Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ran a secret online search operation that effectively punished subordinates for behavior he has described as “woke.”
The result of what the New York Times called Hegseth’s “war on diversity” had serious consequences for officers who were up for promotion.
Hegseth and his top aides ordered the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps to scour the internet for photos, videos or news articles that might draw his ire, the Times reported Friday. Then his own staff ran the searches again — to make sure the branches hadn’t missed anything, or tried to protect anyone.
Inside the Pentagon, the flagged material was code-named “derogatory material” screening.
Hegseth blocked promotions for at least 40 senior officers to general and admiral ranks this year. About half were women or members of minority groups.
Officers who had spoken publicly about diversity or urged troops to get the COVID vaccine were targeted. Photos and articles posted on official Navy websites were turned into evidence against the officers they once celebrated.
Rear Adm. Stephen Barnett, already a one-star admiral, was the Navy’s top pick to be promoted to vice admiral and run its global base command — more experienced than any other candidate, and fresh off three years cleaning up a catastrophic fuel spill in Hawaii that sickened thousands. Hegseth passed over him anyway, selecting the Navy’s third choice, after flagging Barnett’s years-old remarks on the importance of diversity.
Hegseth has made no secret of what he was after. At West Point last month, he told graduates that previous military leaders had been “woke and weak.” He declared at the Army War College in 2025 that “DEI is dead.”
It was not clear whether Hegseth had the legal authority to pull names from the lists at all — Congress had entrusted that power to the service secretaries, not the defense secretary.
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