The Trump administration is emphasising military strength, but at the Pentagon, service members and civilian workers are caught up in paperwork. They have been ordered to remove all references to diversity, equity and inclusion from the department's social media and websites.

On Wednesday, the Pentagon’s top public affairs official issued a memo requiring military branches to review years of online content—including photos, news articles, and videos—to eliminate any mention of these topics. If they are unable to do this by March 5, they have been instructed to temporarily take down all content from public view that was published during the four years of the Biden administration, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press. The new directive comes as the military works to identify probationary employees targeted for dismissal under the administration’s plan to reduce the government workforce. At the same time, officials are assessing how many civilian employees have chosen to leave through government-wide buyout offers and whether those departures have been approved.

Among those fired late last week were a dozen senior military leaders, including Gen. CQ Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations; Gen. Jim Slife, vice chief of the Air Force; and the judge advocates general of the military branches. While top leaders were dismissed as part of an effort to remove so-called "woke" officials, the removal of the JAGs did not appear to be related to that initiative. A new social media directive has been issued, just days after another memo reminded military personnel to stay neutral and focus on carrying out their duties without political bias. The memo, signed on February 19 by Darin Selnick, who is temporarily serving as the undersecretary for personnel, emphasised that maintaining public trust is more important than ever, especially given recent changes in the department. This decision to remove content related to diversity is part of former President Trump's broader executive order to end federal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. However, some federal agencies are uncertain about the directive, especially since Trump recently celebrated Black History Month at the White House with a reception featuring golf legend Tiger Woods.

U.S. officials revealed this week that military leaders were initially instructed to review decades’ worth of website content within just a few days. They were specifically asked to identify and review stories highlighting achievements by women and minorities in the military or those celebrating cultural heritage. When military leaders explained that they didn’t have enough staff to complete the task in such a short time, they were given another option: to delete all website content from the past four years. After deletion, employees would go through the removed content to decide what should be permanently archived, what could be restored, and what should be removed from public access. However, due to the overwhelming amount of work involved, many officials might opt to erase all content from the past four years and start fresh. This would effectively remove all online records of the Biden administration’s tenure from the department’s websites. The officials, who shared this information anonymously, spoke about internal discussions regarding the matter.

A memo signed by Sean Parnell, the new chief spokesman for the department, provides more details about the DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) purge ordered by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. However, the memo has left the military services and department sections scrambling to find staff who can dedicate enough time to this detailed task. Officials are concerned that this directive is becoming another distraction while they focus on meeting President Trump's broader goal of increasing military strength. They worry that there isn’t enough time to remove all DEI-related content from years of old military websites, and doing so will require pulling staff away from more critical tasks related to warfighting and security. It’s not always clear what qualifies as DEI-related content, such as a story, post, photo, or video.

According to the memo, DEI-related content includes anything that promotes programs or materials related to critical race theory, gender ideology or special treatment based on gender, race, or ethnicity. It also applies to content that goes against merit-based or colour-blind policies, such as news highlighting a service member’s or employee’s race or gender. Despite Trump celebrating Black History Month, the memo also calls for removing content promoting cultural awareness months. This aligns with an earlier directive from Hegseth, titled Identity Months Dead at DOD, which opposes such observances. In his January 31 memo, he stated that dividing the force by prioritising one group over another weakens teamwork and affects mission success. He also expressed concerns that focusing too much on diversity efforts could take attention away from military readiness.

Because of this, he announced that the department and military branches cannot use official resources to organise events or celebrations for Black History Month, Women's History Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Pride Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, or National American Indian Heritage Month. Instead, he encouraged units and offices to honour the bravery and achievements of military heroes from all backgrounds, reinforcing a strong warrior culture and mindset. The new directive raises concerns about how workers will decide what content to remove. It also sparks fears of an overreaction, where workers might take down all photos or videos featuring women and minorities just to be safe.

A similar issue occurred when Trump's initial order to eliminate DEI from social media led to unintended consequences. The Air Force mistakenly removed training videos about the Tuskegee Airmen from the new recruit courses. This error angered the White House and exposed the Air Force to criticism for following the order too strictly. Realising the mistake, the Air Force quickly restored the videos.