{"id":2375,"date":"2026-06-28T10:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T10:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=2375"},"modified":"2026-06-28T10:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T10:40:08","slug":"behind-the-sinister-reason-the-trump-admin-is-blocking-promotions-at-the-pentagon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=2375","title":{"rendered":"Behind the sinister reason the Trump admin is blocking promotions at the Pentagon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth just hijacked more promotions of high-ranking service members, this time blocking career professionals with exemplary records<\/u> who were on track to become one-star generals<\/u> and admirals<\/u>. Not only is Hegseth\u2019s behavior unusual, there is no clear legal authority<\/u> for what he is doing.<\/p>\n

Read more Pathologist reveals major signs of \u2018neurological decline\u2019 in Trump\u2019s latest speech<\/a><\/p>\n

Congress entrusted<\/u> military promotions largely to the respective promotion boards and Secretaries of the Military Departments, not <\/em><\/em>the Secretary of Defense. Although 10 U.S.C. \u00a7 629<\/u> empowers the President with removal authority, a longstanding executive order<\/u> limits the Secretary of Defense\u2019s removal authority to grades below colonel or captain, not the general or admiral promotions Hegseth has blocked. The Pentagon\u2019s own regulations restrict grounds for removing<\/u> an officer from a promotions list to specific circumstances like moral, mental, or professional deficiencies, none of which werepresent in Hegseth\u2019s removals.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s obvious that a disproportionate number of Hegseth\u2019s blocked, delayed, or demoted officers are women and people of color. However, while mainstream headlines suggest Hegseth is motivated by race and gender animus, an even worse\u2014and more dangerous\u2014 likelihood is that he is weeding out those he deems \u201cideologically incompatible\u201d with how he and Trump plan to use the military.<\/p>\n

Hegseth likes to emphasize that \u201cevery officer serves at the pleasure of the president<\/u>,\u201d arguing that Trump\u2019s policy goals require<\/em><\/em> removing commanders \u201ctied to the culture\u201d of previous administrations. He argues that past promotions were based on race and gender instead of qualifications, but military records dispute those claims<\/u>, and there is no evidence that any promotions he blocked were attributable to anything other than merit.<\/p>\n

An unqualified hack defends his own<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hegseth, a former Fox News bobble head, is notoriously unqualified to serve as Secretary of Defense, which seems to have been Trump\u2019s point in naming him. He was a mid-level National Guard officer,<\/u> had no senior leadership role in the military<\/u>, and had no experience anywhere that qualified him to oversee three million personnel and an annual budget of $800 billion. <\/p>\n

More dangerous than his lack of qualifications is his bloodlust. As a media commentator, he lobbied aggressively for presidential pardons for service members convicted or accused of notorious war crimes<\/u>, including Army Lt. Clint Lorance, convicted of murdering<\/u> two Afghan civilians, and Maj. Matt Golsteyn, who admitted during an interview for the CIA<\/u> that he and another soldier took an alleged Taliban bomb-maker off base in 2010, shot him, and buried his remains<\/u>. Trump granted<\/u> full pardons to both.<\/p>\n

In Iraq, Hegseth\u2019s own unit was nicknamed \u201cKill Company\u201d and he kept a \u2018kill board\u2019 that tallied kills<\/u>, including dead civilians, expressing daring contempt for the military’s strict rules of engagement. It\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess what gruesome deeds he got up to. Today, he barks a constant mantra about \u201cwar fighters\u201d and \u201clethality\u201d and sees violence and unrestrained power as a distinct virtue.<\/p>\n

Ineptitude with a platitude chaser<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hegseth\u2019s tenure has been marred by a series of high-profile blunders, including the SignalGate<\/u> security breach, his \u2018dirty line\u2019 Pentagon internet<\/u> setup, and unforced diplomatic errors such as upbraiding NATO allies<\/u> without understanding the subject matter. Just as Trump governs by spectacle over substance, Hegseth manages by platitude. His attempts to project authority through chest thumping\u2014\u201cMaximum lethality not tepid legality<\/u>\u201d\u2014 like his sophomoric speech to the Generals at Quantico<\/u>, routinely fall flat and inspire parody<\/u>. <\/p>\n

Read more Trump biographer exposes his inner circles \u2018appalled\u2019 reaction to sycophantic aide<\/a><\/p>\n

Hegseth\u2019s embrace of violence over circumspection (\u201cLethality is our calling card<\/u>\u201d) while rejecting what he calls \u2018stupid rules of engagement<\/u>\u2019 reveals an almost pathological immaturity. While pushing back against operational restraints, i.e., military rules of engagement, and weeding out generals who don\u2019t suit him, he insists that, under him<\/u>, there will be \u201cNo politically correct wars.\u201d <\/p>\n

What he\u2019s really weeding out are legal protocols in order to elevate \u2018maximum lethality\u2019 in pursuit of politically in<\/em><\/em>correct and illegal wars: Trump\u2019s.<\/p>\n

History is clear on why the military should never be politicized<\/strong><\/p>\n

Throughout history, authoritarian regimes have tried to put professional militaries under the direct control of their own political movements. Recognizing that an independent officer corps poses an existential threat to one-party rule, in Nazi Germany, Hitler systematically dismantled<\/u> the autonomy of the traditional Wehrmacht, and required all soldiers to swear a personal oath of loyalty to him<\/u> rather than to the state or constitution. <\/p>\n

In the former Soviet Union, Stalin subjected the Red Army<\/u> to the Communist Party’s political commissar system, embedding party officials at every level of command to monitor ideological conformity. From 1937\u201338, Stalin\u2019s purges decimated the senior officer corps<\/u>, to ensure political fealty, even at catastrophic cost to combat readiness on the eve of World War II.<\/p>\n

Historical clarity is not confined to Europe. In Maoist China, the People’s Liberation Army was not a conventional national military but was the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party<\/u>. Mao’s dictum that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun” led to political loyalty campaigns purging those deemed insufficiently loyal. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein constructed an elaborate system of Republican Guard formations and tribal loyalties to prevent any single military institution from possessing enough power<\/u> to threaten him. Officers were promoted based on personal loyalty rather than merit, and suspected disloyalty was met with execution. <\/p>\n

Throughout history, subordinating military professionalism to political fealty, which is what Hegseth is really doing, has produced armies that were reliable instruments of internalrepression but dysfunctional when facing real external threats. Since Hegseth and Trump are both fixated on fighting domestic \u201cenemies within<\/u>\u201d and hope to deploy the military against Americans<\/u> (internal repression), it\u2019s likely Hegseth\u2019s promotions are less about demographics and more about fortifying top brass willing to break the law, by removing from the ranks those who are likely not so willing. <\/p>\n

Sabrina Haake is a political analyst and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. She writes the free Substack, The Haake Take. <\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Todd Blanche\u2019s deal would bury the largest presidential corruption scheme in US history<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth just hijacked more promotions of high-ranking service members, this time blocking career professionals with exemplary records who were on track to become one-star generals and admirals. Not only is Hegseth\u2019s behavior unusual, there is no clear legal authority for wh…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nBehind the sinister reason the Trump admin is blocking promotions at the Pentagon - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=2375\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Behind the sinister reason the Trump admin is blocking promotions at the Pentagon - Next Address America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth just hijacked more promotions of high-ranking service members, this time blocking career professionals with exemplary records who were on track to become one-star generals and admirals. 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