Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has withdrawn the promotion of Rear Adm. Michael “Buzz” Donnelly to vice admiral and commander of the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet, a senior Pentagon official said. The move comes less than two weeks after the Senate approved Donnelly’s advancement on 29 June via voice vote. President Donald Trump nominated Donnelly on 18 June to lead the Seventh Fleet, which oversees roughly 50 to 70 ships and U.S. naval operations across the western Pacific and eastern Indian oceans. Hegseth is now seeking an alternative candidate to head the fleet. No formal reason was given for reversing the decision, but Donnelly has faced conservative criticism for department-sanctioned drag performances that took place aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan while he commanded the ship between 2016 and 2018. Those shows resurfaced in 2023 when Sen. Tommy Tuberville placed a temporary hold on the admiral’s earlier promotion. Donnelly, an F-14 and F/A-18 pilot with prior carrier strike group leadership experience, has not commented publicly on the withdrawal. The personnel shake-up follows a broader leadership reshuffle at the Navy, including Trump’s June nomination of Adm. Daryl Caudle to become the next Chief of Naval Operations.