The Navy’s top leadership believed that Rear Adm. Stephen D. Barnett was by far the best choice to lead the command that oversees the Navy’s bases at home and abroad....

The officer, however, had a big strike against him. Like other Black military leaders, he had been encouraged by his superiors to help the Navy recruit and retain minority officers, who remain significantly underrepresented in the force. His years-old remarks on the importance of diversity had been flagged in a secret vetting process designed to weed out senior leaders whom Mr. Hegseth and his team pegged as a problem.

Instead of Admiral Barnett, Mr. Hegseth selected a white officer who was the Navy leadership’s third choice.

So far this year, Mr. Hegseth has blocked the promotions of at least 40 senior officers to general and admiral ranks. About half of those are women or members of minority groups.....

Mr. Hegseth has argued that the troops most likely to suffer discrimination in the military are white.

He traced the problem to the protests and racial reckoning that followed Mr. Floyd’s murder. The Pentagon’s generals and admirals, he wrote in his 2024 book, started searching for evidence of institutional bias that did not exist. In the process, he argued, they destroyed the military’s meritocratic culture.

“It’s Black over white. Female over male. Gay over straight,” Mr. Hegseth wrote.

Internal Pentagon studies told a different story. Nearly a third of Black U.S. military troops reported experiencing racial discrimination, harassment or both during a 12-month period, according to a survey conducted during President Trump’s first term.....

Mr. Hegseth has removed a total of 32 officers from Air Force and Navy one-star and two-star promotion lists, defense officials said. The only Black officer and the only female officer were removed from a Marine Corps promotion list. The two Marines’ promotions are in limbo.

Much of the vetting process has remained shrouded in secrecy. In some instances, officers up for promotions were not told that they had been removed from the lists. Mr. Hegseth also has refused to give Congress the names of officers pulled from the lists, officials said. The Senate’s version of the 2027 defense bill would require Mr. Hegseth to provide “a written justification and notification” when removing an officer from a promotion list......

Military officials, though, said they have noticed patterns. Officers who had commanded aircraft carriers or amphibious assault ships have been especially vulnerable. The reason: Those ships have public affairs sailors on board who documented their skippers participating in events related to diversity or the Covid vaccine.

Now those articles, videos and photos, posted on the Navy websites, were being used against them, current and former Navy officials said.