Defense Secretary Pete Hegses thought during Cabinet meetings on Thursday that the Trump administration had wiped out “99.9%” of the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Initiative (DEI) from the military.
President Donald Trump questioned Hegses about whether the military had eradicated 100% of the DEI efforts under his leadership as cabinet members shared updates on their own agency’s attempts to cleanse such policies.
“99.9, Sir – I’m going to get that last point,” Heggs said.
The Trump administration has announced several initiatives that curb DEI initiatives within the military, including signing an executive order in January that bars transgender people from openly serving the military.
However, two federal judges issued a nationwide injunction in March, preventing the Trump administration from enforcing the ban while the lawsuit is pending. In a ruling filed March 19, U.S. District Judge Annares in Washington, DC, said the Trump administration’s order was “immersed in Anise” and that it was discriminated against based on a person’s transgender status.
Second Federal Judge Rules for Trump’s removal of transgender forces
Defense Secretary Pete Hegses is preparing to hold a television interview outside the White House on March 21, 2025. (AP/Mark Schiefelbein)
“Indeed, the cruel irony is that thousands of transgender soldiers have sacrificed what risks their lives in order to ensure that others have a very equal right of protection that the ban seeks to deny them,” Reyes wrote in the decision.
Trump signed another executive order in January banning DEI content at K-12 schools that receive federal funds. The Military Service Academy was exempt as it was not classified as a K-12 institution, but the Pentagon issued instructions to the Navy Academy in March to remove DEI-related books from the library.
The list of nearly 400 purged books includes “How to Be an Anti-Racist” and “Imprinted from the beginning: The Definitive History of American Racist Ideas,” and “Our Time Now, a Fair American Battle,” former Georgia Senator Stacey Abrams.
Here is a list of books that the Naval Academy removed from the library during Dei Purge.
After participating in the office ceremony oath during the introduction day held at the US Naval Academy on June 29, 2023, the incoming Preves (new students) march into Bancroft Hall.
Kendy is honored as the founding director of the Boston University Center for Anti-Drug Research. He rose to prominence in the nation after George Floyd’s 2020 death at the hands of Minneapolis police.
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Hegseth revealed that the pentagon would not tolerate the DEI initiative under his surveillance.
“The president’s leadership (legal orders) are clear. There’s no more Dei for @deptofdefense,” Hegseth said in a previous Twitter X post in January. “The Pentagon will comply immediately. There will be no exceptions, name changes or delays.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Diana Stancy is a political reporter for Fox News Digital, covering the White House.
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