President Donald Trump and Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth are shoving ahead on their mission to whitewash and man-ify the U.S. navy.
The division’s prime public affairs official despatched out a memo Wednesday instructing workplaces to comb by their web sites and front-facing social media accounts for any trace of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
Within the memo, obtained by the Related Press, the departments are given a March 5 deadline. If they’ll’t oblige, then they have to “temporarily remove from public display” all content material revealed below former President Joe Biden’s administration.
“Given the intense focus on recent changes within the department, maintaining the public trust is more important than ever,” learn the memo, which was signed by Darin Selnick, the non permanent undersecretary for personnel.
Chatting with AP below the situation of anonymity, officers mentioned they got a matter of days to assessment and scrub on-line materials “on gains in the military by women and minorities or stories celebrating cultural heritage,” the outlet wrote.
As a result of mounting strain and lack of time, they have been instructed at occasions to delete each single publish from Biden’s time period.
Along with wiping web sites, Trump and Hegseth have already let go of prime navy officers who they deemed as “woke.” A few of these officers embody Air Power Gen. CQ Brown Jr. In his previous as a Fox Information host, Hegseth as soon as questioned if Brown received his job solely as a result of he’s Black.
“Was it because of his skin color? Or his skill?” Hegseth wrote in his 2024 book, “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.”
“We’ll never know, but always doubt—which on its face seems unfair to CQ. But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it doesn’t really much matter,” he added.
In one other transfer to whitewash the navy, Hegseth introduced it could now not use federal sources to rejoice issues resembling Black Historical past Month, Girls’s Historical past Month, Satisfaction Month, Nationwide Hispanic Heritage Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Nationwide American Indian Heritage Month, and Nationwide Incapacity Employment Consciousness Month.
“We are proud of our warriors and their history, but we will focus on the character of their service instead of their immutable characteristics,” the steering says.
Along with the navy’s assault on variety and any type of identification, the Pentagon is transferring to push out present and future transgender navy individuals inside 30 days.
In response to the coverage memo, obtained by Axios, the Pentagon will think about granting waivers on a “case-by-case basis” however provided that there’s “a compelling authorities curiosity in retaining the service member that immediately helps warfighting capabilities.”
The transfer is in response to a new lawsuit filed on behalf of six transgender navy members who’ve collectively served for many years.
One member, Sergeant First Class Kate Cole, has served for practically 17 years and has been awarded 5 Military Commendation Medals. She has additionally been positioned within the prime 10% of all Armor Department Sergeants First Class within the Military’s Order of Advantage Listing.
Nonetheless, below Trump’s govt order, she is deemed unfit to serve.
Different lawsuits have hit Trump’s desk for the reason that convicted felon sought to ban transgender individuals from the navy.
Lambda Authorized and the Human Rights Marketing campaign instantly equipped for (authorized) struggle when Trump’s govt order was signed.
In an announcement to Every day Kos, Sasha Buchert, Lambda Authorized’s director of the nonbinary and transgender rights undertaking, defined why this transfer is so dangerous to the transgender neighborhood and to the navy as a complete.
“[The executive order] will hurt readiness as a result of it would take away servicemembers that the navy has invested hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in coaching,” she told Daily Kos. “Thousands of transgender troops are combat-tested, having been deployed to war zones and executed missions with distinction, many of whom are senior personnel with decades of experience. It will hurt unit cohesion because it will discriminate against otherwise qualified service members, sending the message that identity rather than merit is what is important and that some discrimination is acceptable.”
As Trump and Hegseth demand that workplaces wipe the navy’s numerous historical past from its on-line presence, one factor is definite: They will’t delete what retailers are reporting on them. And historical past will all the time keep in mind that.
