A white, male military
7/7/202626 min
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been blocking military promotions — especially if you're a woman, Black, or perceived as disloyal.
This episode was produced by Miles Bryan, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Gabriel Dunatov, engineered by David Tatasciore and Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks at Meridian Hill Park in Washington, DC. Photo by Kent Nishimura/AFP via Getty Images.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on his election night. Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSean Rameswaram· Host0:00
What can we say about President Trump's efforts to commemorate our country's 250th birthday? The Reflecting Pool grew algae, the ice cream melted, the speakers fell from the stage, but it wasn't all bad. The fireworks slapped, and Trump repaired the glorious fountain at Malcolm X Park in DC. Pete Hegseth showed up to speak at the park last week and was met by protesters.
Pete Hegseth· Soundbite0:23
It's the sound of ingrates. Of ingratitude. Of people who are so blinded by ideology- Locals showed up to demand the National Guard get out of DC. Law and order is something all Americans deserve. Black, white, rich, poor, man or woman from DC or far-flung places in this country.
Sean Rameswaram· Host0:44
Kinda curious Pete decided to go Rainbow Coalition on them, because over at the Pentagon, he's been firing generals and blocking promotions, and a lot of the people losing out are women and/or Black. What year is it? Coming up on Today Explained from Vox. Support for this show today comes from Anthropic, the team behind Claude. Claude is the AI for minds that don't stop at good enough. It's the collaborator that actually understands your entire workflow and thinks with you. Whether you're debugging code at midnight or strategizing your next business move, Claude extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter. With deep research, Claude's research capabilities go way deeper than basic web search. Comprehensive, reliable analysis with proper citations, turning hours of research into