Pentagon orders removal of 26,000+ military images under Trump’s DEI ban
Trump orders all federal DEI employees put on leave
The White House’s Office of Personnel Management notified heads of agencies and departments that they must begin taking steps to close all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion offices by the end of the day Wednesday and place government workers in those offices on paid leave, Fox News Digital has learned.
WASHINGTON - The Defense Department is enforcing President Trump’s executive order ending DEI programs across federal agencies.
The order, issued in February, required the military to scrub mentions of DEI from all platforms, including websites, social media, and official archives.
According to a database obtained by the Associated Press, over 26,000 images have already been flagged for removal. However, a U.S. official said the final number could exceed 100,000, as branches continue reviewing decades of content.
What military records are being deleted?
By the numbers:
While many removals target DEI-related milestones, some flagged content has raised confusion, including historical records, commemorative months, and even files unrelated to diversity efforts.
- 26,000+ military images flagged for removal so far.
- 100,000+ potential removals after full review.
- 1,600+ social media pages still need to be reviewed.
- Only one civilian employee in the Marine Corps is handling its image removals.
The flagged images include notable milestones, such as:
- The Tuskegee Airmen, the first Black military pilots in U.S. history.
- The first women to graduate from Marine infantry training.
- The Enola Gay, the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
Additionally, some images appear to have been flagged due to errors.
Doug Burgum, US secretary of the interior, from left, US President Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, US secretary of defense, and Howard Lutnick, US commerce secretary, during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Feb. 2 (Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A California dredging project photo was marked for deletion because a Corps of Engineers official in the image had the last name "Gay". Another flagged post mentioned fish species data, likely due to references to "gender."
Will these military records be permanently erased?
What's next:
Pentagon officials have defended the removals, stating that they are simply complying with Trump’s directive. However, the process has led to confusion over what qualifies for deletion, and some branches have struggled to keep up.
One Marine Corps official said every flagged image in their database has either been removed or soon will be, but noted that reviewing thousands of social media pages has been difficult due to outdated administrative access.
The Pentagon has not clarified if some mistakenly flagged images will be restored, and officials have said that archiving removed content is inconsistent across branches.
As the military continues purging records, questions remain over how these removals will impact historical archives and public access to key moments in military history.
The Source: This story was reported from Los Angeles. It is based on documents obtained by the Associated Press, confirmation from U.S. military officials, and statements from the Pentagon regarding the ongoing DEI-related removals.