins,
Brett Wilkins,
Common Dreams
March 28, 2026
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gestures as he speaks to the media on the day of a briefing for the House of Representatives on the situation in Venezuela, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C on Jan. 7, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
In what’s being called an “exceedingly rare” move, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is blocking the promotion of two Black and two female colonels to one-star generals.
The New York Times reported Friday that some senior US military officials are questioning whether Hegseth acted out of animus toward Black people and women after the defense secretary blocked the promotion of the four officers despite the repeated objections of Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, who touted what the Times called the colonels’ “decadeslong records of exemplary service.”
Military officials told the Times that Hegseth’s chief of staff, Lt. Col. Ricky Buria, got into a heated exchange with Driscoll last summer over the promotion of another officer, Maj. Gen. Antoinette Gant—a combat veteran of the US invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq—to command the Military District of Washington, DC.
Such a promotion would have placed Gant in charge of numerous events at which she would likely be seen publicly with President Donald Trump. According to multiple military officials, Buria told Driscoll that Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer.
A shocked Driscoll reportedly replied that “the president is not racist or sexist,” an assessment that flies in the face of countless racist and sexist statements by the president, both before and during both of his White House terms.
Buria called the officials’ account of his exchange with Driscoll “completely false.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to discuss the matter beyond saying that Hegseth is “doing a tremendous job restoring meritocracy throughout the ranks at the Pentagon, as President Trump directed him to do.”
Military officials told the Times that one of the Black colonels whose promotion was blocked by Hegseth wrote a paper nearly 15 years ago historically analyzing differences between Black and white soldiers’ roles in the Army. One of the female colonels, a logistics officer, was held back because she was deployed in Afghanistan during the US withdrawal whose foundation was laid by Trump during his first term. It is unclear why the two other colonels were denied promotions.
Although more than 40% of current active duty US troops are people of color, military leadership remains overwhelmingly comprised of white men. Hegseth, who declared a “frontal assault” on the “whores to wokesters” who he said rose up through the ranks during the Biden administration, told an audience during a 250th anniversary ceremony for the US Navy that “your diversity is not your strength.”
Hegseth has argued that women should not serve in combat roles, although he later walked back his assertion amid pushback from senators during his confirmation process. Still, since Trump returned to office, every service branch chief and 9 of the military’s 10 combat commanders are white men.
Leaders of the Democratic Women’s Caucus and Congressional Black Caucus issued a joint statement Friday calling Hegseth’s blocking of the four colonels’ promotions “outrageous and wrong.”
“The claim that Hegseth’s chief of staff told the army secretary Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events is racist, sexist, and extremely concerning,” wrote the lawmakers, Reps. Yvette Clarke (NY), Teresa Leger Fernández (NM), Emilia Sykes (Ohio), Hillary Scholten (Mich.), and Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.).
“Time and time again, Trump and his administration have shown us exactly who they are—attacking and undermining Black people and women in the military, public servants, and women in power,” the congressional leaders asserted. “It is clear they are trying to erase Black and women’s leadership and history.”
“Today’s news isn’t an anomaly, it is a part of a coordinated and sustained strategy to undermine and erase women and people of color,” their statement said.
“We’ve long known that Pete Hegseth is an unfit and unqualified secretary of defense appointed by Trump,” the lawmakers added. “So it is absurd, ironic, and beyond inappropriate that he of all people would deny these promotions to officers with records of exemplary service. America’s servicemembers deserve so much better.”
Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also issued a statement reading, “If these reports are accurate, Secretary Hegseth’s decision to remove four decorated officers from a promotion list after having been selected by their peers for their merit and performance is not only outrageous, it would be illegal.”
“Denying the promotions of individual officers based on their race or gender would betray every principle of merit-based service military officers uphold throughout their careers,” Reed added.
Several congressional colleagues weighed in, like Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a decorated combat veteran who lost her legs when an Iraqi defending his homeland from US invasion shot down the Blackhawk helicopter she was piloting. Duckworth said on Bluesky: “He says he wants to bring meritocracy back to our military. He says he has our warfighters’ backs. But here he is, the most unqualified SecDef in history, denying troops a promotion that their fellow warfighters decided they’ve earned. Hegseth is a disgrace to our heroes.”
Other observers also condemned Hegseth’s move, with historian Virginia Scharff accusing him of “undermining national security with his racism and misogyny,” and City University of New York English Chair Jonathan Gray decrying the “gutter racist” who “should be hounded from public life for the damage he’s caused.”
March 28, 2026
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gestures as he speaks to the media on the day of a briefing for the House of Representatives on the situation in Venezuela, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C on Jan. 7, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
In what’s being called an “exceedingly rare” move, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is blocking the promotion of two Black and two female colonels to one-star generals.
The New York Times reported Friday that some senior US military officials are questioning whether Hegseth acted out of animus toward Black people and women after the defense secretary blocked the promotion of the four officers despite the repeated objections of Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, who touted what the Times called the colonels’ “decadeslong records of exemplary service.”
Military officials told the Times that Hegseth’s chief of staff, Lt. Col. Ricky Buria, got into a heated exchange with Driscoll last summer over the promotion of another officer, Maj. Gen. Antoinette Gant—a combat veteran of the US invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq—to command the Military District of Washington, DC.
Such a promotion would have placed Gant in charge of numerous events at which she would likely be seen publicly with President Donald Trump. According to multiple military officials, Buria told Driscoll that Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer.
A shocked Driscoll reportedly replied that “the president is not racist or sexist,” an assessment that flies in the face of countless racist and sexist statements by the president, both before and during both of his White House terms.
