Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reportedly attempting to block the military promotion of four officers – two women and two Black men – to become one-star generals. According to reports, Hegseth asked army leaders, including Dan Driscoll, to remove the officers’ names from the promotion list, and after Driscoll reportedly refused, Hegseth removed the four officers’ names himself. It is unclear whether Hegseth has the authority to remove individual names from the promotion list, as per military policy the defense secretary is technically only supposed to approve or reject the entire list. The resulting list, with Hegseth’s exclusions, is being reviewed by the White House before being sent to the Senate for final approval.
In a separate move, Hegseth expelled more than a dozen elite colleges from a military fellowship that serves as a pipeline to the upper ranks of leadership. He made sweeping statements about canceling all military attendance at schools he denounces as anti-American, but his cuts have been more targeted, focusing on graduate degrees and certificates.
The Tuition Assistance program helps cover tuition for roughly 200,000 active-duty or reserve service members at nearly any U.S. college. About 350 members of the military used Tuition Assistance to attend Harvard, Johns Hopkins University, George Washington University, and other schools targeted by Hegseth's cuts in 2024. More than 50,000 military students studied at the American Public University System using Tuition Assistance in 2024. Public universities take in the most military students under Tuition Assistance, with about 4 in 10 choosing those campuses. The Tuition Assistance benefit pays out a maximum of $4,500 a year.
More than a third of students using Tuition Assistance attended for-profit colleges, surpassing the number who attended any type of private, nonprofit college.
Hegseth’s tenure as head of the Pentagon has been marked by his crusade against a culture that he describes as having been shaped by foolish and woke leaders from previous administrations. In September, Hegseth said that promotions would no longer be based on immutable characteristics or quotas.
Last year, Hegseth reassigned Vice Admiral Yvette Davids, dismissed Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield and Admiral Linda Fagan, pledged to remove female officers from combat, and banned trans people from serving in the military. Last summer, Maj Gen Antoinette R Gant was selected to command the Military District of Washington, and reportedly, Ricky Buria told Dan Driscoll that Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events.