Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has withdrawn the nomination of Rear Adm. Michael “Buzz” Donnelly to lead the Navy’s Japan-based 7th Fleet and a promotion to three-star vice admiral, a senior defense official said Friday.
President Trump nominated him for the position on June 18. The 7th Fleet is the Navy’s largest overseas force.
“The Secretary is thankful for [Adm. Donnelly’s] continued service and wishes him luck in his next position,” the senior defense officials said in a statement to The Washington Times.
The Pentagon did not confirm the reason for the withdrawal of Adm. Donnelly’s nomination, which could mean the end of his Navy career. But he was the commander of the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier from 2016 to 2018, when a sailor staged Navy-sanctioned drag queen performances aboard the warship under the drag name “Harpy Daniels.”
“My issue is not the sailors’ sexual orientation,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Alabama Republican, said in a May 2023 letter to Adm. Michael M. Gilday, the former Chief of Naval Operations. “The Navy’s core values of honor, courage, and commitment are a great recruiting tool; an emphasis on race, sexuality, and gender is not.”
Will Thibeau, director of the American Military Project at the Claremont Institute think tank, said withdrawing Adm. Donnelly’s nomination for the 7th Fleet assignment was a sign that “the military is back” following the change in the White House.
“He was an otherwise qualified admiral who sanctioned Navy-sponsored drag shows [with cash prizes] on the aircraft carrier he commanded,” Mr. Thibeau said in a statement on X. “He wasn’t in drag, but he allowed the gross politicization of the Navy. Enough.”
Adm. Donnelly was among the Navy officers whose promotion to rear admiral was temporarily suspended by Mr. Tuberville’s blanket hold on legislative actions regarding generals and admirals. Several Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill sent a letter to former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin calling on him to “put an end” to any drag shows or “drag queen influencers.”
