U.S. officials are warning that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's incident in military promotions could "cast a shadow" over the armed forces, raising concerns that a system long designed to be apolitical is being altered in ways that could affect trust across the ranks, as a new sprawling report from NBC News has revealed.
"Our officer corps trusts our promotion process," a retired senior military officer told the outlet, 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."
