Trump Administration Cancels Army Program After Officer Participation Plummets
The Trump administration has officially scrapped the Army’s Command Assessment Program (CAP) — a leadership evaluation system that incorporated psychological testing, peer feedback, and behavioral analysis into the promotion process for senior officers — following years of declining participation and controversy within the ranks.
The decision marks a sharp break from the Army’s recent attempts to modernize its promotion pipeline by reducing bias and incorporating non-traditional metrics like emotional intelligence and cognitive capacity. CAP, introduced in 2020 and formally codified in early 2025 under former Army Secretary Christine Wormuth.
According to internal Army documents, the program used a range of psychometric tools to measure leadership traits such as self-awareness, conscientiousness, and emotional intelligence. Each year, approximately 2,000 senior officers were invited to undergo the assessments as part of the process to fill key command positions.
But the program struggled to gain traction. By 2024, more than half of eligible officers — 54% — declined to participate, up from 40% in 2019. Critics within the ranks argued the assessments were overly subjective, bureaucratic, and disconnected from actual field performance.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll placed the program under review last month before officially pausing it. The Army will now revert to the Centralized Selection List (CSL) process, which evaluates candidates based on their service record, prior assignments, and evaluations from senior leaders — a more traditional method long favored by military brass.
The termination of CAP also aligns with a broader Defense Department review, ordered in June, to evaluate how officer promotions are conducted across all branches. The June 20 memo from the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness called for a return to selection methods that emphasize proven performance and experience over experimental assessment tools.
With CAP now shelved, the Army will re-center its leadership selection process around the CSL system. Proponents argue this will restore confidence and objectivity to promotions.
