The Navy three-star officer’s support for DEI initiatives could have put her name on the chopping block.
The White House dismissed Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield from her role in senior leadership in NATO in the latest shake-up of top officials by the Trump administration. According to a Reuters report, while the Pentagon has yet to confirm the ousting, allies had been “notified” of Chatfield’s departure from the international governing body. An Associated Press report revealed that Chatfield’s firing was conveyed in a phone call over the weekend, citing three unnamed U.S. officials.
Last week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also fired General Timothy Haugh from his position as head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command. The Navy also saw the chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Lisa Franchetti, purged from her position last month. Although the rationale behind the firing of Chatfield has not been explicitly detailed, officials believe that her support for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives as the now-former U.S. military representative to the NATO Military Committee was to blame.
Was Chatfield Fired for Supporting DEI?
Since January, President Donald J. Trump has vocalized his opposition to DEI frequently. In one presidential action titled ”Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” the White House labels DEI as an “illegal” and “immoral” discrimination program. As part of these efforts, the Defense Department was tasked with removing all digital content promoting DEI-associated events and content, including cultural awareness months. Hegseth clarified that such diversity content includes “information that promotes programs, concepts, or materials about critical race theory, gender ideology, and preferential treatment or quotas based upon sex, race or ethnicity, or other DEI-related matters with respect to promotion and selection reform, advisory boards, councils, and working groups.”
Based on Chatfield’s public record, the Navy three-star officer’s support for diversity could have put her name on the chopping block when presented to the Trump administration. Specifically, her name was listed in a recent letter penned by the conservative American Accountability Foundation which listed officials they defined as “woke,” or supportive of DEI initiatives. In the letter, a speech given by Chatfield during a 2015 Women’s Equality Day Event included statements like “our diversity is our strength,” which Hegseth has publicly opposed. While the exact circumstances surrounding Chatfield’s removal from her NATO position have not been revealed, the White House’s contempt for DEI and those who support the initiative suggest this topic played a role.
Chatfield’s firing will undoubtedly impact the NATO military committee she served on since February 2023. Established during the Cold War to thwart Soviet expansion, NATO functions to promote collective security among its thirty-two member states. Trump has long called on NATO’s European member states to spend greater portions of their respective GDPs on NATO defense. Hegseth has mirrored this rhetoric in recent months, noting that “NATO is a great alliance, the most successful defense alliance in history, but to endure for the future, our partners must do far more for Europe’s defense.”
About the Author: Maya Carlin
Maya Carlin, National Security Writer with The National Interest, is an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has by-lines in many publications, including The National Interest, Jerusalem Post, and Times of Israel. You can follow her on Twitter: @MayaCarlin. Carlin has over 1,000 articles published over the last several years on various defense issues.
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