Buria called the officials’ account of his exchange with Driscoll “completely false.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to discuss the matter beyond saying that Hegseth is “doing a tremendous job restoring meritocracy throughout the ranks at the Pentagon, as President Trump directed him to do.”
Military officials told the Times that one of the Black colonels whose promotion was blocked by Hegseth wrote a paper nearly 15 years ago historically analyzing differences between Black and white soldiers’ roles in the Army. One of the female colonels, a logistics officer, was held back because she was deployed in Afghanistan during the US withdrawal whose foundation was laid by Trump during his first term. It is unclear why the two other colonels were denied promotions.
Although more than 40% of current active duty US troops are people of color, military leadership remains overwhelmingly comprised of white men. Hegseth, who declared a “frontal assault” on the “whores to wokesters” who he said rose up through the ranks during the Biden administration, told an audience during a 250th anniversary ceremony for the US Navy that “your diversity is not your strength.”
Hegseth has argued that women should not serve in combat roles, although he later walked back his assertion amid pushback from senators during his confirmation process. Still, since Trump returned to office, every service branch chief and 9 of the military’s 10 combat commanders are white men.
Leaders of the Democratic Women’s Caucus and Congressional Black Caucus issued a joint statement Friday calling Hegseth’s blocking of the four colonels’ promotions “outrageous and wrong.”
“The claim that Hegseth’s chief of staff told the army secretary Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events is racist, sexist, and extremely concerning,” wrote the lawmakers, Reps. Yvette Clarke (NY), Teresa Leger Fernández (NM), Emilia Sykes (Ohio), Hillary Scholten (Mich.), and Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.).
“Time and time again, Trump and his administration have shown us exactly who they are—attacking and undermining Black people and women in the military, public servants, and women in power,” the congressional leaders asserted. “It is clear they are trying to erase Black and women’s leadership and history.”
“Today’s news isn’t an anomaly, it is a part of a coordinated and sustained strategy to undermine and erase women and people of color,” their statement said.
“We’ve long known that Pete Hegseth is an unfit and unqualified secretary of defense appointed by Trump,” the lawmakers added. “So it is absurd, ironic, and beyond inappropriate that he of all people would deny these promotions to officers with records of exemplary service. America’s servicemembers deserve so much better.”
Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also issued a statement reading, “If these reports are accurate, Secretary Hegseth’s decision to remove four decorated officers from a promotion list after having been selected by their peers for their merit and performance is not only outrageous, it would be illegal.”
“Denying the promotions of individual officers based on their race or gender would betray every principle of merit-based service military officers uphold throughout their careers,” Reed added.
Several congressional colleagues weighed in, like Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a decorated combat veteran who lost her legs when an Iraqi defending his homeland from US invasion shot down the Blackhawk helicopter she was piloting. Duckworth said on Bluesky: “He says he wants to bring meritocracy back to our military. He says he has our warfighters’ backs. But here he is, the most unqualified SecDef in history, denying troops a promotion that their fellow warfighters decided they’ve earned. Hegseth is a disgrace to our heroes.”
Other observers also condemned Hegseth’s move, with historian Virginia Scharff accusing him of “undermining national security with his racism and misogyny,” and City University of New York English Chair Jonathan Gray decrying the “gutter racist” who “should be hounded from public life for the damage he’s caused.”
Pentagon staffer stuns with: 'Trump wouldn't want to stand next to a Black female'
Travis Gettys
March 27, 2026
RAW STORY
U.S. President Donald Trump points on the day he addresses military families as U.S. first lady Melania Trump stands nearby during a visit at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, U.S., February 13, 2026. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Senior military officials are concerned that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is blocking the promotions of four Army officers because of their race or gender, according to a new report.
President Donald Trump's defense secretary has been pushing Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll and other senior Army leaders to remove the names of the officers, two of whom are Black and another two women, from a promotion list of about three dozen officers, most of whom are white men, senior military officials told the New York Times.
"Earlier this month, Mr. Hegseth broke the logjam by unilaterally striking the officers’ names from the list, though it is not clear he has the legal authority to do so," the Times reported. "The list is currently being reviewed by the White House, which is expected to send it to the Senate for final approval. A few female and Black officers remain on the list, military officials said."
"It is exceedingly rare that a one-star list draws such intense scrutiny from a defense secretary," the report added. "The battle highlights the bitter rifts opened by Mr. Hegseth’s campaign to reverse policies that he says are prejudiced against white officers."
Hegseth has pledged to change "woke" policies from previous administrations, but his heavy scrutiny of female and minority officers has eroded confidence that the promotion system is based on merit and distanced from politics, and the frustration with his approach sparked a heated exchange between his chief of staff Ricky Buria and Driscoll, the Army secretary.
"Mr. Buria chastised the Army secretary for selecting Maj. Gen. Antoinette R. Gant, a combat engineer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, to take command of the Military District of Washington," the Times reported, based on accounts from three current and former defense and administration officials. "The command provides security and performs ceremonial duties in the nation’s capital, and its commander often appears alongside the president at Arlington National Cemetery."
"Mr. Buria told Mr. Driscoll that President Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events," the report added, based on the officials' account.
Driscoll was shocked by his statement and insisted "the president is not a racist or sexist," the officials said, and he then raised the issue with a senior White House official who agreed with him about Trump. Hegseth's office eventually backed down and Gant began serving as the district commander last summer, and was promoted to two-star rank earlier this month.
"Senior officials in Mr. Hegseth’s office have been debating for months whether Mr. Hegseth has the legal authority to strike names from a one-star list before he sends it to the White House," military officials told the Times. "In his role as defense secretary, Mr. Hegseth is supposed to review and approve the list. But to protect the military’s officer corps from being politicized, he has only two options under military regulations, officials said. He can reject or accept the entire list."
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