THE HILL

Hegseth in D-Day speech warns Europe being ‘stormed’ by ‘dangerous ideologies’

by Sophie Brams - 06/06/26 10:32 AM ETSjekk https://tinyurl.com/fhh5ywt6

----oooo00O00oooo----

POLITICO

House panel demands more information on military firings

The move comes after the dismissal of multiple uniformed military leaders since President Donald Trump took office.

06/04/2026, 12:23pm ET

Pentagon officials would have five days to tell Congress why senior uniformed military leaders had been dismissed or fired under a provision adopted by a House panel Thursday.

The move comes after the sudden firing of multiple top officers under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s tenure that have stoked bipartisan concerns that the Pentagon is forcing out experienced officers with little to no explanation.

Most recently, the firing of the widely popular Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George stoked outrage from Republicans and Democrats alike.

But numerous top officers have been abruptly dismissed since President Donald Trump’s return to office — including former Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown and top officers in the Navy and Coast Guard, as well as the heads of U.S. Southern and Cyber Commands, among other top posts.

Committee action: The new requirement, included in the House Armed Services Committee’s draft of the annual National Defense Authorization Act, was introduced by Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) and would mandate a report “that describes the performance concerns, actions, or inactions of that officer that are cause for such removal, transfer, or relief of duty.’’

The committee approved the provision by a bipartisan voice vote without objections.

Look ahead: Committee members were expected to debate additional amendments to the policy bill throughout Thursday, including other measures from Democrats that needle Hegseth’s leadership.

The provision still faces a long path before becoming law. Both the full House and Senate will have to pass the language before it heads to the president for signature, a process that is expected to take until sometime this fall at the earliest.

Pentagon silence: But its inclusion among uncontroversial amendments to the sweeping authorization bill represents a rebuke of Hegseth’s personnel moves and the lack of information provided to Congress about the rationale for them.

During an appearance before the committee in April, Hegseth declined to give reasons for George’s departure “out of respect to these officers.” He added that “we don’t talk about the nature of that, and we all serve at the pleasure of the president.”

Pete Hegseth removes all women and some Black service members from navy promotion list

Defense secretary’s latest interposition resulted in all-male, overwhelmingly white picks for promotion to admiralty

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, stripped nine navy officers including women and Black service members from a promotion list last month, according to a person familiar with the matter, resulting in an all-male, overwhelmingly white slate of 22 advancing as nominees to become one-star admirals.

Hegseth’s unusual intervention violated promotion rules designed to be merit-based and apolitical, the New York Times said on Tuesday, and extended the Trump administration’s push to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the military.

The original promotion list included three women and two Black officers in addition to the two who remained, the newspaper said.

Cropped shot of a soldier wearing camouflage fatigues with an American flag for a patch.

A navy source said that officials in the service had been “very confident” with those on the promotion list, including the officers whom Hegseth removed. He said Hegseth did not explain to the navy why he removed the officers from the list.

One government source familiar with matter said Hegseth had “his favorite MOS’s [military occupational specialities], and then gender and race. He went through the list and scrubbed a few names. It was felt loud and clear.”

The Pentagon disputed that Hegseth blocked promotions based on race or gender. “As we’ve said before, 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,” said Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesperson. “Under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, meritocracy reigns supreme at the war department.”

The move has direct parallels with Hegseth’s reported interposition in a similar army promotion list in March, in which he is said to have directed the army secretary, Dan Driscoll, to remove two women and two Black officers from a nomination slate to become one-star generals.

Hegseth has previously railed against diversity and so-called “woke” in the armed services.

“For too long, we’ve promoted too many uniform leaders for the wrong reasons – based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called firsts,” he told a keynote meeting of military commanders in Virginia in September. “The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies.”

Hegseth’s involvement in the promotions list is unusual, according to a former military official. “It’s supposed to be an up-and-down vote from the defense secretary. He continuing to meddle on an individual basis,” he said. “He’s stripping autonomy from the service secretaries.”

One name still on the latest navy list published on 22 May is Capt Sean Barbabella, Donald Trump’s White House physician, who last week declared the almost 80-year-old president to be in “excellent health”, despite photographs showing him at times with swollen ankles, bruised hands and a blotchy neck.

Hegseth stepped in to overrule a board of navy admirals that had drawn up the list, the Times said, also removing four white officers. The outlet noted that the list as published, which must be confirmed by the US Senate, bears little relation to the makeup of the force the nominees will lead.

The report cites a 2024 government profile of the navy’s active-service composition, which revealed that more than 21% are women, and that almost 40% identify with racial minority groups.

The Guardian reported in March that Hegseth, who styles himself the “secretary of war”, acted soon after his confirmation as defense secretary last year to block promotions or redeploy senior military officers, 60% of them women or Black.

He reassigned V Adm Yvette Davids, the first woman to lead the US naval academy, and dismissed another navy vice-admiral, Shoshana Chatfield, as the US military representative to the Nato military committee.

Hegseth also dismissed Adm Lisa Franchetti as chief of naval operations.

Coast guard commandant Linda Fagan, who served for 37 years and was the longest-serving active duty marine safety officer, was dismissed on 20 January 2025, the first day of Trump’s second term of office, four days before Hegseth’s narrow Senate confirmation.

Overall, the Times said, Hegseth has fired or sidelined nearly three dozen senior military officers.

The actions extend the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the US military, which have included attempts to ban women from combat roles and blocking transgender troops from serving.

A federal appeals court in Washington DC on Monday delivered a setback to the anti-diversity push by ruling that the government acted illegally by moving to dismiss transgender service members. That case is expected to reach the supreme court.