the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Mar 30, 2026
Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed four Army officers from a list of those slated to be promoted to one-star generals. Two of those removed were black men and two were women. Hegseth had previously pushed senior Army leaders to remove them from the list, but Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll repeatedly refused because he said the four had shown decades of exemplary service.
Hegseth blocked the promotion of the four despite the fact that non-white troops make up about 50% of soldiers in the lower ranks, but only 17 to 44% of those from one-star generals on up. While the disparity is less for women, more women have joined the Army in recent years.
Hegseth’s racist and sexist actions are part of an ongoing pattern, according to the New York Times, based on interviews it did with 11 current and former military and administration officials. Some of those officials pointed to a heated argument last summer between Secretary Driscoll and one of Hegseth’s underlings, Ricky Buria. Buria reportedly took Driscoll to task for selecting Major General Antoinette Gant to take command of the Military District of Washington. That position would require her to appear next to Donald Trump in ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery. According to those officials, Buria told Driscoll that Trump would not want to stand next to a black female officer at military events!
Hegseth has gone on the attack against past leaders of the military for efforts to promote more minority and women candidates to higher ranks, calling them “whores to wokesters.” He fired dozens of top military officials, so that now 16 out of 17 of his top military officials are white men.
One of the people Hegseth chose to help him review the list of those chosen for promotion to one-star general was Anthony Tata, a retired brigadier general who once referred to President Obama as a “terrorist leader” and has a history of Islamophobic comments.
Though other Trump administration officials try to paper over suggestions of Trump and Hegseth’s racism and sexism, their behavior proves otherwise. As writer Maya Angelou once said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”