WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has taken steps to block or delay promotions for more than a dozen Black and female senior officers across all four branches of the military, some of whom are seen as having been targeted because of their race, gender or perceived affiliation with Biden administration policies or officials, according to nine U.S. officials familiar with the process.

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The process within the Army, the Air Force, the Navy and the Marines is structured to ensure the most qualified officers get promoted. Hegseth’s decision to intervene in the process has raised concerns among some officials within those military branches and the White House, the nine U.S. officials familiar with the situation said.

“There is not a single service that has been immune to this level of involvement by Hegseth,” one of the U.S. officials said.

Two of the officials said there are concerns in the military and the White House specifically that Hegseth is blocking or stalling some qualified officers from receiving promotions through the ranks of general and admiral because of their race or gender as he targets diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at the Pentagon. There is also concern that Hegseth could be singling out military officers whom he views as aligned with officials or policies of the Biden administration, the officials said.

On Thursday Hegseth fired the Army chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, whose term was expected to be four years ending in September 2027. George, the Army’s top officer, was senior military assistant to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during the Biden administration.

George recently asked to meet with Hegseth to discuss Hegseth’s blocking of promotions for some Army officers, which seemed to focus on women and Black men, but Hegseth refused to meet or discuss his decisions, according to two additional U.S. officials.

Hegseth, who declared an end to “woke” culture at the Defense Department last year, has criticized DEI initiatives adopted by the Biden administration, as has President Donald Trump. Hegseth also has publicly accused the military of awarding promotions based on diversity rather than merit. Not all promotions for officers who are women or members of racial minority groups have been blocked or delayed during his tenure as secretary, four of the U.S. officials familiar with the process said.

The U.S. military branches either did not respond to requests for comment or referred questions to the Pentagon. A spokesperson for the Defense Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this article.

The White House also did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Two officials said that among the attributes Hegseth has cited for removing officers from promotions are past support for Covid vaccines or mask mandates for troops, which were enacted during the Biden administration, or whether officers were affiliated with DEI programs, potentially being women or members of racial minority groups, or promoted or worked on such initiatives.

The officials said an officer’s association with former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, whom Trump views as a political enemy, can also make an officer who is up for a promotion susceptible to scrutiny from Hegseth’s office.

“I think there is not consistency being applied to the standards” for promotions, another of the U.S. officials said.

In recent weeks, Hegseth blocked three Marine officers who were expected to be promoted or appointed to new roles — two women and a Black man — according to five of the U.S. officials familiar with the decision. None of the Marines were the subjects of internal investigations that might raise concerns about moving forward with their promotions, according to two of the officials. Marine Corps leaders recommended their promotions, but Hegseth refused to allow their selections to move forward despite attempts by the corps’ leadership to intervene, the two officials said.

A list of naval officers who had been selected to be promoted to one-star admiral has been held up for more than a month as it sits on Hegseth’s desk, according to three of the officials. A list of promotions typically would move through the process more quickly, according to the three officials who expressed concern that some of the Navy officers on the list could be removed because of their race or gender.

Hegseth has also blocked promotions for a handful of more senior naval officers, the three officials said.

Other officers have been pulled off a list of Air Force promotions at the direction of Hegseth’s office, according to two of the officials familiar with the process.

Some of the naval and Air Force officers whose promotions have been blocked are also women or members of racial minority groups, according to officials.

When it decides promotions, each branch of the military typically convenes a board, which comprises service members from that branch, to review possible candidates to advance. The boards select candidates to move up in rank, and lists are created for promotions to one-star and two-star general and admiral.

Those lists are sent to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the defense secretary’s office and then to the White House. Ultimately, the Senate votes on the lists for each military branch.

Promotions to three-star and four-star general and admiral are typically conducted individually, not via lists, but they also are sent from each military branch to the Joint Chiefs chairman and the defense secretary’s office, then to the White House and to the Senate for votes.

Defense secretaries typically do not remove officers from promotion lists or reject individual recommendations from the service branches, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the process.

By law the president has the most authority to block a military promotion, either an individual recommendation or a name on a list. If a recommended promotion is pulled before it is transmitted to the White House, a reason must be provided, such as an ongoing investigation or an allegation about an officer’s conduct, and the defense secretary typically does not make those decisions. Candidates for promotion have been removed in the past if there were allegations against them or military investigations into them. The people removed from promotion lists did not have open investigations against them, U.S. officials said.

The Army’s list of promotions this year included about 30 officers to become one-star generals and went to the White House around mid-March, then to the Senate on Monday, but only after Hegseth struck the four names from it, according to five U.S. officials.

While Hegseth removed two women and two Black officers from the Army’s list, the list that progressed to the Senate did include some women and racial minority officers, according to the five officials, who said they believe race and gender played a role in Hegseth’s removal of the other officers.

“If there are no open allegations or investigations, what was the reason they were removed from the list?” one of the officials said. “They have all deployed and done their jobs, and all are all combat-tested.”

The New York Times first reported Hegseth was blocking promotions for female or minority officers in the Army.

According to Defense Department data from 2024, the most recent available, 80% of active-duty members of the military are male. Overall, 67% are white; 18% are Black. Roughly 80% of active-duty officers are male. Overall, 74% of officers are white; only 9% are Black.

During Hegseth’s tenure, several top military officers have been removed, including former Joint Chiefs Chairman CQ Brown Jr., a Black man, and former Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti, a white woman. From the perspective of Hegseth and his staff, they were not aligned with the Trump administration’s priorities, according to two of the U.S. officials.

A retired senior military officer described the promotion process as rigorous and said any meddling by the defense secretary could diminish trust in it.

“Our officer corps trusts our promotion process,” the retired officer said, adding that intervention in the process without an explanation “will certainly cast a shadow across our officer corps that everything they have said, done and written about during their careers could be politicized in a career-ending manner with the stroke of a pen.”