President Donald Trump has intervened to allow Ricky Buria, one of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s top advisers, to retire from the U.S. Marine Corps as a colonel, using an exception that allows him to use a waiver to bypass a federal law requiring military officers to hold a rank for three years before they can retire with it.

According to a statement from service officials to The Washington Post, Buria’s retirement became official earlier this month, and if there are no disciplinary actions, he will officially be referred to as a retired colonel, after holding the rank just since November 2024.

A president can intervene in the law and allow the retirement in cases that involve “extreme hardship or exceptional or unusual circumstances.”

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