Army base commander suspended after Trump, Hegseth portraits turned to wall

The commander at an Army base in Wisconsin was suspended after portraits of President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were turned to face the wall.

In a statement, the senior commander at Fort McCoy and the U.S. Army Reserve said Col. Sheyla Baez-Ramirez was suspended last week “for administrative reasons.

“As previously stated, she was not suspended for misconduct,” the statement went on to say, adding that “no one on the Fort McCoy leadership team, which includes Col. Baez-Ramirez, directed or supported the removal of any leader portraits. The Leader Board was corrected upon notification of the issue.”

The Defense Department’s rapid response account on X tweeted a photo of how the leader board had been shown at the base before the issue was corrected:

In a separate statement issued last week, the U.S. Army Reserve characterized the incident as an act of vandalism.

“The Fort McCoy leadership team and the Army Reserve were unaware of the vandalism of the Leadership Board at a building on Fort McCoy, WI. Once it was brought to their attention, the leadership at Fort McCoy took immediate action to correct it. Additionally, the command initiated an investigation to determine the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident,” the statement read.”

The investigation remained ongoing as of Friday.

Hegseth has faced scrutiny over revelations he disseminated Yemen attack plans through the encrypted chat app Signal in group texts.

One of the group chats included a magazine reporter while the other featured Hegseth’s wife, brother and personal attorney.

Trump came to Hegseth’s defense despite a report that the administration was looking into replacing Hegseth.